Help Needed: About to Give Up

[tinymoose]

But would we expect someone who has only been skiing a few seasons have perfect form and be able to ski the entire mountain?

First time I went into trees, I think it was in some green glades at Stowe and I rocked a power wedge the whole time. lol I was skiing parallel at that point, but wasn't any good in bumps yet and was terrified of hitting a tree, so I rocked that wedge.

 

[santacruz skier]

First time I went into trees, I think it was in some green glades at Stowe and I rocked a power wedge the whole time. lol I was skiing parallel at that point, but wasn't any good in bumps yet and was terrified of hitting a tree, so I rocked that wedge.

I still wedge if get into a tight spot in trees or bumps.

 

[SquidWeaselYay]

Also agree that alignment is way important. Don't necessarily jump to canting though. See a good bootfitter. Work done inside the boot may be preferable. For example, if your feet and a ankles pronate (collapse to the inside when you flex), the fix may be tilting the footbed inside the boot to provide support for the inside edge of your foot. You can always still add canting, but first making corrections inside the boot may be a better approach.

Absolutely. A good boot fitter can tease it all apart and figure out the correct fix.

 

[SallyCat]

Thanks, everyone. I appreciate the support and the thoughtful advice; thanks so much for taking the time to give me feedback.

 

[echo_VT]

@SallyCat i am sorry to hear that you are having so many frustrations with the sport...!

i agree with @Skier31 and @Serafina 's points

things that i see:
(1) turn initiated by body, namely the hips. this indicates to me that the core is not engaged, as others mentioned, having the zipper facing down the fall line is one of the things as a drill that is helpful to notice and practice.
(2) during the apex of the turn, as others stated, it looks like there is more pressure on your inside ski. your outside ski's ankle is not flexed! your knees should be shifting left to right underneath you, but i agree you shouldn't be standing tall, and as others stated, there are points that you are. i'd agree working on that would be a good idea. i have done this too (not flexing outside ankle enough) and am working to correct it so it's consistently dynamic thru all points of the turn. the point that you can see this most is when you ski by the videographer.
(3) your turns flow really well, timing at the start of the turn, to the apex, to the bottom of the turn is excellent!
(4) with the turns, your hands/poles go up and down alternating. these should be level the entire way down. a drill we do is dragging our poles thru the snow to keep them at the same height. flicking wrists is also a thing we attempt to be rid of, we do a drill in which our palms face down the hill / the fall line during our turns. we have also played with different pole heights (using adjustable poles) b/c often times our poles are simply too long for us which makes us stand up more when we really want to be lower.

i hope this helps you!

 

[SallyCat]

I appreciate the incredible advice here. I just need to step away from skiing for a while. I'm not in a headspace to deal with boots and fine-tuning issues of form. I thought I was, but I'm not. But this thread is an amazing collection of advice, here when I'm ready for it and a boon to other skiers. Thanks again!

 

[echo_VT]

Wishing you a replenishing time away from skiing @SallyCat ! I have felt that way about snowboarding in the terrain park - so I can definitely understand the frustration. Thinking of you!

 

[liquidfeet]

So sorry to hear of your distress, @SallyCat. Hang in there.
We know you love skiing.

 

[elemmac]

Reading through this thread it reminds me of a friend, especially the comments urging you to ski the terrain you want to. For the purpose of the story, we’ll call my friend Jane.

Jane is an intermediate skier, she started skiing just a few years ago. Jane has some technique to refine, and many skills to still learn, but her enthusiasm for the sport keeps pushing her forward. Jane’s boyfriend and friends love to ski in the trees. They try to get off groomers as much as possible. Unless a very easy, mellow tree run, Jane takes the groomer down and meets us at the bottom. That was until last year, when Jane got “dipped”.

By definition, “dipped” is a term we coined for pushing your boundaries, getting out of your comfort zone and coming out better for it.

The term started when Jane got dipped. We were at Jay Peak with 8 feet of fresh snow (that is not an exaggeration, Jay got 8 feet in two weeks last March). Naturally most of the people we were with wanted to hit a little side-country. “The Dip” at Jay is part of that side country. Maybe it was FOMO, maybe it was the irresistible fluffy white snow, or just something deep inside of Jane that made her want to come along. The snow deeper than she had ever been in, the trees were tighter, and there was no bail out. She struggled. A lot. I was convinced she and her boyfriend would not be a couple much longer. Boy was I wrong.

The following weekend, back at the home mountain, Jane decided to try some trees, then some more trees, then more. Her confidence went up 10 fold, she realized she’s not the skier she thought she was. She so much better than that.

Take this story however you want to. It could be a tale of a foolish girl that overterrained herself. Or it can be an inspiration to test your boundaries and come out on the other side with a lesson of where those boundaries really reside.

@SallyCat However you decide to move forward, it’s up to you, and I wish you the best in figuring that out. Maybe get a fat bike, and pick up winter biking? I mean, you can’t let all those warm clothes you’ve acquired for skiing go to waste.

 

[CindiSue]

I can totally relate to your frustration! I started skiing in my mid-40's and had some struggles (very hard to fit feet took a lot of tries at bootfitting). But after a few years I felt I was skiing well and having fun, although always too focused on technique over fun. I know I was doing something wrong (using brute force) because I always ended up too sore in the wrong places, and looked awkward. I took lessons but everyone seemed to have a different opinion about what was wrong. I lived at Tahoe, but visited Sun Valley a couple times and loved it. Then 4 years ago I moved to SV and realized how hard most of the mountain is for me.

I barely skied for a couple years. I was determined to have better technique, and thought I finally figured out how to control my speed right by staying forward, flexing at knees and ankles instead of bending, and keeping upper body pointed downhill. But the problem now is I totally burn my quads out in a short amount of time. Whenever I read about learning to ski they stress that it's important to practice on stuff that isn't too steep. And I know that is what I need, because then I have decent technique and have fun. But we just don't have much of that terrain here.

This year I feel is my last try. I didn't want to quit without giving it a real shot so I'm taking an 8 week class. The first one was yesterday and it was so freakin' hard (steep) that I'm tempted to quit. But the instructor could see why I was burning out my quads, and at least I've got something new to try.

Then I come here and read so many different opinions: it's technique, it's the skis, it's the angle of your leg in the boots, etc. It's overwhelming and I still wonder if it's worth it. I don't care at all about skiing hard stuff, or even that I ski way slower than everyone else. All I want to do is be able to ski down moderate runs having fun instead of constantly trying. I'm so sick of trying.

 

[Kimmyt]

I appreciate the incredible advice here. I just need to step away from skiing for a while. I'm not in a headspace to deal with boots and fine-tuning issues of form. I thought I was, but I'm not. But this thread is an amazing collection of advice, here when I'm ready for it and a boon to other skiers. Thanks again!

I wanted to post because the way you're feeling about skiing right now resonates a lot with me and how I've felt about various sports in the past. There is a big part of us that wants to define ourselves by whatever sport or hobby we choose. Sometimes, our body and minds are telling us to take a break from it for a while, but we fight it so hard, because we're a 'skier' and if we don't ski, how do we define ourselves?

I would encourage you to follow your intuition here, maybe you just need a break for the rest of the season. About 10-15 years ago I would have defined myself as a Climber, but about 4-5 years ago I was feeling a lot of pressure and anxiety on myself because I wasn't improving and I wasn't excited to go climbing, and it was scary and a plethora of other negative emotions revolving around the sport. So I backed off, a lot. At points I wondered if I should just sell my stuff. But I held on to it, and in the past year or so I've found my joy for the sport again. And, surprise surprise, coming back at it in a completely different mental space has really done amazing things for my climbing. Even more importantly, I feel JOY in it again, maybe even more than I ever had.

I think that your intuition might be telling you something, and maybe you just need a break. Thats not to say you can't achieve some of your other goals while you're on yiour break. Theres no reason you can't get into touring, you can plan backcountry tours that don't have a single downhill turn (I did several of them when I was pregnant! They were so much fun, just getting out in the soft snow and gliding along in nature by myself). Maybe thats where your joy will be found, and then when you're ready to come back to downhill you'll be in a better place for it. Or maybe you'll find that your passion lies elsewhere, and downhill skiing was what you needed to get you there.

 

[CindiSue]

There's nothing wrong with quitting or taking a break. I just wanted to add that I am half way through "A Conversation With Fear" which was mentioned here, and I think it's worth reading it before you decide. I'm finding it's not just about fear, but about finding the love (again or for the first time). I'm personally feeling much better about my choice to continue on this year.

 

[SallyCat]

I've been goofing around on a snowboard after work a bit, and one of the instructors at our ski school was kind enough to give me a lesson today. It's different. I'm scared of falling, but I really like how easy it is to walk uphill to practice. It's something I can do on the small rope-tow hill in my backyard, which makes it super low-key.

Oh, and the ski school gives kids "progress reports" when they take weekly lessons, so we filled one out for my snowboard progress. Baby steps!

 

[SallyCat]

Oh, and the rope tow literally in my backyard, btw: Built and staffed by volunteers and free and open to the public. And really long! #Vermont

 

[Jenny]

Oh, it looks like winter there! We have no snow on the ground yet - although that’s supposed to change on Friday.

 

[mustski]

To get off the groomed and into steeper things, narrower things, trees, bumps, powder, etc. . . . you need to develop a bomb proof short radius turn on a pretty flat ski - that is - learn how to reliably get OFF your edges. Most people on the intermediate plateau have well developed edging and weight shift skills. The underdeveloped skill tends to be "rotation" - the ability to flatten the ski at will so we can pivot and steer it with our legs. Rotation is the poor bastard child of the 3 main skiing skills but is the one that gets us off the groomed into all the fun stuff!

I hope you don't mind me asking ... but I am playing with improving my rotation skills. When using rotation to turn, is tipping involved at any point in the turn?

 

[Belgiangirl]

Reading through this thread it reminds me of a friend, especially the comments urging you to ski the terrain you want to. For the purpose of the story, we’ll call my friend Jane.

Not going to quote the entire story, but damn this resonated with me. As a kid I became a solid intermediate-advanced skier tackling all kinds of slopes (blue to black in Europe), but by the time I hit puberty I stopped skiing abruptly. Little to no experience off piste.

Fast-forward to last winter when my BF finally took me on a skiing trip to his granddad's chalet. First time on skis for me in 10+ years. I could still get down most slopes but wouldn't try anything off piste, it even scared me to watch my BF go down some sections alone (I'd take the groomed slope down).

On the day we were supposed to leave we woke up pretty much snowed in, I wrecked my snow chains trying to get us out of there. So we stayed and skied for one more day and for some reason I said f*#! it and told my BF I wanted to follow him and try a mellow tree run. Did I have the right technique? Nope. Did I ski some decent lines? Nope. Did I have fun? OH MY GOD YES.

From that day on, my focus has been on skiing ungroomed terrain and lucky as we've been in Europe last winter with all the fresh snow, we've had lots of opportunities to play around in the snow. I think that has been key - the play factor. I didn't take lessons last year, didn't focus on technique, I just had fun and made some progress along the way. This year I'll try to work on technique, but I'll probably spend an equal amount of time just messing around. I really hope taking up snowboarding will bring this element of fun and play back for you!

And when you feel ready to ski again, silence those demons in your head telling you you're not good enough. Because you are! You don't need perfect technique, just need to be capable to make it down safely. Enjoy the butterflies in your stomach and the fresh air and the beautiful surroundings and some good company and give it a go - you might just turn out to be a Jane

 

[Skisailor]

I hope you don't mind me asking ... but I am playing with improving my rotation skills. When using rotation to turn, is tipping involved at any point in the turn?

I don’t mind at all! The answer is, as is often the case and skiing, it depends.

Tipping could be involved, but it doesn’t have to be. I think of these two skills – tipping – which to me means our ability to edge and unedge the ski, and rotation - the ability to pivot the ski by turning our legs, as 2 of the 3 primary, foundational skills that we must master separately. (The other one is weight shift which in instructor speak is called pressure control). The fun comes when we understand that blending tipping and rotation in different proportions allows us to make all sorts of different turns that we can use all over the mointain.

A turn with lots of rotation and very little tipping will be very twisty and a turn with lots of tipping and very little rotation will be very carvy. Most turns are somewhere in between. But in my experience the turns with a higher ratio of rotation to tipping are the ones that take us confidently off piste.

When my students wonder how I can ski something very steep very slowly, that’s why. I’m using less edge (tipping) in relation to the amount of rotation than they are.

Is that clear as mud??

 

[mustski]

Yes, that helps. I’m working on rotation but find myself needing some edge. It’s likely our snow conditions.

 

[Skisailor]

Yes, that helps. I’m working on rotation but find myself needing some edge. It’s likely our snow conditions.

Well with out SOME edge you would be sliding directly down the slope without any change in direction. There is always some edge. When we say a “flat ski” we mean a ski that is flat enough to actively steer and pivot. You can still add rotation to a ski that is on edge up to a point. But there is a critical point where the edge angle gets too high to actively add rotation with your legs anymore. At that point the edge and ski side cut design take over. An edged ski will turn and that turning force may turn your legs for you a bit, but the edge is dominant at that point. And edges are fast.

Regarding snow conditions to learn and refine rotation skills, you definitely do not want to be IN the snow. You need to be ON the snow - groomers or firm off piste conditions are best.