Handling easy but narrow runs
 

Hi all.

This is my first post to rec.skiing.snowboard. Although I had skied
before, last year I tried snowboarding for the first time and loved it.
I didn't get lessons, just figured it out myself on the slopes.

Long story short, I managed to get the hang of everything except those
long narrow blue (in European colours, the easiest slope) runs which
traverse down the mountain hairpinning over and back. I found it was
very hard to control my speed as there was little room to maneuver and
ended up afraid to go down them.

Anyone encountered this or have any advice how to take these runs?

Handling easy but narrow runs
 

Collision wrote:

Long story short, I managed to get the hang of everything except those
long narrow blue (in European colours, the easiest slope) runs which
traverse down the mountain hairpinning over and back. I found it was
very hard to control my speed as there was little room to maneuver and
ended up afraid to go down them.

Would these be what we refer to in North America as "cat tracks", ie
runs which are basically made from access roads for equipment? There
are two skills you need to learn for cat tracks - confident running on a
flat base for the flat ones and scrubbing speed with a partial hockey
stop for the steeper ones.

You say you're having trouble with speed control. You need to drill
swinging the tail into a brief edge set to scrub some speed, then
swinging back into straight running. This is most decidedly not a
carved turn, not really a turn of any sort. You simply need to use the
edge to scrape off some speed, and then get back to flat running without
the edge causing you to turn off the trail.

To practice this, pick a wider slope with a gentle pitch and practice
repeated hockey stops. Work up to where you can scrub speed without
stopping completely or changing direction. Work along the side of a run
and turn towards the middle, so that in case your stop turns into a turn
you don't end up in the trees. This way you will also have a pretty
good idea of if you are staying straight. You need to practice them
both ways (heel and toeside) because if you need to turn it into a turn,
it's best to turn it uphill. So practice toeside stops with the trees
on your left (for regular foot) and heelside with the trees on the right.

Neil

Handling easy but narrow runs
 

Neil Gendzwill wrote:
Would these be what we refer to in North America as "cat tracks", ie
runs which are basically made from access roads for equipment? There
are two skills you need to learn for cat tracks - confident running on a
flat base for the flat ones and scrubbing speed with a partial hockey
stop for the steeper ones.

You say you're having trouble with speed control. You need to drill
swinging the tail into a brief edge set to scrub some speed, then
swinging back into straight running. This is most decidedly not a
carved turn, not really a turn of any sort. You simply need to use the
edge to scrape off some speed, and then get back to flat running without
the edge causing you to turn off the trail.

To practice this, pick a wider slope with a gentle pitch and practice
repeated hockey stops. Work up to where you can scrub speed without
stopping completely or changing direction. Work along the side of a run
and turn towards the middle, so that in case your stop turns into a turn
you don't end up in the trees. This way you will also have a pretty
good idea of if you are staying straight. You need to practice them
both ways (heel and toeside) because if you need to turn it into a turn,
it's best to turn it uphill. So practice toeside stops with the trees
on your left (for regular foot) and heelside with the trees on the right.

Neil


Neil, thanks for the long reply. The trails sound pretty much like "cat
tracks". I'm just wondering what exactly are hockey stops? (Sorry for
the ignorance but like I said I pretty much taught myself snowboarding
so know very little of the terminology). Is it basically turning and
cutting the edge into the snow to slow down?

Handling easy but narrow runs
 

"Collision" wrote

I'm just wondering what exactly are hockey stops?

A hockey stop is when you throw the board completely sideways so that it
skids to a stop on the uphill edge. It's called that because it's the way
hockey players stop quickly, skiiers use the term to differentiate from
stopping using a wedge.

Neil

Handling easy but narrow runs
 

Neil Gendzwill wrote in :
Would these be what we refer to in North America as "cat tracks", ie
runs which are basically made from access roads for equipment?

I'm not the rss faq maintainer, but I would think this explanation would be
a nice addition to said faq..

http://www.vpas.fsnet.co.uk/rssFAQ/

Koos

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Fax +31-30-2817051 Visit the site about books with reviews /\\
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Handling easy but narrow runs
 

Thanks all for the help! In Austria now and have managed to get the
hang of this. To the off-piste...