What was the single most important tip or piece of advice you received as you progressed from intermediate to advanced?

[Unpiste]

i think "ski the slow line fast" is much more all encompassing than "complete your turns". IMO "complete your turns" is to vague, where as "Slow line as fast possible" is more abstract but not as vague.

“Ski the slow line fast” still doesn't really make sense to me.

I think I understand @bud heishman's explanation, but to me, line choice and speed are not directly connected in the way this phrase seems to imply. Obviously there are going to be lines that either require (in order to go back uphill) or demand (due to terrain) a certain amount of speed, but short of those exceptions, you should be able to ski any line at any speed, from the fastest physics will allow to a near stop. "Slow line fast", "fast line slow", or anything in between are all valid options. I don't really draw a sharp distinction between turning and braking, I see it as more of a continuum.

"Complete your turns" certainly requires some explanation. (If you're in the next turn, how did you not complete the last?) But I think @KevinF pretty much nailed it. It's basically saying, "be patient and work with the skis and gravity to maintain the speed and line you're comfortable with", which is very different from suggesting that one line choice or speed is better than another.

(So, basically what @teejaywhy said, but with a few more words. )

 

[Erik Timmerman]

As an instructor it seems that few get “complete the turn” I don’t really try slow line fast with them. If you don’t get it the best advice might be “follow me”.

 

[KevinF]

As an instructor it seems that few get “complete the turn” I don’t really try slow line fast with them. If you don’t get it the best advice might be “follow me”.

I was skiing with a friend last year; she's the prototypical recreational skier. Gets out a handful of times a winter and is happy to cruise blue groomers, etc. At any rate, she was following me down and mentioned "how much more relaxing and easy it is when I just follow your tracks... I'm just following you the rest of the day".

It's often said that "follow me" is the two most dangerous words in skiing. It can have positive connotations as well though.

 

[KingGrump]

If you're in the next turn, how did you not complete the last?

Often the last turn wasn't completed but abandoned.

 

[PinnacleJim]

Since I made that transition about 50 years ago on skinny straight skis when a turn called the Stem Christie was a thing, I don't think I can help much.

 

[mdf]

I was skiing with a friend last year; she's the prototypical recreational skier. Gets out a handful of times a winter and is happy to cruise blue groomers, etc. At any rate, she was following me down and mentioned "how much more relaxing and easy it is when I just follow your tracks... I'm just following you the rest of the day".

Often the last turn wasn't completed but abandoned.

A couple years ago I was about to heckle Kevin to send it, when @Josh Matta told me, "Kevin loves his fully completed turns. Let him have them."

I think Grump is right. I sometimes get tired of a turn before its done and want to move on to the next one.

 

[KingGrump]

I sometimes get tired of a turn before its done and want to move on to the next one.

 

[KevinF]

A couple years ago I was about to heckle Kevin to send it, when @Josh Matta told me, "Kevin loves his fully completed turns. Let him have them."

I think Grump is right. I sometimes get tired of a turn before its done and want to move on to the next one.

Guilty as charged. @Erik Timmerman has taken over the attempts to groom me into a sender. Early results are inconclusive, although I have survived his exhortations so far.

 

[Josh Matta]

you can fully send while skiing a slow line fast, you just ski a less slow line.

I think another way to put it is "ski as fast as possible along your path, and if you feeling your going to fast take a slower path as fast as possible." skiing along your path as fast as possible leads to cleaner, more efficient skiing, more dynamic skiing.

To me slow line fast its also getting in mental state and intent far more than complete turns. Many people complete turns, but then because their intent is to slow down they push off, stem or block their COM up the hill instead of just going quickly, cleanly, and offensively into the new turn.

 

[teejaywhy]

Still have no idea what you are saying there @Josh Matta

"Complete the turn" seems to be advice for the beginning skier, to avoid gaining speed by turning until they come completely around and back across the fall line. i.e. if you don't finish the turn, you will gain speed with each turn until you lose control and crash. Seemed to be the most basic thing I figured out on the first day.

Not sure how that applies to the intermediate progressing to advanced, but maybe there more to it where "ski the slow line fast" means something for the advancing skier. (?)

 

[Josh Matta]

Hey sometimes you got to want to understand the topic. The thing is when you think of turns as only means of going slow people tend to ski defensively, most skier going fast are actually very defensive so are most slow skiers. The thing is the concept isn’t concise or concrete it open and abstract. Basically it just means your line choice is your complete speed control no skidding, drifting, no pushing and only as much brushing that is nessarcy for the tightness of the turn. Many people think they do that but if you watch them they completed turns defensively they are not fully offensive . what doesn’t. Make sense? IMO this is something that if you can not comprehend or at least show in your skiing you can not be an expert skier.

 

[LiquidFeet]

This short video by Bob Barnes shows completed turns.
It illustrates the feet moving in a sideways figure eight (infinity symbol) under the body.
The feet (base of support) travel out to the side and then come up under the body (center of mass) to end each turn.
Assumed travel is down the screen; center of mass is in the middle of the sideways figure eight.
The turns in this video, all of them, are high quality completed turns.
.

In the image below, the feet are uphill behind the body.
This is the top of the turn.


Now the feet are below the body. This is the bottom of the turn.


Feet have been brought up under the body to fully complete the turn.
Skis are pointing across the hill.
The new turn will start when the feet are uphill of the body.

 

[Unpiste]

@Josh Matta, my earlier post is an attempt to explain where “slow line fast” breaks down as advice.

I think, fundamentally, the problem is that “slow line fast” only really makes sense once you’re already at the point you’re describing (at least in terms of technical understanding, if not actual skiing ability). “Complete the turn” explains, in part, how to get there.

 

[hrstrat57]

Squish the bug

 

[CalG]

This did it for me, plus doing "picture frame" drills with my poles. (The corollary in mountain biking is if you can get your front wheel over an obstacle the rest of the bike will follow)

My bad habit was to let my skis get ahead of me, either because I was dropping my arms or not keeping upper body down the fall line. Once I really focused on leading with my head, looking well down the trail, and keeping arms up I was much more in balance, started to articulate more, and because I wasn't watching the tips of my skis things started to flow. I'm no expert, but I think I'm maybe 40 percent of the way there from "intermediate"*

*on the Pugski scale. By every ski resort lesson test I'm an "expert."

edit: OK, maybe 30 percent of the way from intermediate...

The original post asked about "advanced" the leap to expert may take a while.
There are so many different situations that require control and accomplishment.

 

[Guy in Shorts]

From my mogul coach - Go nighttime frog hunting using your poles. Shine the flashlight with one hand then stab with the other.

 

[CalG]

Here is another "Words of Wisdom" phrase that has helped me over the years.

"When a turn isn't going the way you might like, get off of it, and move on to the next one."

 

[NoScoped]

Question...currently on the mountain and really trying to focus on skiing on my outside/downhill ski. I can definitely feel a good edge angle (with no smearing) when I'm going fast but it's those slower turns that I have trouble committing to (and end up smearing). Is that just a confidence thing that will come with practice? Or am I doing something wrong?

 

[Tricia]

One thing. @Chris Geib
That's it.

 

[mdf]

Question...currently on the mountain and really trying to focus on skiing on my outside/downhill ski. I can definitely feel a good edge angle (with no smearing) when I'm going fast but it's those slower turns that I have trouble committing to (and end up smearing). Is that just a confidence thing that will come with practice? Or am I doing something wrong?

It could be lack of angulation. When you are going fast, there a lot of centrifugal force you can lean against, letting you get big angles. When you are going slow, banking your whole body to get big angles would make you tip over. You need to kink your body so your lower body is angled but the mass in your upper body is still over the skis.