How to Ski the Steeps
Skiing is the most thrilling sports anyone can participate. Steep skiing is mainly a thing perhaps all the skiers aspire to do since it elicits thrill. It can be quite simple, exciting and fun for an expert skier but for beginners, steeps provoke fear. Well, one cannot claim to have had the ultimate skiing experience at their ski resort if they have not attempted skiing the steeps. Here, sports overnight provides a simple guide to help skiers ski the steep slopes easily.
Get your body positioned correctly
The first and one of the most important things that you have to observe is having your body placed successfully. It is meant to ensure that you have the right body balance that will offer you stability as you go down the slope.
Upper body positioning
Your body and your eyes should focus down the slope where you are heading. While the lower body plays a significant part in ensuring your stability, the upper body is the primary determinant of how stable you are since most of the body mass is on the top part of the body. As such, you should ensure that your upper body is steady as you go down even with the turns and body adjustments. Your upper body should be tilted slightly down the slope and be in a perpendicular position with the slope. Avoid flailing and bouncing around as that will throw you off balance.
Steep slopes call for your hands to always be positioned in front of your body and not to stray to your hips region. Moving your hands back will throw you off balance. Having your hands at the front will position your body correctly as you head down the steep. The rule when it comes to the positioning of the hands is to have them in your vision’s periphery.
Always have your head up and facing the slope and not your feet. Looking ahead, in addition to helping you maintain your body balance, also, allows you to see the obstacles ahead for you to make the necessary turns early enough to avoid falling.
Lower body positioning
Unlike what many beginners do when skiing, your body weight should be distributed appropriately between the feet balls and heels. Additionally, your feet should not be far wide apart. Have your feet positioned below your shoulders and feet in a centered position.
Do not lock your knees in a firm stance position as that will limit the flexibility needed to make turns and any necessary adjustments. Your knees should be loosely fixed instead to allow smooth mobility.
The hips do a lot of work when skiing the steeps. You, therefore, have to get it right from the start. While you might think that sitting back is safer when skiing steep slopes, is not the case at all. You should have your hips balanced adequately over the balls of your feet to give you direct control and allow you to ride too.
Skills and Techniques
There are a few skills and techniques you will have to carry with you if you want to be an expert steep skier. Some of the skills include the dynamic parallel, short radius turns, kick turn, and hockey stops. Dynamic action is what helps one make parallel turns efficiently. It, also, helps in skiing efficiently through varied terrains. It involves flexing of the knees, hips and the ankles and shifting the body weight between turns. Mastering how to make short radius turns can be a significant boost to one’s skiing experience. Most people can make the large and medium radius turns, but few know how to make short-range turns. This turn is no different from the long and medium radius turn. The techniques are the same, only that the short radius turns are quick and fast.
Kick turns come into play when you want to change your movement direction, but you are unable to turn. Have your poles placed on the uphill side, then lift the downhill ski and pick up your heel and toe to reverse the direction. Shift the weight of your body to the downhill side and then swing the uphill ski around to position it parallel to the direction the other ski is facing. It will give you a new downhill. You may, also, need hop turns when you come across narrow chutes. Here, the shift is made in the air while in the middle of your jump.
Hockey stops help you stop by digging the edges into the snow.
Extra tips
As you ski, always lean downhill. Fight the urge of leaning backward as that will throw you off balance. The other thing is always to have your poles planted downhill. It will help you initiate turns by altering your speed. Also, learn to control your speed as you ski. Speed control ensures that you can take charge of your turns, avoid obstacles and stop when you need to stop.
It is advisable to work under the guidance of a steep pro skier to learn fast and correctly.