I love XC skiing. I live around 2 hours from royal gorge and am pretty stoked about the snow on its way. Every year when I get up there though, I realized that I am pretty bad on the downhills. I know some of you are pretty good at this, so help me out. I ski classic style. I can’t really control my speed very well or turn while going fast. So much harder than downhill skiing where you can dig your heals in easily. What should I be trying to do to get teh hang of it?
very important rules:
1)keep your hands out front 2) get low and keep a “soft” knee 3) use the hands to “steer” where you want to go 4)small step turns 5)lastly, point’em and pray
Kurt
alpina/madshus xc ski team.
Take up skate sking! The skis are more controlable since they are shorter and are single camber (they flex more like and alpine ski). The boots help on the downhills since they are stiffer and have more ankle support. You can rip the downhills on skate gear! And it is a better workout and just plain more fun! CST
My best advise is to go to a beginner downhill area and practice, practice, practice your turns on their wide open shallow slopes. You’ll fall a lot but the snow will be deeper and softer than at a xc area. Start with stem-cristies then move into unweighting for parallel turns. Their will be a lot more sliding since you’ll not have metal edges, but once you get the feel you can even make hockey stops on narrow trails. With all my injuries recently I gave away all my ski gear. Now that the snow is flying in New York I’m really missing it. Good luck remember to practice, practice, practice!
first off…continue to classic ski! if you can classic well, skating will be easy! to many of my tri friends want to jump right onto skate stuff. they never learn basic body position and weight transfer.
second, sweeney is right. practice a lot. a alpine hill is nice as there is usually a nice run out. remember with classic skis, you have to keep the pressure “sort of” on your heals on the descents to disengage the kick zone.
off to do a 3 hour classic ski myself.
Kurt
alpina/madshus xc ski team
It’s one thing to learn the techniques and practice as already suggested, and another to execute them when you hit your own internal speed limit. Many skiers with good technique become timid and lock-up and essentailly stop skiing, resulting in being taken for a ride. Until I realized this about myself, I was frustrated and could never handle twisting downhills as well as I thought I should.
Watch good skiers take downhills. Note their relaxed, soft posture and dynamic footwork. Build your skills and confidence on hills you can handle and then look for opportunities to gradually push beyond your speed limit with an agressive, confident mindset.
Good advice here; I’d add that part of the challenge is the varied terrain and snow conditions you’ll find at a place like the Gorge. Exposed sunny trails will have much different snow consistency than the trails in under the trees or on the east and north facing trails.
So, spend some time out on the trail system and find a downhill that is a little bit of a challenge for you and do some repeats (super aerobic workout too) until you have some confidence. I know a lot of folks get wigged out by the constraining nature of an XC trail (narrow, with two way traffic, and trees/cliffs on either side). The bunny hill doesn’t train for that but experience out on the trails does.
Many years ago an instructor taught me that is I position my body like I’m carrying a tray of full water goblets and I don’t want to spill them it will better balance my core for the downhill portion of the hills. I’ve never forgotten that tip and it’s worked wonders for me.
I’m excited about the snow finally coming to the Sierra myself. I mostly ski at TDXC because the gouge is too darn expensive to ski every day. For the cost of 9 trail passes at RG I got a season pass at Tahoe Donner. The people at TD are also way more relaxed and not so snooty.
I’m breakin out the wax bench this weekend and tuning em up for next week. Let the fun, and base training for spring races, begin!. Once you have confidence, sign up fot the Great Ski Race. http://www.thegreatskirace.com/ This year is the 30th anniversery and it should be a blast. 30K (18.34 Miles) from Tahoe City XC to Truckee. You have to have your decending skills honed but it’s a really great day out. I dod it in 1:47 last year and I’m looking for sub 1:30 this year.
Cheers, Karma