Skier of the Impossible

Ace wrote:
wrote:

"David Off" wrote in message

To ski at angles of more than 50 degrees Sylvain realised that
normal parallel jump turns were not practical. In the period of 'free
fall' the skier picks up too much speed to control his descent and at
altitude they are too tiring. Instead Sylvain developed the 'windscreen
wiper' turn where the skier turns on the ends of the skis.

Do you have any further amplification or description
of this technique?

I guess he's referring to a partial jump turn, where the tips of the
skis stay pretty much in the same place (still on the snow) while the
tails swing round in the air behind. V. useful in steep narrow
couloirs.

This sounds right. I let the skis do all the work and have never asked
them what they do, but watching others 'go off' into a couloir before
me, I remember thinking the action of the tails of the skis did remind
me of "windshield wipers".

Jeremy Mortimer wrote:
"pigo" wrote in
"David Off" wrote in message


To ski at angles of more than 50 degrees Sylvain realised that
normal parallel jump turns were not practical. In the period of
'free
fall' the skier picks up too much speed to control his descent and
at
altitude they are too tiring. Instead Sylvain developed the
'windscreen
wiper' turn where the skier turns on the ends of the skis.

Do you have any further amplification or description
of this technique?

He turned of the tail (end) of his skis.
Scott Schmidt had a steep technique that worked pretty well for me. I
don't know how much different it makes one ski but it changes the
point of concentration, or at least provides a point for some
concentration. On the real steep the downhill leg is extended, hard to
get any lift off of it when it's already straight. So you turn off of
the uphill leg. Who knows how it works now on all the shortie ****.
Same for Sylvain's technique. You wouldn't want to lower anyones self
esteem by having terrain that they couldn't ski.

A few years ago I in Zermatt I saw Saudan introduce a couple of his
films - first descents of a face on Denali and the ordinary route on the
Grands Jorasses (if I remember correctly). In a lot of footage of him
skiing I only recall seeing turns on the tails of the skis on moderate
slopes in deep powder; they looked a bit like jet turns from the old
technique books, but it might actually have been more like what anyone
does in powder when it works - sit on the tails and just point the tips
the way you want to go; good fun but hard on the thigh muscles.


Speaking of quadriceps: Sking for long descents without stopping for
ten minutes (and steep enough to have to wedel, opposed to standing in
the bindings) in an emergency or when in pursuit or being chased
requires a strange technique with knees-almost-locked and most of the
movement coming from what seems to be a hips and lower back. Should
yourself (or any of our other contributors) try this at any time I
would be most interested in your reflections.


On steep stuff he seemed to be doing normal jump turns, pushing off the
uphill ski if it's sufficiently steep, as you say. He was also shown
training by skiing down moraine in the summer (no snow). Again, standard
jump turns as far as I could see.

(I also saw him skiing at Grands Montets a little later, still using his
trademark enormous poles and looking distinctly wobbly on a red piste.
An acquaintance who knows him slightly said he thought he had been ill).


Most charitable.
Some skiers have a "power band" where they work well and look good,
and may be indifferent in other areas, or sometimes just go to pieces
on other terrain. I have seen powder skiers who were poetry in motion
one minute, a complete india rubber ball, then atrophied, jerky and
hesitant with a change of terrain and circumstance.

Extensive practice in one area can lead to occasional surprises in
other areas, particularly when joining a party of skiers who ski at a
different speed to oneself (especially slower rather than faster).

clears throat I have, errr, on occasion, 'made bodily contact with
the snow' while not paying attention to what I was meant to be doing,
or (through boredom) giving the skis an instruction they clearly did
not want to take, just to see what they would do. Fortunately, my
companions very politely found some interesting and distant piece of
terrain to focus their attention upon while the funkraum made good the
extensive injuries to his dignity.