Do you know that? It's snowing and snowing and snowing. The white splendor everywhere - unfortunately also in your ski pants - and most likely from all the falling? You have the impression that you see the snow cover from below rather than being able to master the situation and glide elegantly down the slopes. Don't despair, ask Dr. Holle! She'll answer your questions about the most common skiing technique mistakes in deep snow?
Mistake no. 1: sitting in the back!
Dear Dr. Holle,
when I'm shredding with my boys and my wide rocker skis on a perfect powder day, I lose my mood in no time at all! On the one hand, because I'm more concerned with knocking the snow out of my collar and, on the other, because my thighs get runny really quickly. I also have nasty pressure points in the upper calf area where the ski boot ends every time! On top of that, I'm constantly losing control of the skis, falling off the back and then crashing! It's really no fun anymore?
(Sent in by Anton Absitz)
Dear Anton,
That's right, you can't be frustrated after a great day in the fresh snow, sucking on a few Willys in the après-ski bar in the evening and waiting for your underpants to dry out and your toes to thaw. It seems to me that this is the first time you have enjoyed the new wide skis with a rocker shape, but you are still using the old, inappropriate skiing technique for this type of ski. Press your knees together and lean back as far as you can in an upright position so that the skis don't dig under the snow cover.
With the new shapes, this leaning-backwards position is counterproductive! Why? Sitting backwards is incredibly exhausting for your muscles (hence the bursting thighs and nasty pressure points on your calf), and you lose control because your ski can no longer be steered from behind.
Try to ski more forward with your new ski by trying to tighten your toes. This way, your ankle joint is flexed and you can control your turn and speed much better. It also puts you in a much more stable position. To check whether you are skiing in the correct position, you can test for yourself whether your calf or shin is pressing against the front of the ski boot. The latter is an indicator of the correct position. Also try to position your body's center of gravity directly above the contact surface (in the case of a wide rocker ski, approximately above the binding) and slightly lower by bending your legs. This will give you stability and your fall rate should automatically decrease.
And your underpants will stay dry!
FALSE IMAGE no. 2: a ski permanently shears out!
Dear Doctor Holle,
I've been skiing with the new wide rocker shapes since this season and it's great! Because they are so wide, I have to adapt my leg position - in other words, I have to ride wider. But now it often happens to me that a ski skids off in a turn, causing me to stumble. This often ends in a fall. But I don't actually ski any differently than before. What am I doing wrong?
(Sent in by Seppl Ausscherer)
Dear Seppl,
I know, I know! That's how I felt the first time I rode the fat things. You're probably still following the old textbook technique, which says: "in deep snow, bring your knees together, ski tighter and put as much weight on both skis as possible" But the wide freeride skis don't like that at all and that's why they'll also get off - which means that the outside ski usually shears off in the turn or doesn't do what you want. As you are forced to ski wider with these things, your torque is automatically higher. In other words, you have more resistance in the turn. This is where the old doctrine "to load the skis evenly" no longer works. Evenly loading the inner and outer skis is counterproductive with very wide skis. Precisely because they have so much contact surface and therefore enormous lift, you have to redistribute the weight in favor of the outer ski so that you are in a stable balance position.
Try to put more weight on the bottom ski by bending at the hips - similar to sporty alpine skiing on the piste. Make sure that the inside shoulder (i.e. the shoulder pointing towards the center of the turn) is higher than the outside shoulder and that the shoulder and hip axes are parallel to each other. This will prevent you from twisting your upper body, which would cause you to lose pressure on the outer ski. The result would either be a classic inside ski error or the problem you're familiar with: the outside ski would go bye-bye! And that's not what we want...
Write to Doctor Holle with your skiing technique problems and error images and the empathetic Doctor Holle team will take care of your problems professionally and competently?