12/21 – Snowy Level 6 day. Sharing the skills to deal with the Powder

It was a ho ho ho day. Snowing during the day with a few new things to learn. The team today included Suba, Morgan, Bevins, Skeeter, Lewis, and Elisheva.
The temps were in the teens, and it snowed lightly all day. We skied Level 6 runs like Springmeier, Claimjumper, Lincoln Meadows, Duke’s Run, and Wirepatch.
We focused on a smooth entry into the turn. While watching most skiers make their way down the hill they tend to have the highest edge angle at the bottom of the turn. Rather than skiing like the crowd, we wanted to handle steeper sections with control from the transition between turns and above the fall line. When doing this properly we were able to decrease the edge angle as we moved into the transition between turns.
We also wanted to have the feeling of balancing on the arch of the outside foot, rather than moving to the heal of that foot. We did an exercise in which we leaned into a wall and felt the difference between having our hip socket over our foot vs. having it behind our foot. Where did the pressure reside on the foot? After doing this, we added a bounce to our skiing. While skiing, add flexion and extension to your skiing. Bounce from the ankle, knee, and hip socket. This will teach the skier to use their ‘shock absorbers’, while still remaining balanced over the arch of their outside foot. If one were to only use his/her knees and hips, then the hip would drop back. It is important to use the ankle too, while using all the joints appropriately to flex and extend.
Having light shin contact on the boot is a key starting point. We were then able to focus on rolling across the triangle on the bottom of our foot. Again, we moved across the flat of our foot as we transitioned from one direction to the other. A final piece that we added to our skiing was the “turning of the stripes”. This seemed to have a nice effect in having all of the skiers turning their legs simultaneously. There was no more need to a have one leg turn and then the other. Instead the skiers were able to have one move that rolled across the triangle on the bottom of the foot, and added the element of turning the legs and skis. This removed the need for us to turn our shoulders or hips as an initial turning force, or step the skis to start the turn.
Well done!