If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. |
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
"JCZ" wrote in message ... Finally I'm bored with the easy trails. Saturday I tried the medium trails, and I did just fine -- lots of nice rolling up and down hills. I had no problems whatsoever, but then I saw a rather steep hill leading up to the difficult trail. I was tempted to try it, but had I come DOWN that hill, it would've been scary because it ended at what looked like a kind of big intersection of trails with benches and maps and lots of people. Say I was on this trail, and I'm coming down.....(classic). How do I stop when I need to? Up to this point, I've tried "snowplowing" which doesn't work when in tracks, I've tried putting my poles kind of forward to try and get some resistance, and I've tried turning my boots outward to kind of dig into the tracks to slow down, but none of them really work that well, and I imagine they don't work at all well when going kind of fast. Can anyone give me a suggestion? Thanks. Welcome to the club of those who can not go down hills easily. On the trails that I ski at, we have something called an "S" turn. Never trackset, and yes, I have met the trees. The other hills on the trails all are trackset, which makes most easy now... When I was a kid, i would sit down on my skis... not far to go if I fell. Micheal |
Ads |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
wrote in message oups.com... Offhand it sounds like you were looking up a hill that was not meant to be descended. Ski trails do frequently have a proper direction, where if you go the right way the downhills have reasonable run-outs, but if you go the wrong way you could end up at a benc-intersection coming up too soon. Our local club runs a weekend in which you do the trails in revers... they groom just before this to take out the marks. some of the hills that you go down instead of up are a lot easyer. If people have been descending a hill and MISSING the bench there are usually ski marks (or official tracks) that show you how the turn can be successfully made. Sometimes it is so badly roughed up that you cant see it, even watching others, you can not make it. Some skiers are better than others Micheal |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
Question on coming down a hill
Finally I'm bored with the easy trails. Saturday I tried the medium
trails, and I did just fine -- lots of nice rolling up and down hills. I had no problems whatsoever, but then I saw a rather steep hill leading up to the difficult trail. I was tempted to try it, but had I come DOWN that hill, it would've been scary because it ended at what looked like a kind of big intersection of trails with benches and maps and lots of people. Say I was on this trail, and I'm coming down.....(classic). How do I stop when I need to? Up to this point, I've tried "snowplowing" which doesn't work when in tracks, I've tried putting my poles kind of forward to try and get some resistance, and I've tried turning my boots outward to kind of dig into the tracks to slow down, but none of them really work that well, and I imagine they don't work at all well when going kind of fast. Can anyone give me a suggestion? Thanks. June |
#4
|
|||
|
|||
June,
You need to work on getting over the downhill fear that plagues many cross country skiers, even folks in the upper waves of the Birkie. Head to a downhill area and work on going downhill on the bunny hills. There are a couple of keys, one biggest one is to relax, another is to develop you balance skills. I've found that Garfield's 'Steady Ski' the best way to do this for me. The last is to practice, gain confidence and keep getting up off the snow. Good luck and have fun, chris |
#5
|
|||
|
|||
Offhand it sounds like you were looking up a hill that was not meant to
be descended. Ski trails do frequently have a proper direction, where if you go the right way the downhills have reasonable run-outs, but if you go the wrong way you could end up at a benc-intersection coming up too soon. Even informal local trails tend to get a directionality---right way, wrong way. Even trails that aren't officially trackset. Local skiers will tend to go the way that the geography works out the best. And their ski marks will make doing the various turns fairly reasonable. I find that going backwards on even a mellow twisting trail that has been informally skied-in can be hard---the skate-turn marks all point the wrong way and readily mess up a smooth turn. So it's best to go the way everyone else has been going. If people have been descending a hill and MISSING the bench there are usually ski marks (or official tracks) that show you how the turn can be successfully made. Snowplowing doesn't work in tracks, but one foot can be lifted out of the track and angled more or less, depending on snow-type. Or you can take both skis out of the tracks. The middle of a hard turn will often be blown-out even if trackset so you can do a full skid-turn there to scrub speed. I sometimes drag my pole baskets BEHIND me to do some slowing. If your poles aren't too fragile you can lean back down on them and use them as modest brakes to lose 5-10% speed. If you have any kind of rushing speed going, then putting them forward and doing the 'stab hamper' seems a bad idea. If I hit a downhill that has no decent run-out and seems ready to accelerate me into trouble, I always hit the deck with a side-butt drop before I get too much speed. This happens most often when I'm skiing a hiking trail that no one else has skied in a long time and maybe there are logs across the path at the bottom, lovely things like that, or if I'm going the wrong way on an expert loop! |
#6
|
|||
|
|||
June,
When you snowplow do 2 things: 1. Knees and thighs touch (this angles both skis to carve) 2. Thumbs forward and low, and butt high. To make a sharp turn when snowplowing on ice, keep lifting one ski a little in a tapping motion. If you are in the above body position, tapping/lifting the left ski will turn you left. Tapping/lifting (when thumbs down/butt high/knees touching) will turn you right. Your body position is everything when turning cross country skis. You have no metal edges on the skis and sneakers for ski boots. Since you are in Michigan, the best X-C instruction is at Boyne Mountain. Take a 2 hour "beginer" private lesson for $47. By going private your 2 hours won't be wasted on watching your instructor attend incredibly uncoordinated newbies. Then go back and take a 1 hour private lesson from Lou for $55, and tell Lou you want to learn you to make turns on ice. In one hour you will, and it will be the best $55 you can spend on cross country skiing. Cheers, Bruce Freeburger usenet(at)BIKESonTV.com JCZ wrote: Finally I'm bored with the easy trails. Saturday I tried the medium trails, and I did just fine -- lots of nice rolling up and down hills. I had no problems whatsoever, but then I saw a rather steep hill leading up to the difficult trail. I was tempted to try it, but had I come DOWN that hill, it would've been scary because it ended at what looked like a kind of big intersection of trails with benches and maps and lots of people. Say I was on this trail, and I'm coming down.....(classic). How do I stop when I need to? Up to this point, I've tried "snowplowing" which doesn't work when in tracks, I've tried putting my poles kind of forward to try and get some resistance, and I've tried turning my boots outward to kind of dig into the tracks to slow down, but none of them really work that well, and I imagine they don't work at all well when going kind of fast. Can anyone give me a suggestion? Thanks. June |
#7
|
|||
|
|||
Say I was on this trail, and I'm coming
down.....(classic). How do I stop when I need to? Up to this point, I've tried "snowplowing" which doesn't work when in tracks, I've tried putting my poles kind of forward to try and get some resistance Try stepping out of the track then snowplowing -- either get out at the top of the hill, or partway down. Practice getting in and out of tracks on a less steep hill -- step out, snowplow until you're back at a comfortable speed, then step back in. You can also do a half snowplow where one foot stays in the tracks and the other is angled. Putting your poles in front of you can be dangerous -- in a fall you can end up with a pole in your ribs or gut. An advanced option is to learn to do a hockey stop (i.e. stopping like a hockey player on skates, with first the upper body then both skis turning perpindicular to direction of travel; much easier said than done...). Derick |
#8
|
|||
|
|||
Say I was on this trail, and I'm coming
down.....(classic). How do I stop when I need to? Up to this point, I've tried "snowplowing" which doesn't work when in tracks, I've tried putting my poles kind of forward to try and get some resistance Try stepping out of the track then snowplowing -- either get out at the top of the hill, or partway down. Practice getting in and out of tracks on a less steep hill -- step out, snowplow until you're back at a comfortable speed, then step back in. You can also do a half snowplow where one foot stays in the tracks and the other is angled. Putting your poles in front of you can be dangerous -- in a fall you can end up with a pole in your ribs or gut. An advanced option is to learn to do a hockey stop (i.e. stopping like a hockey player on skates, with first the upper body then both skis turning perpindicular to direction of travel; much easier said than done...). Derick |
#9
|
|||
|
|||
Thanks Chris. I understand that fear, but really I'm not that scared
to go downhill, but wouldn't it be kind of crazy of me to go down a hill like this and not know how to stop? So I guess the real question I'm asking is how do you stop, because I might have to. June "BeeCharmer" wrote in message oups.com... June, You need to work on getting over the downhill fear that plagues many cross country skiers, even folks in the upper waves of the Birkie. Head to a downhill area and work on going downhill on the bunny hills. There are a couple of keys, one biggest one is to relax, another is to develop you balance skills. I've found that Garfield's 'Steady Ski' the best way to do this for me. The last is to practice, gain confidence and keep getting up off the snow. Good luck and have fun, chris |
#10
|
|||
|
|||
Uh uh...... This trail has two sets of tracks -- one set going in each
direction, and a guy came down that hill just after I walked UP it to see what was on the other side. (I walked not on the trail but next to it, so as not to wreck it.) I didn't think to watch him to see what he did at the bottom where all the trails converge and there were a bunch of people. It dawned on me later that it seemed kind of a weird ending to a steep-ish hill. Thanks Jeff for the tips on stopping. I like that lift one ski out of track and angle it or side scrubbing. You're right about the poles forward thing. I usually just do that when I'm easing down a hill that I don't want to build up speed on because maybe there's someone in front of me not going fast enough or something like that. But doing it when going fast would be kind of dumb. I like the idea of the dragging baskets, too. Hey! Thanks so much. June wrote in message oups.com... Offhand it sounds like you were looking up a hill that was not meant to be descended. Ski trails do frequently have a proper direction, where if you go the right way the downhills have reasonable run-outs, but if you go the wrong way you could end up at a benc-intersection coming up too soon. Even informal local trails tend to get a directionality---right way, wrong way. Even trails that aren't officially trackset. Local skiers will tend to go the way that the geography works out the best. And their ski marks will make doing the various turns fairly reasonable. I find that going backwards on even a mellow twisting trail that has been informally skied-in can be hard---the skate-turn marks all point the wrong way and readily mess up a smooth turn. So it's best to go the way everyone else has been going. If people have been descending a hill and MISSING the bench there are usually ski marks (or official tracks) that show you how the turn can be successfully made. Snowplowing doesn't work in tracks, but one foot can be lifted out of the track and angled more or less, depending on snow-type. Or you can take both skis out of the tracks. The middle of a hard turn will often be blown-out even if trackset so you can do a full skid-turn there to scrub speed. I sometimes drag my pole baskets BEHIND me to do some slowing. If your poles aren't too fragile you can lean back down on them and use them as modest brakes to lose 5-10% speed. If you have any kind of rushing speed going, then putting them forward and doing the 'stab hamper' seems a bad idea. If I hit a downhill that has no decent run-out and seems ready to accelerate me into trouble, I always hit the deck with a side-butt drop before I get too much speed. This happens most often when I'm skiing a hiking trail that no one else has skied in a long time and maybe there are logs across the path at the bottom, lovely things like that, or if I'm going the wrong way on an expert loop! |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Tug Hill Try it XC Classical 25K | [email protected] | Nordic Skiing | 1 | January 8th 05 03:18 AM |
make the hill less steep | Ken Roberts | Nordic Skiing | 4 | February 23rd 04 06:48 AM |
The Tug Hill Tourathon, Can Entries Ever Reach The Level | Clara Bingham | Nordic Skiing | 0 | January 27th 04 09:17 PM |
The Tug Hill Tourathon, Can Entries Ever Reach The Level They Once Were? | Douglas Diehl | Nordic Skiing | 3 | January 27th 04 02:32 PM |
Yet Another Donek Question | Michael G. Matola | Snowboarding | 6 | January 27th 04 01:21 PM |