On Fri, 28 Dec 2012 18:47:48 -0800 (PST), Larry wrote:

Skate rollerski uphill work this past fall finally allowed me to do
intermediate hills on trails around Quebec city this week. However,
while enjoying my newfound endurance, I was also disappointed to find
that my climbing is very assymetric - that is, I have a very strong
preference for the right side. What's puzzling is that on rollers only
a couple of weeks earlier, I actually perferred the left side for
climbing, though not to the extent of my right side preference on
snow. While the left side feels more natural for cruising the flats
both on wheels and on snow, it feels very awkward when climbing on
snow. One thing I noticed with longer skis rather than rollers
attached to my feet is that my left foot doesn't twist outward as
naturally as my right one does, and so it always wants to maintain a
pretty shallow angle to the direction of travel. It also tires out
much faster than the right one - all the roller training
notwithstanding.

I'm wondering if anyone has had a similar issue and how to approach
the problem which seems to be rooted in physiology.

Yes, especially when I first got into skate skiing. I solve it by working on
the less favored side. Consider some of the differences between climbing
pavement and snow. (all in context of my roller gear)

Poling on pavement has limited thrust due to slippage. On snow you can really
pump it, and thus there might be some favoritm in the poling that didn't come
out with the less energetic pavement thrusts, which might affect foot
favoritism.

My snow glide is much better than my roller glide so I tend have longer glide
phase on snow than pavement, and if it is the same for you then it may be why
you find the favoritism (yes, to the other foot) greater on the snow.

Roller skis don't slip, so the snow ski angling tends to be greater, and this
does require more effort in foot/leg rotation.

Ben