abc said:
I'm with CambridgeKate. I would simply curl up so my legs are in the air...
Now, GENTLY, very tenatively, put your ski downhill of you, perpenticular to the fall line. Don't set the edge yet. Just let the ski AND BOOT create some friction...
Then, get ready to set the edge! Realizing you're going to get a bit of a jolt when the ski's edge BITE into the ice. But, if it's so icy you're sliding non-stop, chances are the ski is going to side slip as well. Be ready to bend your knee to absorb the impact nonetheless. Then, you can take your time to pressure the edge until it holds.
One danger of setting the edge in a fast slide is the ski might break off because the binding simply releases as soon as the ski bites. So you really want to be patient with setting your ski down, AND MAKE SURE IT'S PERPENDICULAR TO THE FALL LINE! (or you start sliding sideway off the trail).
For those who're not quite as acrobat and can't get your ski downhill of you, you can also drag your ski and boot to slow yourself down, to the point that you can manuver to spin your legs downhill of you to do the above.
I've got myself back on my feet on a few of those "kitchen-tile" slopes that way.
I can't quite see how this works, if I am sliding down on my back, looking up at the sky, going downhill fast head first on a steep icy slope. Curling up and putting a ski downhill of me doesn't bring up any workable visuals now, at least in my imagination.
Do you really mean curl myself up into a fetal-position-ball, sliding downhill on my neck with my back humped up and over my bellybutton, my skis hovering in the air over my face, then place a ski on the snow downhill of my snow-filled neck?? This sounds so dangerous, and although I did think of it while on the snow sliding I envisioned all kinds of broken body parts so didn't try it. Is this what you did?
Instead, I dug my ski edges into the snow uphill of the rest of me, my body held flat against the snow, digging ski edges in as best I could, but the slope was so steep and so icy that this did nothing to stop me. It just kept me from speeding up. That did prove useful, and when I got to a flatter section I slowed down and stopped.
Seems like there should be some way to flip the feet downhill more safely than this, and without using poles with saws connected to them. Hopefully this won't happen too often to too many of us, and never again to me, but you never know. The advice and conversation is good, and full of interesting ideas.