How To Ski and How Not To

by Vivian Caulfeild

You had better, therefore, when learning it, run at a gradient which will only just allow you to keep moving smoothly (I am speaking of the gradient of your course across the slope, not of the gradient of the slope itself), otherwise, before beginning the turn, you may be inclined to stem with the lower ski in order to check the pace, and, when the lower ski is put in stemming position before the other is pushed round, there is a tendency for the weight to get too far back in the effort of starting the turn, which then misses fire. If you are bound to slow up before you begin the turn, do so by side-slipping with both skis and turning a little uphill (i.e. make a slight Christiania swing) as described in the last section, [p. 131].

On an icy and steep slope it is, of course, especially necessary to make the turn very sharply if you are not to lose control in the middle of it. You can do this by running very slowly before turning, and then quickly putting the upper ski far round, and simultaneously weighting it by means of what is practically a jump from the other ski, which comes into the air almost before the first is weighted, and is brought down parallel with it almost instantly. This is well worth practising assiduously, for it makes all the difference to the safety of a turn on very steep and icy ground.

Do not be contented until you can make a short, sharp turn (both to right and left, of course) with perfect steadiness, on the steepest slope you can find. For although on steep slopes a Telemark or Christiania swing is the best way of making an uphill turn, there is no means so reliable as the stemming turn for turning downhill, no matter how steep the slope, provided the snow is hard, or that, if soft, it is shallow. It is almost useless, though, to attempt it in deep soft snow. At the best you will probably only get half-way round with an uncomfortable effort, and then the inner ski will be forced back, and come round after the other in Telemark position, in which, as you will find later, it might just as well have started.

At the worst you may be tempted to drag yourself round with the stick in the position shown in the photograph ([Plate XXVIII.]).

This position, which, I hope, is becoming less fashionable, is the very essence of incorrectness and awkwardness, and is an infallible sign either of poor nerve or of bad teaching. Here the weight falls principally on the inside ski and the stick, instead of entirely on the outer ski, while the skis are held parallel, or nearly so, instead of in the [V] position. The general position is a crouching one with the knees bent, instead of an erect one with straight and rigid legs; except for a feeble stemming action of the outer ski, which is too much edged, the turning effect is entirely due to the drag of the stick. Those who make use of this method generally refer to it as a stemming turn, “S” turn, or Alpine curve, using either of these terms in contradistinction to the terms “Telemark” and “Christiania,” evidently under the impression that an “S” curve can only be made by stemming, and that by means of the Telemark or Christiania it is only possible to turn uphill and stop. The only correct title for this manœuvre is “stick turn.”

When I say that this method is awkward and incorrect, I do not merely mean that it is ugly, for I suppose that to the unsophisticated eye its attitude is no more ugly than the exaggerated straddle of the correct stemming position. There are two strong reasons for considering it execrable in style and utterly to be avoided.

In the first place it is a waste of energy, because it takes a considerable muscular effort to make a turn in this way, even when the snow is easy, and an exhausting one when it is not; while by substituting correct methods one can always turn without the smallest strain. The second objection to it is that it is inefficient, for by turning in this way it is impossible to make a short curve, especially in deep soft snow; and until a runner can turn sharply in snow of any quality and on a slope of any steepness (I do not say at any speed), he by no means can be said to have proper control of his skis. I do not for a moment deny that it is the easiest way of turning, in the sense that it is the one requiring the least skill. But any one who knows what can be done by correct methods, who has ordinary nerve, and who does not look on ski-running solely as a means of locomotion, for which a technique demanding the minimum of skill is the one to be preferred, will shun the “stick turn” as he would the pestilence.

Finally, let me remind you once more that in stemming—and this holds equally good whether you are turning or going straight ahead—the skis should never be quite flat; their outer edges must be lifted a little even when the snow is easy, rather more so when it is not (see [p. 83]).

To be quite accurate I ought to have said the skis must not be kept flat, for obviously they must during a downhill turn each pass through the flat position, since their edging, on the tack before the turn, is the reverse of what it is on the tack that follows it. This change of edge, as a matter of fact, constitutes one of the difficulties of the turn. The outer ski makes the change easily enough, for the outer ankle (which is bent inwards in order to start the turn) does not have to alter its position while the change of edge takes place. But the inner ski, if kept on the snow throughout the turn, is by no means easy to manage at the moment that the change has to be made. This ski remains on its inside edge until nearly the end of the turn, and if allowed to remain so for a moment too long is very apt to catch on this edge and run across the other or refuse to come round, especially on a steep slope, if (as he should have done) the runner has made a very wide straddle when facing straight downhill.

This difficulty is entirely avoided when the turn is finished by the lifting of the inner ski (the change of edge then taking place, so to speak, in the air). Indeed, although this lifting of the ski may sound somewhat acrobatic to any one who has not tried it, it is really quite the reverse. It needs far less adroitness than does a neat and steady finish of the turn with the ski kept on the snow, and is, in fact, not only the quicker and more effective, but also considerably the easier and safer of the two methods.