Black diamond skiing

lal_truckee wrote:

Reminds me of "Fill Your Sitzmarks!" Haven't seen such a sign for some
time now.

If memory serves, there is still one in the Rathskeller bar at my
Beloved
Loveland. I have never seen one outside of the lodge/bar tho.

Sam "I ski Loveland" Seiber

On Mon, 07 Feb 2005 17:25:25 -0600, VtSkier
wrote:

lal_truckee wrote:
TexasSkiNut wrote:

I yelled at
him from the lift to come back and replace his divot, but kept on
going...


Reminds me of "Fill Your Sitzmarks!" Haven't seen such a sign for some
time now.

Well, here in the east, the snow is too */)(% hard to make
sitzmarks.

Or the snow is so hard that it makes the marks in your sitz instead.

Happy trails,
Gary (net.yogi.bear)
------------------------------------------------
at the 51st percentile of ursine intelligence

Gary D. Schwartz, Needham, MA, USA
Please reply to: garyDOTschwartzATpoboxDOTcom

On 2005-02-07, TexasSkiNut penned:
Lisa asked:
When you say scraping, would that be a more or less sideways skidding type
of movement?

Yup. That's either side-slipping or scraping, depending on how much snow
you're removing as you go. The term scraping is usually used derisively to
mean removing all of the loose snow and leaving ice/hardpack in its place.
It's easier to do this on a snowboard, as you put all of your weight on one
edge, whether you want to or not. Side-slipping, on the other hand, is a
useful technique for dropping speed or getting down a slope when you're not
able to otherwise turn, either due to conditions or lack of ability.
Side-slipping without scraping takes a little more touch or control.


Just as further info for Lisa, side-slipping doesn't have to be scraping. You
can side-slip by just tipping your skis so that the angle of the bases matches
the angle of the mountain. If you do it right, the edges aren't involved and
so you're not scraping very much at all.

And for the record, there are situations where side-slipping is very useful.
But if you're side-slipping a significant portion of the run, the run (or its
current condition) is too tough for you.

--
monique
Longmont, CO

In article ,
Alan Baker writes:
I think there has to be something you can do short of the black trails
if you're traversing them, but not getting challenged on the blues.

I was thinking the same thing. If you are so uncomfortable on a trail that
you need to traverse it, the only thing you are learning are bad habits.

If you are bored on blue runs, try different kind of turns. There are
endless combinations of turns, from pure carved to windshield wiper,
that you can spend days perfecting without getting bored. Try putting more
weight on the front, then on the back. Feel what works better...

As far as hazard, you are much less a factor than the guy zipping by you at
50 mph. It won't matter who is at fault if you collide. You are both
going to be in a lot of pain. But it sounds like you are using good
judgement already by waiting for people to go by. Just try to be
predictable and leave some room at the edge of the trail when you
traverse.

bruno.

Try a couple of things different. First, keep your weight forward. If you
can't feel the boots pushing on your shins you need to be farther forward.
Second, keep your head and shoulders facing down the fall line. Make enough
turns that your head and shoulders never face across the fall line. Develop
this on blue runs first. You might benefit from a lesson or two.

Third, try those black diamonds! As other have said, move consistently and
leave room for people to go around you. Be aware of who & what is around
you and try not to crowd anyone. Besides that - you have as much right to
the black diamond runs as they do.

Most of all - HAVE FUN!

; wrote in message
...
In article ,
Alan Baker writes:
I think there has to be something you can do short of the black trails
if you're traversing them, but not getting challenged on the blues.

I was thinking the same thing. If you are so uncomfortable on a trail that
you need to traverse it, the only thing you are learning are bad habits.

If you are bored on blue runs, try different kind of turns. There are
endless combinations of turns, from pure carved to windshield wiper,
that you can spend days perfecting without getting bored. Try putting more
weight on the front, then on the back. Feel what works better...

As far as hazard, you are much less a factor than the guy zipping by you
at
50 mph. It won't matter who is at fault if you collide. You are both
going to be in a lot of pain. But it sounds like you are using good
judgement already by waiting for people to go by. Just try to be
predictable and leave some room at the edge of the trail when you
traverse.

bruno.

"Chuck" wrote
and I want to push myself to get better, but I also want to be able to do
some traversing on these trails.

Why do you feel that traversing down a steeper run will improve your skiing?
I'm not trying to be rude, I'm just interested to know how people view these
things.

ant

On 2005-02-08, ant penned:
"Chuck" wrote
and I want to push myself to get better, but I also want to be able to do
some traversing on these trails.

Why do you feel that traversing down a steeper run will improve your skiing?
I'm not trying to be rude, I'm just interested to know how people view these
things.


I had a friend in college who enjoyed that type of skiing all the time. She'd
go waaaaay across the mountain, then a slight downhill and waaaaaay across
again.

Looked boring to me, but she found it very peaceful. *shrug*

Another reason might be to work up the courage to tackle the steeper slopes?
Traverse it at first, see it doesn't kill you, work up to a more downhill
line?

--
monique
Longmont, CO

VtSkier wrote:

Chuck wrote:

Is it considered a bad thing for an intermediate level skier like
myself to be taking my time skiing the black diamond trails? Most of
the folks I see attempting these trails are moving a lot faster than I
am. The blue trails are no longer a challenge to me and I want to push
myself to get better, but I also want to be able to do some traversing
on these trails. Am I creating a hazard for those who want to ski them
faster? I try to wait at the top of the steeper areas off to the side
until the better skiers go past but I still often find that while I'm
traversing down, someone else goes zipping by at 50mpg or faster and I
wonder if they will have time to react.


I certainly have no objection to someone like yourself
skiing down diamond trails. The only thing I ask is that
you not "scrape" down the trail when it has snow on it.

Yeah, and also consider, if you _are_ scraping, doing desperation-wedge
turns and the like, you're survival-skiing and not doing your skiing
skills any favors.

More advanced terrain is just one of the challenges that you can take on
in your skiing: if you know how to push yourself, you can find things to
do on any slope, not just the tougher terrain. But taking on more
difficult terrain is defintely part of improving your skills.
Unfortunately, depending on where you're skiing, you may just be in the
unhappy position that there's a big step up from the highest blue trail
to the lowest black trail. More commonly, though, there's enough of a
range that you can make the progression without having to slow waaay
down. If you go from a wide, straight, regular blue slope with a
moderate grade to a narrow, twisty, steep black slope, you're perhaps
biting off a bit much. Try to go from wide, predictable blues to
narrower, less predictable blues, and then to a more open black first.
The upside of the more open black is that it will let you traverse and
take your time if you need to, and still give others plenty of room to
pass you without giving you or them a heart attack.

--
Mary Malmros
Some days you're the windshield, other days you're the bug.

Monique Y. Mudama wrote:

On 2005-02-07, TexasSkiNut penned:

Lisa asked:

When you say scraping, would that be a more or less sideways skidding type
of movement?

Yup. That's either side-slipping or scraping, depending on how much snow
you're removing as you go. The term scraping is usually used derisively to
mean removing all of the loose snow and leaving ice/hardpack in its place.
It's easier to do this on a snowboard, as you put all of your weight on one
edge, whether you want to or not. Side-slipping, on the other hand, is a
useful technique for dropping speed or getting down a slope when you're not
able to otherwise turn, either due to conditions or lack of ability.
Side-slipping without scraping takes a little more touch or control.



Just as further info for Lisa, side-slipping doesn't have to be scraping. You
can side-slip by just tipping your skis so that the angle of the bases matches
the angle of the mountain. If you do it right, the edges aren't involved and
so you're not scraping very much at all.

Remove the "not very much" and you've got the right of it. Watch racers
slip a course sometime: they scrape only when they want to, to smooth
out the course before a race.

--
Mary Malmros
Some days you're the windshield, other days you're the bug.

TexasSkiNut wrote:
Chuck said:

Alan Baker said:

Have you considered skiing the blues faster?

Tried it but my skis tend to get unstable at faster speeds.
. . .
when I get up around 20-25 mph they start to feel unstable.


Look at it as good training for balance. If you can ski fast on
squirrelly skis that don't like to go fast, your balance will improve
greatly....assuming you don't become one with the trees.

It helps if you keep twitchy skis like that turning and on edge. I
skied one day on some Dynastar Ski Cross 9's at Taos. As long as I
kept them on edge, they behaved. As soon as I tried to let them run
straight at high speeds, they'd try to go off on their own. I'd just
pick up the offending ski and put it back down going in the direction
which I had chosen. I traded them in at the end of the day, however,
for some more stable skis.

That's been exactly my experience with them. Keep'em on edge and they're
a lot more stable. Try to let'em run straight and they chatter all over
the place.