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Finding a Strong Edge - Advice for Hard Pistes???
I'm just back from La Plagne. Conditions were generally very good
with a dusting of fresh snow on hard pistes. A handful of very busy areas had thin cover with the odd stone popping through. I don't know why the piste machines didn't grab snow from elsewhere (there was plenty slightly off-piste) ...perhaps there are environmental restrictions? On day 2, I got a 2 hour private lesson. The snow off-piste (near the resort) had become too hard to really practice but I was shown that it is essential to lean away from the slope to get the skis to turn under those conditions. I was also shown how to improve stopping (by absorbing some of the speed by bringing the downhill ski under my body and, again, getting more upper body weight away from the slopes so the hips [edges] are digging into the slope. The final area covered by my lesson was what to do when the slope has really hard-packed snow. I said that this had been a problem area with our holiday last year (Courmayeur) and was also relevant to the steeper sections of La Plagne. The instructor advised me that I was rotating my body towards the turn which was the opposite to what was really required to get a strong edge. In addition, he suggested that I push the tongue of the boot towards the turn - I imagined pushing the boot towards the front binding on my other ski. There was an immediate improvement but my lesson finished before I could really practice this. 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. Thanks in advance!! (and let me know if you've got any questions about La Plagne - while I still remember!) Niall |
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