Tackling firm snow
Skiing in New England gives us the opportunity to experience firm snow...even hard pack. This can be intimidating due to the noise and the uneasy feeling you get if/when your skis begin to slide sideways downhill. Maintaining your equipment on a regular basis will be a start to carving rather than slipping through hard snow but enhancing edge control movements will improve your experience greatly so take a couple of runs to experiment with the following:
- Find some firm Blue Square groomed terrain and take 1/2 of the run making medium radius turns. Square your shoulders with your skis meaning keep your whole body lined up in the same direction your skis are going. You will notice that your skis are flatter on the snow and are probable slipping sideways downhill in the bottom part of the turn. You may even find your shoulders turning up the hill due to the discomfort of slipping.
- Go back to the top but this time you will focus on twisting/ orienting the shoulders and the zipper of your coat slightly downhill. You should start to feel the edges of your skis cut a line into the snow at the bottom of your turn and lessen the slipping sensation.
- Head back up for another run...continue to twist the upper body slightly down hill but try to keep your shoulders parallel with the slope of the hill. To get the idea while standing still with skis across the hill, put your poles across your shoulders and tip the shoulders until you think the poles are parallel with the slope of the hill. Notice how your uphill hip is moving uphill. Feel the stretch on the uphill side and a bit of a pinch on the downhill side. Do this a few times and notice what happens to your skis as you tip the shoulders downhill...the edge angle increases.
- Start skiing and work to achieve the same sensation with your shoulders remaining parallel with the hill. You should notice that your skis are beginning to slice through the turn much more than when your were square with your skis.
Give this progression of activities a try and see if it works to make you feel more like carving a turkey than grating cheese.
