fgor
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
tl;dr: hate cat tracks, gained some more confidence on cat tracks, then caught an edge and fell off a cat track, now even more scared of cat tracks and feel like i should stop skiing
So cat tracks are probably my least favourite part of skiing. My usual way to shed speed is doing wide-ish turns that are fully completed or on steeper narrow slopes I just pivot my turns more and skid my turns a lot to shed speed. Obviously the first technique doesnt work on cat tracks and so I end up just doing a series of hockey stops along the cat track to check my speed which makes me feel like an idiot/like im getting in everyones way. I had a lesson this season where we needed to go down a medium length cat track to access some blue terrain and I sort of got whipped into shape a bit better and forced to do it better (maintain speed, do short turns) and I got a little better. Still not my favourite things. I've had friends suggest to me that if it's hard to slow down then just "don't slow down then, go fast!" but I don't have the ability to quickly dodge someone who falls or stops abruptly in front of me, so I don't feel comfortable doing this.
Anyway on the weekend just been I was skiing with some people who encouraged me to go down a different run with them, which is at the end of a LONG LONG cat track that I've been avoiding because I'm scared of it. I did go down it a couple of times with them but they were much faster than me because I just went back to hockey stopping a lot. This cat track has one part of it which is flattish with a slight rise on either side of it. I noticed that every other skier was just pointing their skis straight ahead along that flat part to maintain speed to get up the rise at the end. I never feel comfortable going straight ahead on skis, I feel like i have more control if im at least slightly on an edge/angled, so i just kept hockey stopping along most of this part and then went straight ahead near the end and pushed with my poles a few times to get up the rise at the end.
The next day I was skiing alone and I decided to do that cat track/run again. After watching more people traverse in a straight line across that section of the track I thought I'd do the same thing. I don't think I picked up too much speed but I was aware of my left ski sort of wobbling/pivoting side-to-side under me. Next thing I knew that ski had caught an edge and I flipped off the side of the track. It happened very fast.
(looking back at the track - I fell to the right; skiers left. This is the boundary of the ski field so I officially fell out of the field and into the "backcountry" - there are a few signs up along that side saying "SKI AREA BOUNDARY - UNPATROLLED". I don't know if anyone skis here but it was untouched snow.)
I tumbled three or so times with my skis going over my head - luckily I had flipped off sideways so my skis stayed attached. That side had the sun on it and the snow was very soft so my fall was arrested quite quickly. Until I stopped though it was easily the scariest moment I've ever had skiing. There is nothing down there and while I was falling I was terrified that I wasn't going to stop as I didn't know if that snow was soft or icy. I seemed to sort of tumble over my shoulders so I must have slightly curled/tucked once I fell.
Once I calmed down a bit I took a couple of scenic photos from where i stopped.
Once I climbed back up it took me about an hour to gain enough confidence to get going again so I could get back down to the base area. I couldn't stop thinking about how lucky I was that I fell down the non-rocky side and that it was a sunny day which made the snow very soft. I made it back to base and spent a couple more hours recuperating until I felt ready to go and ski some more. I just did some blue slopes that I'm very familiar with and even made it down the "easy" cat track to one of them without incident, but none of it was any fun anymore and I just felt like i wanted to be off the field. I then hung out in the cafe for about another hour until the rest of the people I had carpooled with wanted to leave.
I just feel like an idiot. No one else seems to have this many issues with cat tracks and I regularly see people who don't seem to be that good at skiing going along them with no issues (including this scary one). I'd have thought that just pointing my skis straight ahead would be about the most foolproof thing there is - I don't know why my ski was wobbling/pivoting side-to-side which caused it to catch an edge. I suppose it could be a technique thing but then if it's that hard why isn't everyone else going around falling over while going in a straight line? If it is a technique thing then that would mean that everyone else is intuitively doing things right while I'm doing things wrong. :/ I don't know if I just lack some sort of basic coordination? I doubt it's my skis either as they're pretty new (2020) and haven't had any damage except topsheet. Zero work done on them except wax and maybe 8-10 days on them. I don't really know why this happened but it just makes me feel like there's something wrong with me and I shouldn't be skiing.
Advice?
So cat tracks are probably my least favourite part of skiing. My usual way to shed speed is doing wide-ish turns that are fully completed or on steeper narrow slopes I just pivot my turns more and skid my turns a lot to shed speed. Obviously the first technique doesnt work on cat tracks and so I end up just doing a series of hockey stops along the cat track to check my speed which makes me feel like an idiot/like im getting in everyones way. I had a lesson this season where we needed to go down a medium length cat track to access some blue terrain and I sort of got whipped into shape a bit better and forced to do it better (maintain speed, do short turns) and I got a little better. Still not my favourite things. I've had friends suggest to me that if it's hard to slow down then just "don't slow down then, go fast!" but I don't have the ability to quickly dodge someone who falls or stops abruptly in front of me, so I don't feel comfortable doing this.
Anyway on the weekend just been I was skiing with some people who encouraged me to go down a different run with them, which is at the end of a LONG LONG cat track that I've been avoiding because I'm scared of it. I did go down it a couple of times with them but they were much faster than me because I just went back to hockey stopping a lot. This cat track has one part of it which is flattish with a slight rise on either side of it. I noticed that every other skier was just pointing their skis straight ahead along that flat part to maintain speed to get up the rise at the end. I never feel comfortable going straight ahead on skis, I feel like i have more control if im at least slightly on an edge/angled, so i just kept hockey stopping along most of this part and then went straight ahead near the end and pushed with my poles a few times to get up the rise at the end.
The next day I was skiing alone and I decided to do that cat track/run again. After watching more people traverse in a straight line across that section of the track I thought I'd do the same thing. I don't think I picked up too much speed but I was aware of my left ski sort of wobbling/pivoting side-to-side under me. Next thing I knew that ski had caught an edge and I flipped off the side of the track. It happened very fast.
(looking back at the track - I fell to the right; skiers left. This is the boundary of the ski field so I officially fell out of the field and into the "backcountry" - there are a few signs up along that side saying "SKI AREA BOUNDARY - UNPATROLLED". I don't know if anyone skis here but it was untouched snow.)
I tumbled three or so times with my skis going over my head - luckily I had flipped off sideways so my skis stayed attached. That side had the sun on it and the snow was very soft so my fall was arrested quite quickly. Until I stopped though it was easily the scariest moment I've ever had skiing. There is nothing down there and while I was falling I was terrified that I wasn't going to stop as I didn't know if that snow was soft or icy. I seemed to sort of tumble over my shoulders so I must have slightly curled/tucked once I fell.
Once I calmed down a bit I took a couple of scenic photos from where i stopped.
Once I climbed back up it took me about an hour to gain enough confidence to get going again so I could get back down to the base area. I couldn't stop thinking about how lucky I was that I fell down the non-rocky side and that it was a sunny day which made the snow very soft. I made it back to base and spent a couple more hours recuperating until I felt ready to go and ski some more. I just did some blue slopes that I'm very familiar with and even made it down the "easy" cat track to one of them without incident, but none of it was any fun anymore and I just felt like i wanted to be off the field. I then hung out in the cafe for about another hour until the rest of the people I had carpooled with wanted to leave.
I just feel like an idiot. No one else seems to have this many issues with cat tracks and I regularly see people who don't seem to be that good at skiing going along them with no issues (including this scary one). I'd have thought that just pointing my skis straight ahead would be about the most foolproof thing there is - I don't know why my ski was wobbling/pivoting side-to-side which caused it to catch an edge. I suppose it could be a technique thing but then if it's that hard why isn't everyone else going around falling over while going in a straight line? If it is a technique thing then that would mean that everyone else is intuitively doing things right while I'm doing things wrong. :/ I don't know if I just lack some sort of basic coordination? I doubt it's my skis either as they're pretty new (2020) and haven't had any damage except topsheet. Zero work done on them except wax and maybe 8-10 days on them. I don't really know why this happened but it just makes me feel like there's something wrong with me and I shouldn't be skiing.
Advice?