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Long weekend in Innsbruck coming up. Haven't skied in 30 years and back then was in early stages of parallel. Worth renting some gear for the afternoon and playing on the beginner slopes, or just an object lesson in frustration? Don't think worth having lessons as can't see me skiing regularly in future. Or should I just accept reality and mince about in a toboggan?
Yes,go for it .
What's the worst that could happen?
Book a lesson for the morning and have some fun
Settle down with a few pints, a nice view, and your Saturday cryptic of choice. Let the other Dads tear their cruciate ligaments out on the slopes.
If you've skied before I'm sure you'l be fine. It's how comfortable you'll be on snow that will probably make more difference. As in if it starts to make you worry you'll probably tense up. Stay relaxed and you'll be fine.
Now I'm not a skier, I snowboard. But I've tried skiing and got down the slopes OK. Managed to do a black run. That was almost entirely to the fact that I was used to moving on snow, not because I had any technique.
You'll find it much easier than 30 years ago; skis are much shorter and have a deep sidecut meaning you only have to edge them and they will turn. The old business of choosing a spot, pole planting and un-weighting your long planks has mostly been forgotten.
Some of the best fun I have had in the Alps was when me and Mrs WF rented 2 toboggans for the afternoon and took them up on the lift. Much more fun that skiing 🙂
book a quick lesson on teh dry slope before you go and a quick lesson on teh first morning and you should be able to mince down the greens/blues. especially if yoy have done it before.
Judging from the influx of people at the indoor slope I would say it varies massively. Complete mayhem this time of year as people try and get some practice in before holidays and thats generally a year. Go for the toboggans and beer. Or get a snowboard and just play on that for the afternoon.
Cheers all,
The fact that most are positive about the proposition make it worth looking into. Probably should have mentioned I'll be 11 months post spinal surgery so I'll be taking it very very easy whatever I do. Sudoku in the bar might indeed be wiser!
Gotta love Jerry of the day. Why do skiers do pole plants anyway? I had a go and completely failed to see the point of it.
Honestly Jerry of the Day is the best thing on the internet. The amount of times i've cried with laughter.... well i've lost count. It's the #hashtags. pure gold
Gotta love Jerry of the day. Why do skiers do pole plants anyway? I had a go and completely failed to see the point of it.
Perhaps you were doing it wrong. Like those ramblers with their trekking poles.
Pole plants - timing, balance, separation mainly. If you're not using your poles I would be as bold to suggest you aren't skiing very well on a technical level or you're a patroller. (I'm an instructor fwiw)
EDIT: Jerry of the day is always gold.
My very limited efforts at skiing certainly had no technique involved whatsoever. I just sort of got on with it but managed OK. I couldn't see what pole plants were for or why they were necessary, hence the curiosity.
There’s certainly not much point to the pole plants in that Jerryoftheday vid - the skier has horrible (carving?) technique generally, but he’s already changed edges when the pole gets stabbed into the snow as an afterthought. Ideally, pole plants involve little or no vertical movement in the arm, and don’t involve much more than a tap of the pole on the snow as you flex and extend ankles, knees and hips into and through the turn. Guy in the vid looked like he was trying to spear fish 🙂
Trouble with going for a dry slope lesson is you might remember the skiddy way of turning you had all those years ago, whereas with modern skis you can just transfer your weight and let the ski do the work of turning (to a large extent).
So if you skied ok before and have reasonable balance I would prefer to book a short lesson there at the start.
When I learnt to ski on wooden skis with cable binding and leather boots you needed a firm pole plant to unweight and initiate the turn - we'd come rattling down the Tiger at Glenshee bouncing over rocks and ice trying to find a patch of snow, slush or heather to turn on.
Going to the Alps for the first time was a revelation - I went to hire some Dynastar Omesoft skis for the moguls and the tech in the ski shop said it was very icy - I explained "Je suis Ecossai", he just laughed and waved me on my way.
Yes, "Just like riding a bike". Relax, keep your knees flexed to absorb bumps, keep your weight over the centre of the skis, lean into the corner but lean the skis a bit more than your body, look where you want to go not where the skis are pointing, don't rush the turn or you'll skid,...etc. It's not exact, but there's a lot in common.
The pole plant was traditionally a way to help you position yourself for the turn and then initiate it. You planted the pole not with arm movement but by flexing your whole body downwards, which then enabled you to bounce up, taking the weight off the skis and allowing you to flip them onto the opposite edge. Carving skis don't need the same degree of unweighting, but I still find the concept of making a platform with the pole and rebounding off it is useful.
As ditch_jockey says, the guy in the video planted his pole way too late, and I suspect took the weight off his right ski by doing so, resulting in it losing grip and hitting the left ski (difficult to see exactly) and crossing the tips.
Why do skiers do pole plants anyway?
It's a historical thing:
1:12 for the short of time.
😉
the guy in the video planted his pole way too late, and I suspect took the weight off his right ski by doing so, resulting in it losing grip and hitting the left ski (difficult to see exactly) and crossing the tips
Brilliant isn’t it!
I've just had a lesson where we were taught to pole plant. It's not actually stabbing the pole into the snow, its just the act which encourages you to move the body forward and do an arc of a turn, not a quick 'omg I've got to get round as fast as possible'. It encourages arms forward and not flailing the sticks around or dragging them.
If the terrain is steep and with slight moguls, I will pole plant even more.
I would go for a refresher lesson and tell the ski instructor to make it as much fun as possible as you have little time.
Just wondering about this myself... off skiing/boarding next week after a 13yr hiatus so hopefully my muscle memory will still work ;0)
Identical.
https://singletrackmag.com/snow/2019/01/ski-bike-101-biker-or-boarder-how-about-a-bit-of-both/
TurnerGuy - you can carve on Dendix same as snow. It’s just harder.
Yep...every year I get to the top of the first lift and stand at the start of the first run of the holiday and can't remember how to ski...but get going and it just happens.
You’ll remember some of it. Just not all.
I returned to skiing after a 15 year break. After an hour or so I was skiing as rubbish as I always had.
Going to Innsbruck, you say? Forget the skiing, you need to beat your Zwift time up the hilly course in real life! 😈
After a ten year break, I found it did come back pretty quickly. An hour's private lesson made a huge difference.
Pole planting makes your shoulder turn.
I can ski without poles but I am missing something.
Yes - My mate ski’s just as well as he rides a bike after a 20 year absence. He’s currently in Thonon hospital with an open fracture of the tibia and knee after just 2hrs on the slopes.