Fig. 33.—Uphill stemming turn to left.
The blackened parts are those which should be weighted.
Provided the inner ski is brought parallel to the outer one, it does not matter if it comes to the snow again before the latter has skidded round to right angles, for then the turn can be finished with both skis side-slipping together—that is to say, the turn can begin as a stemming turn and finish as a Christiania, a most useful combination which is beginning to be known by the dreadful name “Stemmiania,” which I only quote in order to record my dislike for it.
This way of making the turn is practically instantaneous, and is so convenient that when you have once learnt it you will hardly ever use the one I described first. By means of it you can stop suddenly when moving at a very fair rate, especially if you stem hard with both skis well edged inwards just before making the turn.
Practise this movement without skis at first, and then at a standstill with skis, on the most slippery snow you can find, trying to make the outer ski spin right round to right angles.
These uphill stemming turns enable you to stop yourself wherever the quality of the snow and the gradient allow you to hold the double-stemming position while running straight downhill. It is no use attempting to make them on very steep slopes or in snow into which the skis sink deeply; in either of these cases you will have to stop yourself by means of the Telemark or Christiania swings, described later.
I need hardly say that if you merely wish to alter your course and not to stop yourself, you can finish the turn at any point. You either wait until the outer, weighted ski is pointing in the direction you want to go, and then bring the other ski parallel to it in the normal position and run on at full speed; or, if you still wish to brake, you turn rather farther until the inner ski is in line with your intended course, and then shift the weight partly or entirely to that one and run on stemming.
Downhill Turn to the Left.—A turn made in a downward direction in order to join one tack to another when descending a hill in zigzags is often called an “S” turn, on account of the shape of the track left by a number of these turns made in alternate directions (Plates [XXVI.], [XXXIII.], [XLII.]).
Any downhill turn, therefore, whether made by the stemming turn or by any other means, can be called an “S” turn. A good many people, however, having never seen a downhill turn made by any other means than the stemming turn—or at least the awkward manœuvre which the average runner imagines to be the stemming turn—believe “S” turn and stemming turn to be synonymous.
As will be seen later on, a downhill or “S” turn can quite well be made by means of the Telemark or Christiania swings, the “S” having no reference whatever to stemming.