How Do I Turn?

[tkarhu]

I’m not talking Ludicrous Speed, it’s just that the skis wont turn without the necessary energy.
Might work against me that I’m relatively light for the 210s.

Weight vs ski length is a good point. I am 82 kg on 200 cm Gammes (80-95 kg Åsnes weight recommendation). With that combo, I can make large arc turns at slow speeds of 10 km/h or less. Maybe turnability is a point for the Åsnes ”soft” sizing guides?

Last two sessions, 10-15 km/h has been enough to start doing parallel turns at tight spots (images). More precisely, they were wedge christies at the tight spots with uneven ground. A short wedge to turn the lead ski at turn initiation helped. In diagram below, teo peak runs are above photo slope runs (gray is altitude).

The parallels came by gut instinct, when I started to pay more attention to weighting and unweighting. I guess I had the unweighting in muscle memory from a few seasons alpine downhill as a kid.

By the way, as others say, tele shuffle (directly to fall line) is a great exercise, and also even when you can link turns already. It helps to get rear ski pressuring right. I did it today at a 5 degrees slope part before actual ”piste” started. Pressuring both rear foot ball of foot against ski and shins against boots helped to carve sharper turns (another photo).

When pressuring rear ski, you need to still keep the front ski edging trick I guess. Yet good rear ski technique makes turns better with Gamme too, as long as you do not forget the front ski things.

[Stephen]

@tkarhu, looks nice!
And good comments.

[lowangle al]

Nice hill ya got there. Great place to learn.

[lowangle al]

I don't know whether or not to start an individual thread for this, but anyway.

Does anyone have any concrete advice or experience about turning Gammes, specifically?

For context I can turn my Nansens borderline gracefully, if idiosyncratically, a couple of ways, but I'd be interested if anyone has any specific notes-to-self on consistently turning Gammes (or longer, stiffer and narrower skis generally)?

This is a very useful thread.

Generally, long stiff skis like that are going to be hard to carve across the fall line on packed snow. So the skier has to make the direction change with either a step turn or a jump turn. Other than that you can skid your unweighted skis into the new direction, but then it's hard to stop the skid. In other words you are going to need to pick your skis up off the snow to turn them. This is where I would start anyway.

[fisheater]

@tkarhu i have a Gamme, it’s the ski I use the most. If I had your terrain I would most likely use my Falketind Xplore the most. I like to make turns, and I like to move along on the flats. The FT X does that. However, I would also point out a post by @Musk Ox in which he mentioned that his Nansen turned so much more cooperatively. To turn Gamme I require pretty much ideal conditions, I also utilize a bag of skills including rotation, utilizing the rocker, a willingness to commit combined with an understanding when commitment will not smack me in the nose.
I really like my Gamme, but my FT X would be the shiznit in your terrain. If I wanted to stay truer to traditional XC then the Nansen.
There is a reason why a tradesman acquires a large tool box. I think that 3 skis could be a big toolbox for the backcountry skier

[Musk Ox]

Generally, long stiff skis like that are going to be hard to carve across the fall line on packed snow. So the skier has to make the direction change with either a step turn or a jump turn. Other than that you can skid your unweighted skis into the new direction, but then it's hard to stop the skid. In other words you are going to need to pick your skis up off the snow to turn them. This is where I would start anyway.

This is exactly what I do, Al (I made a longer post where I described my usual go-to methods of scrubbing off speed and edited it out!) With the Gammes I invariably start with a very aggressive stem and just bodily pick up and plonk down the inside ski to force a skid, which is extremely gratifying and super fun when it works but not massively elegant and kind of uselessly uncontrolled on harder snow. I honestly don't mind falling too much, it is sort of my superpower, but this restricts me to better conditions and nicer, deeper snow on the Gammes. And 'arcing' it ain't.

I guess what I'm after is some magic combination of pressure points to let me elegantly arc like a 1980s Norwegian home movie.

I’m not sure I quite understand @fisheater's notion of 'using the rocker' exactly.

Again this is a great thread and thanks @Stephen for your super useful response!

[lowangle al]

Generally, long stiff skis like that are going to be hard to carve across the fall line on packed snow. So the skier has to make the direction change with either a step turn or a jump turn. Other than that you can skid your unweighted skis into the new direction, but then it's hard to stop the skid. In other words you are going to need to pick your skis up off the snow to turn them. This is where I would start anyway.

This is exactly what I do, Al (I made a longer post where I described my usual go-to methods of scrubbing off speed and edited it out!) With the Gammes I invariably start with a very aggressive stem and just bodily pick up and plonk down the inside ski to force a skid, which is extremely gratifying and super fun when it works but not massively elegant and kind of uselessly uncontrolled on harder snow. I honestly don't mind falling too much, it is sort of my superpower, but this restricts me to better conditions and nicer, deeper snow on the Gammes. And 'arcing' it ain't.

I guess what I'm after is some magic combination of pressure points to let me elegantly arc like a 1980s Norwegian home movie.

I’m not sure I quite understand @fisheater's notion of 'using the rocker' exactly.

Again this is a great thread and thanks @Stephen for your super useful response!

Don't you have a better ski for practicing turns?

[Stephen]

Don't you have a better ski for practicing turns?

@lowangle al, you could have just asked “Don’t you have ANY other skis?”


I suppose there are worse, but Gamme seems like it is right up there.

[Musk Ox]

Don't you have a better ski for practicing turns?

Well, my Nansens... I'm sort of asking for cheat codes for hills on the Gammes, I suppose. I don't take those skis out with hills in mind, but it would be nice to bend them to my will when it gets steep.

[GrimSurfer]

Don't you have a better ski for practicing turns?

Well, my Nansens... I'm sort of asking for cheat codes for hills on the Gammes, I suppose. I don't take those skis out with hills in mind, but it would be nice to bend them to my will when it gets steep.

There are folks who spend their retirement savings in search of the right ski. They swap stuff out so often that they never know, or master, that which their skis are capable. Gear whores and kooks.

Your skis are your skis, whatever they may be. If you spend enough time on them, you’ll be able to do pretty much anything to which you set your mind.