Up to this point you have been practising on moderate slopes only, but it is on steep slopes that you will generally have to use the downhill stemming turn, and it is on steep slopes that you should practise it the instant that you can do it neatly on a gentle one.
You will then find a difficulty that has probably not bothered you much so far. On a steep slope, as you begin to turn downhill, the increase of speed is sudden and considerable, and if you do not compensate for this by throwing the weight more and more forwards, the skis will shoot from under you, and you will sit down.
Don’t, however, begin leaning downhill too soon, while still facing across the slope, for that will throw the weight on to the inside (lower) ski. Simply lean as far forwards over the front of your skis as possible, so that as they turn downhill your weight will be well over them.
The difficulty of leaning forward sufficiently on a steep slope is partly due to the tendency to stand with the weight vertically above the feet, as one would do when walking downhill. The very best plan for overcoming this difficulty, and one which will make it infinitely easier for you to perform the turn quickly and correctly, is to keep your eyes fixed on the ground at your feet while you are turning, and to imagine that it is almost or quite level. You will then naturally hold yourself at right angles to the slope no matter how steep that may be.
You will find this downhill turn of very little practical use on a steep slope until you can make it quite shortly and sharply; for if you make a long curve, the pace increases so much in the middle of it that you are almost sure to lose control, and fail to finish the turn, even if you do not fall down.
The reason why to lift round the inner ski at the middle of the turn is safer than to keep it on the snow throughout is because the curve is thus considerably shortened.
The act of suddenly throwing yourself very far forward over the front of your skis as you face downhill will make them hang back a little for an instant—all the more so for the fact that at this point the stemming action of both is at its maximum—and at this moment it is easy to give a push with, and then to lift round, the inner ski.
Be careful, in lifting the ski round, to bring it down again exactly parallel to the outer ski; for the inner one, if it comes down pointing towards the outer one, will instantly run across it and upset you; while if pointing away, it will run uphill and draw your feet apart with a jerk that will probably have the same result.
Although, as I have said, you should turn the body a little in throwing the weight outwards, it is no use attempting to lean or swing it the way you want to go. You must simply throw it forwards and outwards—that is, rather away from where you want to go. If you lean the way you want to go you will simply put weight on the inner ski, which will then either trip you up or make you run away straight downhill instead of finishing the turn. Indeed, paradoxical as it may sound, you should, in a sense, try not to turn; manœuvre your skis as I have directed, and try to keep a straight course, turning sideways as you do so, and you will probably come round without difficulty.
The faster you are running at the moment of beginning the turn, the more difficulty you will at first have in making it.