How To Ski and How Not To

by Vivian Caulfeild

Now the pivoting point of a ski is never behind its centre except during a downward turn, and the faster the runner is moving before the turn, and the sharper the turn is made, the more quickly this point moves to the front; the only case, I believe, in which it remains near the centre for an appreciable time, and when, therefore, the ski has to be held deliberately flat, being that of the outer ski during a “steered” Christiania swing.

In order to facilitate side-slip, therefore, the outer edge of the ski must usually be raised as it turns or, even if at first the inner edge must be raised, a change of edge must usually take place almost immediately. The flat position, in fact, must never be sustained—except, as I have said, during a Christiania “steered” swing, and even then only for a short time—it is simply a necessary incident in a change of edge.

In each figure in [Diagram 23] the dotted line with arrows shows the average direction of the ski’s course at each point, and whether, therefore, it must be edged or flat.

The foregoing remarks are an explanation of how the edging or flattening of the ski can be made to help the side-slip; the next thing is to understand how the side-slip can be made to help the ski to turn sharply.

If, when either standing still on the side of a slope or running across it in the normal, edged position, a ski is partially flattened, it will begin to slip sideways—in the first case moving directly downhill, and in the second obliquely, i.e. forwards as well as sideways.

Now the foot stands on the ski at about halfway between the front bend and the heel—that is to say, about the middle of that part of the blade which rests on the snow; and as long as the runner’s weight is placed equally on toe and heel, a ski in side-slipping will continue to point in a direction parallel to that in which it was pointing when the side-slip began.

When, however, the runner’s weight is placed on the heel, that end of the ski will side-slip faster than the other, and the farther the ski slips the more it will point uphill; while when the weight is placed on the toe the reverse will happen.

[Fig. 24] shows what will happen if a ski, when (a, b, c) at rest on, or (d, e, f) running across a slope, is made to side-slip with the runner’s weight variously distributed. In this and succeeding diagrams the blackened portions of the skis are those on which the runner’s weight is put.