How to let go of the fear?

[QCskier]

This is my 5th ski season and I am now capable of skiing much faster than before. That being said whenever I start to go fast I become really uneasy with the speed and immediately slow down. I always feel myself in control at the speeds I'm skiing so I think that my technique is fine but I can't shake the nerves that something bad might happen. How do I overcome this?

 

[Obrules15]

I found I lost a lot of my fear in properly fitted boots. Skiing in boots tht were to big gave me a feeling of instability that translated to fear. Didn't realize it until I'd changed boots.

 

[ski diva]

So much of skiing is a head game! No matter how long we've been skiing, no matter what our level, all of us suffer from fear from time to time.

Obviously, the better your skills, the less likely you are to be afraid. So you might want to look into taking some lessons. Also, you might want to try Mermer Blakeslee's book, A Conversation with Fear. Mermer is an expert on fear and skiing, so that might be a good resource for you.

I did a talk about skiing and confidence/fear you might want to check out (you can find it here). Maybe there's something there that'll help.

 

[marzNC]

This is my 5th ski season and I am now capable of skiing much faster than before. That being said whenever I start to go fast I become really uneasy with the speed and immediately slow down. I always feel myself in control at the speeds I'm skiing so I think that my technique is fine but I can't shake the nerves that something bad might happen. How do I overcome this?

Would be helpful to know a little more. Do you mostly ski the at the same place? On the same trails? Mostly solo or with others?

 

[SnowAngels]

I am a good skier - I KNOW that. But when faced with steep AND powder I start to wonder -How deep is it? what's under it? What if I hit "that". Maybe it's just that I am older now! There are days when everything just feels so good and those head demons don't come out to play - but when they do, a good day becomes a No Fun day. I read another thread here that suggested creating a Mantra AND an attached trigger eg squeezing your fist ( or other ) to anchor it, then doing that trigger movement when you get nervous. Since reading that I have noticed many racers/ aerialist/bump skiers, etc I - REALLY good skiers, seem to do a 'trigger' movement" before they take off eg helmut tap, fist pump or other little trigger they do every time. Skiing is such a mind game - so I'm off to Japan in January and I plan to have embedded my mantra and give it a try in Madarao powder!

 

[freckles]

Some tips that helped me:
- get into an athletic stance (knees bent, feet shoulder width apart). You're more stable
- get onto some skis that make you feel confident (good carvers, nothing super long)
- ski with fun, fast people. For me, it was my kids who were on the ski team. I learned a lot from following them down the hill
Practice, practice, practice...

 

[Abbi]

I just downloaded Blakeslee’s book. I’m having a tentative stretch which makes me nuts!

 

[racetiger]

Ive noticed that snowboarders have that trigger motion too. Usually a clap and then they take off.

 

[Jilly]

@QCskier - come up to Tremblant some time. SkiBam and I are both certified ski instructors and can help you with that. It's confidence really and guided skiing sure helps. I'm not comfortable in trees. A weekend out west at the women's camp at WB gave me some confidence with them. A return trip helped and then another with Lady_Salina guiding in the bumps and trees. It's still there in the back of my mind that that tree doesn't move. But I do have the knowledge/skills to go through the trees.

If anyone watches me starting a run, from anywhere, you will see a slight wedge to start. This is my stable position. I'll move whichever ski to parallel. It's something my mentor taught me and it has stuck.

Another one is do not stop at the top of pitch and stare it down. Never works!! Move!

 

[kiki]

Lots of good advice here.
last season i really battled fear. Some days i got to the top of the hill and just went in the bathroom and cried a bit i was so scared, before i could get the nerve to go out and do my first run. By end of season i was a lot better. And on my one day out this season i felt absolutely zero fear!
here are some things that helped:
- i agree with @Obrules15 the right gear makes it a lot easier
- get enough sleep and manage your blood sugar by eating protein. Tired amd hungry is not good for a happy day of skiing
- if you have a bad day talk about it after to see what the triggers were and what you could do differently , what would have helped
- as @ski diva sais, its a head game. Figuring out your triggers and also getting confidence in your skills can be facilitated by a good teacher. I had an instructor who kept asking why and we dealt with it-- why are you afraid to go fast? I was afraid of ledges so she made me ski to the edge with her-- right to the very edge--and look down! we talked about what would happen if we skiid over. In many cases not that bad. We talked about contingencies, like if i was going too fast and lost control i could choose to ski into the soft wall of snow on the one side rather than go over the cliff on the other. Then we spent about an hour going back to basics and perfecting my hockey stop so that i could feel safe knowing i can turn and stop on a dime. A great instructor makes all the difference.
- over the autumn i actually went to a therapist to talk about my fear of cliffs and ledges--sometimes we have childhood issues coming up. I think this helped too.

@QCskier keep at it!

 

[MrsPlow]

Ive noticed that snowboarders have that trigger motion too. Usually a clap and then they take off.

I initially read this as a way to disperse snowboarders - similar to seagulls or pigeons, a clap of the hands and they get out of the way...

 

[MrsPlow]

I read Mermer Blakelee's book this year, after reading it about it here. Highly recommended. So much good advice to think about. I particularly like that it argues against the idea of 'getting back on the horse' when it comes to runs that scare you - that the best approach can be to get slightly out of the comfort zone, then go back to doing something that's well within your abilities to build up the emotional/mental energy again before heading back to the scarier run.

 

[QCskier]

Would be helpful to know a little more. Do you mostly ski the at the same place? On the same trails? Mostly solo or with others?

I usually ski mountains that I am familiar with so for the most part I know the trails well though this season I am trying to ski tougher trails like glades and those packed with moguls. That being said I do go slower there because they are newer to me and I don't have the experience yet. I tend to ski in a group with the odd solo outing here and there. When I'm in a group I fall somewhere in the middle of the pack regarding skill and speed.

That book suggestion also sounds relevant. I'm going to make that my next read.

@Jilly I was planning to ask you about meeting up at Tremblant. I will be off over the Christmas holidays which leaves plenty of time for skiing :-)! Are you going to be up there then?

 

[sibhusky]

"Speed" is relative and situational. Why do you want to go fast? Are you having issues keeping up with friends? Because the faster you go, the sooner you're back on the chair. So unless you are pursuing vertical, keeping up with friends, or in a race course, why do you feel the need for speed? Getting to the level to ski tougher terrain requires control, not speed. Many use speed as a substitute for learning to actually ski well, so your current pace may actually be to your advantage.

There was a time I was proud of going fast, beating friends down a hill, but now the only time I like to do it is to show off my great gliding on flats. Why do I no longer crave speed? Because on a nice sunny spring day about a decade or so ago, I slammed into a tree. I certainly wasn't planning on it. Nice green trail, trying to catch my ski buddy, and suddenly some root just shaved my ski right off my boot. A few feet below was a mandatory right turn. I didn't make it. Two broken wrists, a cracked helmet, cracked goggles, sled ride, 18 month rehab. Now if I'm going fast, my head says, "Do you really want to hit a tree at this speed?". Because it's amazing how close the edge of the trail becomes once you change from a guided missile to an unguided missile.

Now if your version of fast is just to approach the average speed of a normal skier, then fine, maybe you need to pick up the pace a bit. But normally those going slow enough to be a hazard have a ton of technical flaws to work on as well. And you're saying technically you are fine. I think if that's true, experience will, over time, allow your "speed sensor" to relax. And you should just know that and allow it to happen at its own pace.

 

[liquidfeet]

^What she said.

If you are an intermediate or advanced skier, often (not always, but often) your fear is justified. There's some reason your head tells you this situation is not safe. You might not know why, though.
--Your skis may seem to have a mind of their own (meaning your boots are probably too big/loose, or the tune on your skis is dysfunctional, both of which can be fixed with $$ and the right technician).
--Your skis are not gripping the snow as expected to deliver the turn shape and line you desire (commonly your initiation or finishiation technique is lacking ... or, if you are on hard snow groomers, your skis are not sharp enough or narrow enough for the hard surface; one of these is an easy fix but the other takes time and practice and most likely an instructor's guidance).
--Your skis do what you tell them to do, their grip meets your every desire, you are skiing a line you choose, but don't want to hit a tree should a snow snake attack (just slow down, for goodness sake).

If you are a novice or beginner, your dryland copilot that watches over your balance may still be in control, telling you to lean back or in or whatever. This works on dry land when your shoes grip the surface they touch, but the things your co-pilot learned when you were a toddler don't work when skiing and they put you in danger, because they make you lose control of your skis. You need to train a new snow-co-pilot to control your balance when sliding downhill under the influence of gravity and momentum, and that co-pilot needs to take over when you're skiing. -- Or you may be using rental boots that don't fit (this you can fix if you find the right bootfitter and get boots that do fit).

Then there are the previously injured skiers who now know what rehab involves, or those habitually timid in new environments. Buy Mermer's book!

 

[marzNC]

I usually ski mountains that I am familiar with so for the most part I know the trails well though this season I am trying to ski tougher trails like glades and those packed with moguls. That being said I do go slower there because they are newer to me and I don't have the experience yet. I tend to ski in a group with the odd solo outing here and there. When I'm in a group I fall somewhere in the middle of the pack regarding skill and speed.

That book suggestion also sounds relevant. I'm going to make that my next read.

Mermer's book is well worth reading. And re-reading later on. My initial reaction was that it didn't apply to my approach to skiing. I'm not particularly a worrier and fear is not a significant issue for me on the slopes. Perhaps because I learned to ski as a teen even though I had a long hiatus. However, during and immediately after knee rehab her stories made more sense and were helpful. It also helped me understand friends who are/were cautious intermediates better.

As for skiing with friends, what helped me add mileage on ungroomed terrain for which it was a challenge to link 6+ turns was having a specific friend act as a "sweeper" for a specific section. Meaning I went first. Just knowing that someone was watching and ready to help if I got stuck or popped a binding for whatever reason meant that I was a bit more assertive and went a bit faster. So I was more likely to try linking more than 3-4 turns. Or as I improved, I was more likely to finish the entire section without a break to re-set.

During a lesson at Alta, the instructor took me and my ski buddy, Bill, to a short, steep, run in trees with deep powder. The short story is that we did the same run three times. Perhaps only a dozen turns. By the third time, I was skiing faster in that sort of terrain and snow conditions than I had ever skied before. Had a blast! Since then, I'm much more likely to ski the same trail or even the same line at least twice, if not three times, before moving on to another area. What was even more unexpected is that as Bill has gotten more into taking lessons as an advanced/expert skier, the more willing he's been to repeat a trail. When we first started skiing together, he wanted to do a different trail every lift ride.

 

[Jilly]

@QCskier - I'm heading up Sunday for the holidays. I'll PM you my cell#.

Both sibhusky, liquidfeet and I are in agreement about speed. I ski with some guys that just want to get to the bottom fast. I'm all about the dance down the mountain. When I hit the bottom it's over. So speed has it's place, but not all the time. That little voice in my head will tell if it's too fast.

 

[Serafina]

+1 on the "get some lessons" suggestion. I ski at whatever pace I find comfortable, and if that little voice in my head pipes up and says that I'm Going Kind Of Fast, Eh? I listen to it and scrub some speed right away. If it were strictly up to me (no clocks, no apps, no company) I'd say that I ski the same speed I always have...which is at my comfortable pace. However, clocks, apps, and Mr. Serafina assure me that every time I take a lesson, I wind up adding a good number of mph to my speed - it's just that my skills have ramped up, and that faster pace is now my New Comfortable pace. Last year, my "comfortable" pace clocked in at 35mph, so we're not talking going from poky to slightly less poky, it's some real speed. But it doesn't feel fast.

Also, my comfortable pace depends heavily on conditions. I'm comfortable going a lot faster on slopes when the light and visibility are good, when the snow surface is firm and predictable, when the runs aren't crowded, and when I'm feeling fresh. If there's swirling precip, or anything coating my goggles, or light that is flatter than a pancake, or piles of slow soft stuff scattered about on sheets of ice, or lots of other people, or I'm sharing the run with people who either aren't tuned into their surroundings or aren't skilled skiers, or it's the end of my ski day, that comfortable pace is going to be anything from 10 to 20 mph slower.

 

[SallyCat]

Can't say it better than SIbhusky, but I can add this:

I just took an EMT course with a friend who patrols at a big Vermont resort. We both had similar backgrounds in outdoor/wilderness first aid and were about equal in terms of our performance in class. Then we got to the trauma unit and he basically became a second instructor, coaching and tutoring us through scenarios. Why? Because ski patrol deals mostly with trauma, and they deal with a LOT of it. And there are more deaths on ski mountains that you think.

So that Spidey Sense controlling your speed is there for a reason. You don't have to hit a tree to sustain a head injury: most of them are head vs. snow. And there's a reason patrol carries traction splints: it takes a lot of force to break a femur, but they see it frequently.

 

[SkiBam]

I'm not scared of speed (my own) or steeps. What DOES scare me are other people, many of whom are skiing/boarding too fast, without control, and often unaware of the skiers' code. (I've far too often heard approaching skiers who hit or almost hit a downhill skier say "You got in my way"!) This to the point that I'm tending to limit my ski days to non-crowded ones. Non-holiday ones. Non-school-break ones. And days when I can get off the groomers. I'm glad I x-c ski and have other options.