advice on technique for steep ice

On steep icy slopes, I tend to over turn and slide side ways for
several seconds on either my heel or toe edge. I have watched good
skiers and snowboarders and they never over turn keeping their board at
a maximum of 30 degrees from the fall line carving and holding turns
even on ice. They link their turns about 1 turn every 1.5 seconds. (I
compare this to my situation where on ice I slide out to well beyond 45
degrees and by the time I recover and link to the next turn al least 3
seconds have passed. I pick up to much speed and the ice can't hold my
edge)? Any advice???

On 8 Feb 2005 09:08:43 -0800, "Steve"
wrote:

On steep icy slopes, I tend to over turn and slide side ways for
several seconds on either my heel or toe edge. I have watched good
skiers and snowboarders and they never over turn keeping their board at
a maximum of 30 degrees from the fall line carving and holding turns
even on ice. They link their turns about 1 turn every 1.5 seconds. (I
compare this to my situation where on ice I slide out to well beyond 45
degrees and by the time I recover and link to the next turn al least 3
seconds have passed. I pick up to much speed and the ice can't hold my
edge)? Any advice???

Get down !

Seriously, almost every problem I've had on a snowboard has benefited
from bending my legs more, and concentrating my CofG of the edge,
especially (for me) on heel side.
--
Champ

Champ wrote:

Get down !

Seriously, almost every problem I've had on a snowboard has benefited
from bending my legs more, and concentrating my CofG of the edge,
especially (for me) on heel side.

Also, lots of angulation. Make sure your shoulders are level - try
pretending to hold a tray of drinks in front of you. When you do this,
you create a good angle at the waist which moves the centre of your mass
over the edge. Another drill to accomplish the same thing is to try to
touch your front foot with your back arm on heelsides, and your back
foot with your front arm on toesides. You have to get low to do this -
accomplish it with lots of knee bend, rather then bending at the waist.
There's a difference between bending over at the waist and angulation
at the waist.

Have a look at this thread on Bomberonline, there's some nice soft boot
carving pictures which show what I'm talking about:
http://www.bomberonline.com/VBulleti...&threadid=1704

One thing that works for me on icy surfaces is to also be very light on
my edges - I don't try to set a hard carve, I try to get on the edge and
then off it again into the next turn. But there are guys who ride in
the East who can lay trenches on glare ice. If you've got good
equipment and good technique, you can put a skier to shame on the ice.

Neil

On 8 Feb 2005 09:08:43 -0800, "Steve"
wrote:

On steep icy slopes, I tend to over turn and slide side ways for
several seconds on either my heel or toe edge. I have watched good
skiers and snowboarders and they never over turn keeping their board at
a maximum of 30 degrees from the fall line carving and holding turns
even on ice. They link their turns about 1 turn every 1.5 seconds. (I
compare this to my situation where on ice I slide out to well beyond 45
degrees and by the time I recover and link to the next turn al least 3
seconds have passed. I pick up to much speed and the ice can't hold my
edge)? Any advice???
Its a lot to do with confidence as well, I'm by no means brilliant but
once I got the hang of what you are trying to achieve it really feels
like your boarding has readched a new level.

A problem I have is I drag my back edge too much when going from front
to back, put too much weight on my right foot (I ride regular) and un
bend the knees a bit. Generally happens when an uphill section is just
round the corner of course.

There's ice and then there's ICE! Navigating really icy slopes is a
combination of technique and experience. To get across truly hard ice
you have to be able to let the board run and look far ahead for you're
safety net which might be a mogul, some slough, or just some hardpack.

On 8 Feb 2005 14:05:23 -0800, "og" wrote:

There's ice and then there's ICE! Navigating really icy slopes is a
combination of technique and experience. To get across truly hard ice
you have to be able to let the board run and look far ahead for you're
safety net which might be a mogul, some slough, or just some hardpack.
Interesting, I find encountering a mogul in these situations to be the
complete opposite, could you explain how you find them a help as I
normally end up in a heap!

Cheers.

"og" wrote in news:1107900322.975053.109860
@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com:

There's ice and then there's ICE! Navigating really icy slopes is
a combination of technique and experience. To get across truly
hard ice you have to be able to let the board run and look far
ahead for you're safety net which might be a mogul, some slough, or
just some hardpack.


Hey stop saying nasty things about our Vermont powder!

"Steve" wrote in message
oups.com...
On steep icy slopes, I tend to over turn and slide side ways for
several seconds on either my heel or toe edge. I have watched good
skiers and snowboarders and they never over turn keeping their board at
a maximum of 30 degrees from the fall line carving and holding turns
even on ice. They link their turns about 1 turn every 1.5 seconds. (I
compare this to my situation where on ice I slide out to well beyond 45
degrees and by the time I recover and link to the next turn al least 3
seconds have passed. I pick up to much speed and the ice can't hold my
edge)? Any advice???



I basically travel across the hill to scrub speed, I make a turn then travel
uphill or across then start my other one. This way you don't go too fast
and can controll you edges. You can only do this if you are carving with
your board, if you are sliding, it will be more difficult.

I basically travel across the hill to scrub speed, I make a turn then
travel
uphill or across then start my other one. This way you don't go too
fast
and can controll you edges. You can only do this if you are carving
with
your board, if you are sliding, it will be more difficult.


some of my closest calls to really scary wipe-outs have been when doing
this...so i must be doing something wrong. here's the thing, if i ride
defensively on very steep terrain to control my speed, i end up in deep
sh*t if my board does begin to slide (instead of carving). then i'll
end up in a situation where I want to slow down or turn back up the
hill, but instead i'm gaining speed downhill, losing control, and
skipping a little higher off each small bump i pass. about now is when
i usually end up reciting the "f*ck f*ck f*ck f*ck!" chant which so far
has amazingly worked to stop my descent...which is just dumb luck.

anyway, for me, i'm convinced that i just need to ride more of the fall
line and less of the traverse ("travel across"). it likely goes in
with the confidence points mentioned earlier.

steep powder of course, isn't a problem. its the slopes that look
like they're going to be soft but when you get on them you realize that
yesterday's sun softened snow is still quite hard. ouch.

If this starts happening, the thing to do is to LOOK WHERE YOU WANT TO
GO. In other words, don't look DOWN the hill in the direction of your
slide. Force yourself to look ACROSS the hill, and hey presto, that's
where you'll go.

Good advice, Baka. Thanks.