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United States24645 Posts
It is day 3 of my 4 day skip trip (me and two buddies). I am at Stratton Resort in Vermont, staying in a condo right near the slopes (super convenient). The weather has not been fully cooperative.
Friday was nice weather with good conditions on the slope. Saturday was a warm, rainy day. We skied for a couple of hours in the morning, and gave up. Someone on the chairlift commented to us that a good stopping point is when your underwear gets wet. Another skier appropriately remarked that the conditions felt like skiing on vanilla icecream.
Today was nice weather, but since it didn't drop down below freezing until early this morning, there was no chance to create snow or improve the trail conditions. We skied most of the day even though the mountain was almost exclusively ice. The beginner trails felt like intermediate trails and the intermediate trails felt like expert trails. If I had tried a black diamond I probably wouldn't be writing this blog right now.
Skiing on icy beginner trails is definitely more challenging (as compared to Friday's skiing) but totally manageable, save for one situation I was fortunate not to encounter. At places the trail has melted ice ditches you need to avoid, making the trail extremely narrow. This also enters your view at the last second giving you little time to prepare. If you approach one of these sections at the same time as several other skiers there can be nowhere for you to go.
The blue (square) trails are also quite difficult in icy conditions when they are crowded (and they tend to be since most skiers are avoiding the black diamonds). However, the worst part is that it's very difficult to slow down. When the trail gets steeper than some amount, turning on ice becomes nearly impossible so you just have to aim for the small patches of white stuff as best you can. I found myself going faster than I normally would because it was the only speed I could maintain in sections.
Tomorrow is my last day and the weather should be good for skiing (the past two days have been very windy so it would be nice to get a break from that). I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I can maintain a fourth day without a single fall! If they do a good enough job of breaking up ice and putting snow down overnight I might even give one of the black diamonds a try.
A couple of questions for other skiers:
1) I wear ski goggles over my distance glasses... this is a real pain in the ass because it's so hard to get the glasses and the ski mask to both sit comfortably on my face. I'm constantly trying to adjust them, and usually pretty unsuccessfully given the thick gloves I'm wearing. If contacts aren't an option is there anything else that regular skiers or snowboarders do about this?
2) As an intermediate skier, what should I do if I want to improve? I haven't had a lesson since my first day of skiing when I was like 12 years old. I have skied maybe 15 days in my life, currently. Obviously skiing more in general will help me get better, however, I fear I am having the same problem as golf where I develop more and more bad habits which slow down my improvement. Any tips here?
3) I have a rare genetic condition called "skiing? time for nose to run like crazy!" Is there anything I can do about that as a preventative measure?
I'll update the blog tomorrow evening or the next day with how the last day of skiing was.
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United Kingdom14103 Posts
1) I wear ski goggles over my distance glasses... this is a real pain in the ass because it's so hard to get the glasses and the ski mask to both sit comfortably on my face. I'm constantly trying to adjust them, and usually pretty unsuccessfully given the thick gloves I'm wearing. If contacts aren't an option is there anything else that regular skiers or snowboarders do about this?
my mum has custom glasses for inside her goggles but they may be too expensive if you dont ski too much
2) As an intermediate skier, what should I do if I want to improve? I haven't had a lesson since my first day of skiing when I was like 12 years old. I have skied maybe 15 days in my life, currently. Obviously skiing more in general will help me get better, however, I fear I am having the same problem as golf where I develop more and more bad habits which slow down my improvement. Any tips here?
lots of practice to build confidence (which imo is the biggest part of learning to ski) and then if you want to progress maybe a couple lessons to work on carving, pole planting etc.
edit: if you have any other questions just ask
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Hong Kong9152 Posts
you can get prescription ski goggles done
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United States24645 Posts
Perhaps I should read some materials explaining proper form an techniques when skiing, to compare to my current methods. Are there any obvious 'go to' sources online that you guys would recommend? Also, I added a question #3 for anyone who missed it.
itjustatank: any idea how to look into that? That sounds really cool, although at the moment I don't have plans for large amounts of skiing, so it's mostly hypothetical.
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to get better at skiing you need to get the hell off the east coast and go ski in the rockies, where they have snow. then what you will need to do primarily is work on your turns. make sure your center of gravity is always over the toes of your boots, keeping the tips of your skis weighted (this is how you have control, if you pull back because you are scared of falling down the mountain - the intuitive reaction - you will lose control and fall). you can think of a turn as a transition from skiing on one edge of your ski to the other, mediated by a transition point at which the skis are flat. you turn essentially by shifting your weight over your skis to cause them to slip from one edge to the other. on east coast ice, though, all you can do is skid and that's no fun for anyone
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United Kingdom14103 Posts
i cant help with where to go cos ive been skiing since before i could talk so have never had to look
id look into the prescription goggles, i think my mum's were from addidas (you could also if you feel brave wear sunglasses and a hat instead of a helmet but i know a lot of people dont like to do this)
for the nose try either letting your face freeze so that you cant feel it anymore or wear a facemask like this + Show Spoiler + (my one)
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for your glasses it depends on the model of googles you got. you really need to try the goggles with the glasses underneath.
prescription goggles would probably be outrageously expensive if you dont ski over 25-30 times a year.
best tip to improve as a skier is always aim your shoulders at the bottom of the slope. Your hips should do most of the work. Also to improve control you want to bend over so your shins are pushing/bending your boots.
glhf, wear a helmet!
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If you want to improve focus on turning with the edge of your skis. Like using your ankles. It feels awkward but you can have a much tighter turn and it keeps you moving much quicker.
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2nd Worst City in CA8938 Posts
Is skiing harder than snowboarding?
I just went snowboarding for the first time ever yesterday. My whole body hurts, including my fingers. Fell around 50 times and I'm not exaggerating at all, mostly on my butt though (probably sorest part of my body). Ate it once really hard when I fell forward and my ribs slammed against the floor and got the wind knocked out of me. Ribs have been in pain ever since.
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yes skiing is harder than snowboarding. All snowboarders know how to do is turn sideways and skid
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they have opposite curves, I believe. snowboarding is harder to pick up at first, but yeah. past that..
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stick with it. Itll take a few days of falling. once you start really turning, just keep in mind that you can still move your feet independently. when you start the turn, lead with your front foot and let the back foot follow in a smooth motion.
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Switzerland2892 Posts
No need for prescrpition gogles, at least here they sell some with enough space
Not knowing your level it's hard to help you. Don't ski leant behind, be forward and bend your knees (you're gonna get a free rectangular epilation on your tibias if you do it right), look deep down the ski run
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On January 13 2014 11:02 Souma wrote:
Is skiing harder than snowboarding?
I just went snowboarding for the first time ever yesterday. My whole body hurts, including my fingers. Fell around 50 times and I'm not exaggerating at all, mostly on my butt though (probably sorest part of my body). Ate it once really hard when I fell forward and my ribs slammed against the floor and got the wind knocked out of me. Ribs have been in pain ever since.
This sounds exactly like my first time snowboarding at the beginning of the month except I ate it twice really bad. Took a solid 2 minutes to get back up lol
I made sure I went with my contacts instead of glasses.
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Well, first off, it is kinda of hard to help someone via over the forums. Skiing is more of a visual and active sport. With that said, if you have around 15 days of skiing under your belt, you will want to make sure you have your pizzas down. Make sure you can wedge turn, or pizza turn, whatever you want to call it, and take it slow. The progression from wedge turning to parallel turning takes years of practice to master; both feet need to be in sync in order for it to work.
You want to fall while learning how to ski. Yes, it sounds scary, but the only way you can improve is to fail. Your body will naturally learn not to do that again  . A big problem I see while teaching people, is that they don't know what to do with their poles. It throws most beginners off balance rather than keeping them in balance. Which is the poles purpose. One way to start learning how to use them is to:
1) Put them in front of you like you are holding a steering wheel. and use your hands to point where you want to go.
2) make your skis a bit parallel.
3) If you want to turn right, push your left ski about 2 inches forward than your right ski and move your body to the right.
4) BEFORE you do that, you want to plant your right pole on the ground for balance.
Hope that helped, but if you still need help youtube can be a great place to start. Just search how to "Insert what you want to learn how to do here" and that person will show you how to parallel turn or something of the kind. Once you master parallel turning you can ski on ice if you dig your edge in enough =]. I'm a ski racer/freestyle/instructor and ive been skiing for 20 years sense i was 3. Good luck, and have fun!
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United States24645 Posts
On January 13 2014 07:31 sam!zdat wrote:
to get better at skiing you need to get the hell off the east coast and go ski in the rockies, where they have snow.
Unfortunately, I don't have much control over this. A trip to the rockies would be really cool, though. Also thanks for the tips about turning.
On January 13 2014 08:04 Kevin_Sorbo wrote:
for your glasses it depends on the model of googles you got. you really need to try the goggles with the glasses underneath. Do you mean the thing I'm already doing, or something else?
glhf, wear a helmet!
Actually this brings up something interesting. When I used to ski when I was a teenager, very few people if any seemed to be wearing helmets. Now I notice many if not most/all people wearing helmets... what changed in 10 years? Regarding me, I think a helmet makes it even harder for me to adjust and fix my 'over the glasses' goggles so I probably would want to wear one as soon as I fix my current eyewear issue, or ideally have a helmet with prescription goggles built in. I guess I will need to look into this more if I plan to ski a lot in the future, which might not happen for geographical and other reasons.
On January 13 2014 11:41 pPingu wrote:
No need for prescrpition gogles, at least here they sell some with enough space I went through pretty much every set of goggles in a ski store near me... and this pair seems to have the most room... and wearing it over glasses is still really annoying an uncomfortable, requiring constant adjustments. It just doesn't seem like a long-term solution if I plan to ski a lot in the future. It was ok for a few days of skiing.
Not knowing your level it's hard to help you. Don't ski leant behind, be forward and bend your knees (you're gonna get a free rectangular epilation on your tibias if you do it right), look deep down the ski run This advice to make sure I'm leaning forward and bending my knees seems to be coming in from many people so I'll take it seriously when I ski tomorrow. I think I already ski that way but I'll try to check myself for it.
On January 13 2014 12:25 Nazeria wrote:
Well, first off, it is kinda of hard to help someone via over the forums. Skiing is more of a visual and active sport. With that said, if you have around 15 days of skiing under your belt, you will want to make sure you have your pizzas down.
Is this typical of someone who has skied 15 days or so? I think I stopped using a pizza after my third or maybe fifth day, and switched to keeping my skis parallel. I consider myself a solid intermediate in that I have almost no history of falling on intermediate trails, even in horrible conditions like today. I know my form and some other aspects of my skiing need work, but I certainly don't need to work on my pizza!
The progression from wedge turning to parallel turning takes years of practice to master; both feet need to be in sync in order for it to work. Despite the fact that I have been using parallel turning for the majority of my skiing, I can definitely tell that there is plenty of room for improvement in my technique. It's just not clear to me how to improve further.
A big problem I see while teaching people, is that they don't know what to do with their poles. It throws most beginners off balance rather than keeping them in balance. Which is the poles purpose. One way to start learning how to use them is to:
1) Put them in front of you like you are holding a steering wheel. and use your hands to point where you want to go.
2) make your skis a bit parallel.
3) If you want to turn right, push your left ski about 2 inches forward than your right ski and move your body to the right.
4) BEFORE you do that, you want to plant your right pole on the ground for balance.
I've definitely been giving my pole usage some thought... I feel dependent on them and probably couldn't ski without them anymore, so they don't feel like they are getting the way. However, I've tried 'planting' them and don't really see what the benefit is so I must not do it properly. I find they really are coming in handy in these icy conditions... when I'm turning right I scrape my right pole along he ground which seems to help me keep my balance a bit and gauge my positioning. In a couple of situations where I was really struggling while trying to turn on a steep icy and curvy section, I found myself actually leaning on my pole a bit to prevent myself from leaning too far! I'm sure that's not ideal form, but the poles sure came in handy there in those unexpected circumstances.
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My two cents as far as point 2 goes is that it's worth getting maybe one short private lesson (on a not busy hill a "group" lesson is basically the same since theres fuck all people about) just to give you a few pointers that go a long way.
Most improvement will probably come from keeping yourself looking ahead, pointing yourself down the fall line and comitting to your turns. That a pushing yourself a bit down each run, you should always feel a little scared when going down
Fuck yeah, ski blogs :D
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I'm jelly that you're skiing, I miss it a lot.
I'm fairly advanced at skiing considering we have no real slopes here, I've been skiing a lot and used to work at a real snow indoor ski centre where I would be on the slopes patrolling.
I'm fairly self taught but the thing that made me better was the realisation that there is only one edge doing the work at most times when you are a beginner. Try skiing paralel and lifting your inside foot off the ground each time to see for yourself.
When you can turn on one leg, try using the edge on your other ski to put more force into your turn. Like others have said, weight forward, keep your body weight on the downhill ski.
I ski'd without poles for a long time, I think it helped because you don't have the poles to rely on for shifting weight.
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Russian Federation1016 Posts
I have very bad sight, so I use this model of goggles:
+ Show Spoiler +
In Russia this set is expensive. About 350 euros incl. the work of ophthalmologist
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Always wear helmets when skiing or snowboarding, no excuses. I know that I only blacked out and had a 3 week concussion after wiping out because of my helmet. Who knows what else could've happened. Don't be an idiot.
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the stigma of looking like a dork is what has changed in the last ten years. it's entirely opposite such that you just look dumb if you don't wear one.
leaning forward is an important lesson for skiers and riders. you want your weight where you start your turns for control. leaning back essentially let's the snow drive you instead. which may have it's merits on heavy pow days, but not here on the east coast. usually.
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United Kingdom14103 Posts
On January 14 2014 00:19 Blisse wrote:
Always wear helmets when skiing or snowboarding, no excuses. I know that I only blacked out and had a 3 week concussion after wiping out because of my helmet. Who knows what else could've happened. Don't be an idiot.
i rarely wear a helmet and have only hit my head once, if you're slope skiing though i would more than recommend one because you can be in control but you don't know about the other idiots on the slope
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Switzerland2892 Posts
Just wear a helmet, shit happens . I've seen people that could have suffered trauma or died if they weren't wearing one
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United Kingdom14103 Posts
i know the importance of a helmet, one saved my friend, he only lost his memories of the last week instead of his life.
shit happens is precisely why id say wear one, its generally the stuff you cant control which hurts you
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Hong Kong9152 Posts
id take looking like an idiot to a population i give zero shits about to losing my life or mental faculties
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United States24645 Posts
Just finished day 4! Did a bunch more blues and even one of the blacks. The conditions were icy, but not as bad as yesterday. I find leaning forward on your skis causes you to go way faster, but it might have been that my boots were slightly under tightened and I actually had the right positioning without leaning all the way forwards in my boots.
I am proud that I managed to ski for four days in all sorts of conditions without a single fall. One of my friends who was a beginner at the beginning of the trip is now nailing blues with me and even did a couple of diamonds. He still often falls down when barely moving though which is hilarious. Next season I will hopefully have a solution for my goggles that is preferable to what I am doing now... if I plan to ski a lot I can just put the money into them.
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can't you draw some vectors to explain the speed increase?
also, so, turn.
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United States24645 Posts
Well, if I turn the same amount with both postures I go faster when I'm leaning more forward.
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I mean the more edge you have that is perpendicular to the mountain the
more
you will slow down !
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also turn more. making sure to not lean backwards will definitely improve your technique
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United States24645 Posts
This requires me to turn my entire body rather than just my lower body using my hips. I'm not totally clear on when I should be traversing only as sharply as my hips allow and when I should actually turn my whole body and redirect my velocity towards the side of the trail. Obviously the former is sufficient for easy trails.
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