On 30 Jan 2006 05:31:12 -0800, "Niall" wrote:

The final area covered by my lesson was what to do when the slope has
really hard-packed snow.

Over the next few days, I started to really push forward on my boots
but I was never able to get a really strong edge unless I started the
turn very slowly. It seemed that the process works best when the
tongues of both boots are slightly 'weighted' prior to the 2nd half
of the turn where the knees are bent and the body lowered. After that,
I found that I had to shift my weight back slightly so that it was
evenly over my boots to stop the skis skidding.

Can anyone comment on anything that I'm doing wrong here? My skiing
on hard pistes has really improved but I'd like to get this area
resolved so that I can progress to steeper slopes with confidence.

Quite difficult to imagine, from your description, but my own advice
for hard pistes and/or ice would be this:

As is true nearly all the time, your weight should be well-balanced,
neither forward nor backward of the centre of the ski. If you find
that you're getting pitched back, which is what it sounds like, you
might like to imagine tensing up your ankle muscles to bring the shin
forwards - it's essential that the weight is controlled by the knees
being pulled forwrdas, rather than pushing the rest of the body over
from the hips.

So, what sort of turn-initiation are you using? If we're basically
talking about carving here, i.e. you're trying to ski in a clean arc
with no rotation or skidding, then there won't be any sudden movement
to start the turn, just a gradual (but quite fast) change of weight
from one ski to the next. This will initially have the effect of
changing the edge as well, as you start to lean the other way. If
you're well-centred, then the edge shape of the ski will naturally
start to make a smooth turn. The more weight you get on this ski, the
more it will bend (and turn more tightly) and the further away from
your body you'll be able to push it.

Now, the bit you're asking about is how to get the edge to grip. I
have this problem with my Pocket Rocket skis, which are basically not
intended to be good on hard snow and ice, so the only way I can make
them work is to get them leaning at a much greater angle to the snow
than would normally be required. Imagine the trunk of the body being
upright, with the legspushing out to form an angle with them. The
greater this angle (from the vertical) the more the ski edges are
going to be able to cut into the ice.

There are a couple of interesting points about this: 1. You need to be
skiing fast for it to work, as you just can;t lean over that much at
low speed; 2. If your weight is _not_ centred the ski won't be able to
carve cleanly, and it will try and rotate around a point in front of
or behind your feet, leadning to a loss of grip, often noticeably at
the rear of the ski leading to the old 'skidding the tails' syndrome.

So in short, get, and keep, your weight in the right place and let the
ski do the work.

--
Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
Ski Club of Great Britain - http://www.skiclub.co.uk
All opinions expressed are personal and in no way represent those of the Ski Club.