Year in review: What did you learn?

[lowangle al]

One of the challenges I have continued to struggle with is overweighting my lead ski- due to aggressively using a striding technique to initiate turns.

I used to do turns like that, really stomping the lead ski to set the edge making real snappy turns and I loved them, but my knees would ache after a few hours at the resort. That was probably ten years ago and my knees don't ache anymore.

[lowangle al]

Hey Lc try those jump turns for long radius turns too and everything in between. They are so much fun you may be doing them even when you don't need to.

[lilcliffy]

Hey Lc try those jump turns for long radius turns too and everything in between. They are so much fun you may be doing them even when you don't need to.

This is the third time I have tried to post this! (my internet connection keeps crapping out). And for some reason, I haven't been getting email notifications...

Al- good advice. The jump-turn is a consistently effective technique for initiating turns. I am going to keep pushing myself with this.

[lilcliffy]

One of the challenges I have continued to struggle with is overweighting my lead ski- due to aggressively using a striding technique to initiate turns.

I used to do turns like that, really stomping the lead ski to set the edge making real snappy turns and I loved them, but my knees would ache after a few hours at the resort. That was probably ten years ago and my knees don't ache anymore.

Humans are creatures of habit. Technology becomes an extension of our mind and body. Consistent technique and process lead to habit.

I have been an avid cross-country skier for over 35 years. My particular passion has always been backcountry-xcountry skiing. Although there are a number of different techniques that are effective on a classic groomed track- a powerful diagonal stride remains the mainstay of BC-XC skiing.

I did a lot downhill and big-mountain skiing for a decade. The skills and habits I developed on powerful downhill tech (both Alpine and Telemark) became completely separate than my XC skills and habits.

When I began to pursue downhill skiing on BC-XC tech, I was initially dismayed to discover that what worked on “downhill” tech would not work with xcountry “shoes”!

When I learned that I could initiate telemarks using an angled diagonal stride- I was thrilled- but my XC diagonal-stride-habits caused me to overweight my leading ski through the turn. I have been pushing myself hard to keep a compact stance, and heavily pressure that rear ski.

I teach and train students to use tools and technology for a living. I have also trained professional loggers for more than 15 years (my expertise is motor-manual chainsaw felling technique). I am a student of ergonomics and habit. Some habits are more effective and efficient than others. Some habits are transferable from one technology to another- MANY are not.

Breaking/changing ingrained habits is challenging and difficult for everyone. And the longer one uses effective habits- the harder it is to change them.

One can argue that skiing on as wide a range of equipment as possible (e.g. xcountry skiing on the track; to BC-XCD; to powerful Telemark) might prevent a skier from developing habits. But one ends up developing habits in all of these contexts.

Over the years, I have spent a number of days ripping it up at a groomed hill on powerful Telemark equipment. I have never found that any of the techniques that are “easy” on such powerful equipment can be transferred to XC tech.

Al- you are right- an aggressive striding-telemark can be very hard on the knees- especially on a groomed/consolidated surface. But I use a striding technique almost exclusively on soft, fresh snow, which has much less impact.

On consolidated snow, I tend to steer my skis much more- and I typically use skis narrow enough that I can overpower them.

And the jump-telemark is something I am exploring more and more.

[MikeK]

Best habit for XCD: follow the skis. Don't fight them. Don't try to overpower them. Bend them with your weight, edge them and ride them. They love it. And it's a great feeling.

Not a good thing to practice in tight trees, steep slopes or with a lot of speed but I believe it's the whole fundamental of skiing. I think about skiing totally different than I ever did. It's about being out of control while looking like you are in control. I skied out of control for a lot of my young years, but I was always trying to be in control.

Now my whole philosophy is let that illusion of control go. Don't micromanage the skis. They know what they want to do. Start them in the process and ride them. Think ahead, way ahead. Look ahead, way ahead. And if it doesn't work, just bail. Or use a quick survival technique to bring you back on track. Best option is to never get too far out of your stance or too far off balance. And that's still just following the skis.

[Cannatonic]

LC, interesting comments on technique. Agree on the importance of strength and being in shape. With all skiing I find that I struggle with technique until I get strong enough and then suddenly everything clicks. Until then I try to force my arms and legs into the positions they're supposed to be in.

This year I learned that if I want to ski every day like last year I have to move! I got a taste of what it's like to have a deep powdery base out the backdoor for months and I LOVED it.

[MikeK]

Hey one thing about the striding turns dudes...

JMO but I only really use a true lunge when I'm going slow. And yes when I do it I unweight my back ski a lot. I do it just to power through something where I don't have the speed to bend the skis, so I use my stride to bend the front one and 'poodle' the back one as they say. I'd say it's a singletrack technique at best, one turn maneuver. I wouldn't do it getting speed and making essess. Can also use it with less aggressive unweighting to get you into a rhythm of turns on the start of descent.

When I say say striding and the similarity to tele technique, I view it as far, far at the front of the stride, when your weight is on both feet (the start of the KICK, just as the heel is starting to lift). Instead of lunging forward, power DOWN onto the skis. Let gravity move you forward and use your weight to bend the skis. This would be similar to jumping phase in Gamme's extreme technique, but unless you are trying to make 10m radius turns with long, double cambered skis, you shouldn't have to use that much impulse in the initiation.

Also do still steer your front ski a bit. Again using Gamme's extreme as an example, he does this in the air. He's already rotated a fair deal before he lands. Anyway, give it a slight twist during the loading of the skis, particularly focusing on loading the rear ski. I notice if you twist a lot and try to aggressively turn the skis from the front ski you'll naturally weight the front ski more, and the rear ski will tend to want to go straight and you'll wedge severely. You'll probably still turn but the skis may not turn together, or the rear ski will want to go straight. I find trying to correct the rear ski nearly impossible. It's either going to go straight, skid, or carve... most likely some combination of those. Once it goes too far in the bad ways, skidding or straight running, it's hard to fix. You might be able to ride the front ski and drag it inline, but that's a horrible feeling. I think ideally you want a little more skid in your front ski and more carve on the rear ski. Overall you'll track more where you want to go and have less over-rotation from skidding or lack of turning from the rear ski straight running. Just my observation.

[Telerock]

WHAT I LEARNED....
When the dark haired lift attendant tells you you can't ride the chair in cross country skis...slide past with awitty remark, BUT BY NO MEANS STP GETTING ON THE CHAIR

[lowangle al]

Also do still steer your front ski a bit. Again using Gamme's extreme as an example, he does this in the air. He's already rotated a fair deal before he lands. Anyway, give it a slight twist during the loading of the skis, particularly focusing on loading the rear ski. I notice if you twist a lot and try to aggressively turn the skis from the front ski you'll naturally weight the front ski more, and the rear ski will tend to want to go straight and you'll wedge severely. You'll probably still turn but the skis may not turn together, or the rear ski will want to go straight. I find trying to correct the rear ski nearly impossible. It's either going to go straight, skid, or carve... most likely some combination of those. Once it goes too far in the bad ways, skidding or straight running, it's hard to fix. You might be able to ride the front ski and drag it inline, but that's a horrible feeling. I think ideally you want a little more skid in your front ski and more carve on the rear ski. Overall you'll track more where you want to go and have less over-rotation from skidding or lack of turning from the rear ski straight running. Just my observation.

when you are doing jump turns you definitely want to land in the direction of the new turn coordinated with the direction of your momentum.

Once you find your rear foot and learn to weight it, you need to refind your front foot while not losing the rear foot. In other words you need to be on both skis (and edges) at the same time. I spent a lot of time initiating turns by weighting the lead ski then shifting my weight to the rear ski to finish the turn. They were fun effective turns but not ideal for at least two reasons. Too much weight on one ski or the other leads to leg fatigue and or pain and it leaves you uncentered. Overweighting the rear ski illiminates the problem of that ski not turning and has the benefit of making face plants uncommon but it prevents total control. (it would be like steering your bike with the back wheel)

There are some bc conditions where you want more weight on the rear ski and on lower angle terrain you can get away with it, but when it gets steep you can't control speed or direction while favoring the rear ski.

[jzahnny]

What I learned this year?

• The people and conversations here are quality and the shared knowledge is invaluable. Thank you, everyone!
• Err, but, maybe I'm just here for the dopamine stoke every time I read one of the rotating quotes
• This season... I found the rear ski — what lowangle al and Mike K just said!!!
• Tele good.