Good group with a wide variation of technique but all with a common spirit and great attitude.
The transceiver check found one not switched on and then we went down “Mattis” off piste to check everyone out for planning the itinerary. Basically, Mattis is safe and comes out after a relatively short descent onto a piste. The snow was packed and breakable but everyone handled it well and there would only be improved conditions higher up on the North facing slopes.
Altogether we covered Mattis, then off-piste from the top of the Laisinant chair to the Signal, then the Grand Vallon and then Col Pers. The slopes were practically empty and conditions were even better than expected. Great company and great skiing!
Derin’s first ever off-piste experience! The crashes are all a perfectly normal part of it. Her use of dynamics – seen when inclining in carving – is what enables her to cope without any previous experience. The deep snow causes the “lifting up” power of the ski to be amplified so even more motion of the centre of mass to the inside of the turn is required – this takes experience to adjust correctly.
Close up of the snow shows how the fractal nature makes it indistinguishable from mountains.
Today’s Giant Slalom race was cancelled due to a large and unexpected dump of snow. Once visibility improved we exploited the opportunity for some off piste skiing – though nothing too adventurous. The video contains a clip of people negotiating Pisteur’s Couloir in Val d’Isere – that’s not us!
Off Piste exposes certain weaknesses in skiing technique and provides an opportunity to make progress… while really enjoying the mountain!
Leonie hadn’t skied since last summer so we had a warm up period for her to find her feet. On piste the snow was excellent quality and there was a good covering of fresh snow available off piste – with good visibility.
While warming up I watched Leonie for a while and decided that her dynamics were too limited – this being the key issue to improve – but fully recognising that trying to change this would certainly uncover other issues that might be the underlying cause.
Luke meanwhile was using dynamics generally well – happily lobbing his body into each turn – but still not coming over his downhill ski
Meanwhile the off piste was too inviting so we went into it almost immediately to take advantage of it being light and fresh. Skis can move sideways in this snow so the pivot can be exploited – though dynamics, particularly coming over the downhill ski – is the most important skill to have.
It’s hard to outline the day because we king of jumped around several different issues, adapting to requirements. There were a few key issues that cropped up however…
Leonie – pulling the ski front into the turn (not twisting)
Luke – being able to bend the knee and angulate while holding the foot and ankle extended
Both – feeling and using the fronts of the skis due to angulation
Both – moving cleanly over the ski fronts to complete a turn instead of over the backs of the skis
The overall goal of the exercises we carried out was to feel the front of the ski working – to pull it inwards in front of the body and feel pressure on it. To this effect we used pivoting, skiing backwards, static exercises for hi angulation , extreme leaning forwards and finally putting it into practice on a long run down the Face in poor visibility after 5pm. Good results and some clear changes being made!
Derin gets to play in the deep snow for a while – then in turn she agrees to work hard on learning technique and to ski hard.
Advanced Dynamics
Yesterday I observed that despite pulling her legs together actively Derin could not stop her legs from spreading apart. The reason for this is that the lower leg is always being used as a platform to block the end of the turn and so it is kept downhill of the body (as a support) until the next turn is well and truly started – sometimes generating a form of snowplough unintentionally.
The solution for this issue is to work on advanced dynamics – which means dealing directly with how the body gets itself out of a turn. Derin was already very comfortable with the Magic Wall aspect of dynamics at the start of a turn – but we had not looked at the end of the turn. Like a motorbike making any turn it has to come back up and out of the turn at the end – and skiing is no different. The key to achieving this it to literally come out of the turn over the top of the lower ski while standing on it.
We started the session by revising pivoting from the top ski only. After a break from that (when the off piste was filmed) we then repeated the pivoting but from the lower ski only – which is far harder as you go into the new turn and complete it on the downhill ski only (the “wrong” ski for a turn).
This new pivoting action over the downhill ski trains the skier to come over the top of the front of that ski – with the support provided from the ski pole planted in the snow. The pivot is executed from a sideslip and no forward motion.
Derin was then asked to use the same motion over the ski – weight on that leg – while also traveling forwards – so that the movement of the body would become a part of the dynamics (only for a moment to make the turn transition – not the entire turn as in the pivot). Refining this she was told to properly complete each turn to build up enough pressure from the ski so that it would lift her up over the ski naturally (last video clip). In the video it can be clearly seen how this automatically narrows her stance – which was the objective for today.
More importantly, Derin could feel the difference in her skiing and how this produces flow. She was able to ski fast behind me and in control at all times.
Today was the first clear sky, sunny day this year and since the storms of the century began. We know there has been no global warming for the past 18 years but with sunspot activity now completely switched off it’s perhaps not much of a mystery why we have plunged into the deep freeze from hell – or rather the “skier’s paradise”. The last time this happened was in the 1970s when the official ongoing environmental scare was “global cooling” – blamed on the exact same industrial pollution that the same people now attribute “anthropogenic global warming” to – but choose to obfuscate under the current term “Climate Change”. Val d’Isère village was hit by a huge avalanche that killed 77 people in one building. Today the avalanche risk was equally high but most people appeared oblivious to that fact – with groups skiing the Face du Charvet even though the lower south facing parts (exposed to greater temperature variations) had already avalanched in parts.
We began our off-piste itinerary for today by skiing the Cairn – not the couloir at the top were it regularly avalanches next to the rocks – just the main open slope. The snow proved to be skiable though heavy and worked by the wind and moisture. Providing snow isn’t crusted by melting and freezing then fresh tracks are always fun and challenging and this was the case throughout the day. Our second run was the Tour du Charvet by the skier’s left – giving a long steep descent into the valley below. This area only usually avalanches when it warms up – as in the Springtime – and the wind passes through there without trapping slab accumulations. There were no traces of avalanche in the area. Passing through the bottom of the gorge you could see that all of the steep faces on the Arcelle area had avalanched and the Cugnai sector was still closed to access. I’d hoped for the opening of the Cugnai but that forced a change of plan. Likewise the North East facing Parc à Moutons face had completely collapsed and the North facing area above the Laisinant couloir had avalanched leaving a fracture line 3.5m thick and destroying the forest below. We skied our third off piste run down to intersect the “L” corridor just off the shoulder below the Parc à Moutons chairlift – taking the Laisinant chairlift back up to access the Le Fornet sector. The run down to the Signal from this chair was supposed to be off-piste but it was totally ski pisted. Unfortunately the group had a lunch meeting at 2pm to make at Les Brevieres – the complete opposite side of the planet – ultra bad planning whoever dreamed that one up! The lunch caveat ensured that we could not make it up to the glacier and the Signal sector access was also still closed. I learned later in the day that Col Pers was excellent and the gorge fully skiable – the river being covered early on for the first time in decades. Our fourth proper off-piste route would begin with a high traverse from the top of the Signal chair (Pyramides Express) – though staying below the fracture line of the avalanche on the steep face that had to be crossed. This allowed us to ski through the Grand Vallon and then over the shoulder to the main face above the Isère – were once again the exposed area tends not to accumulate slabs – but makes for a great descent though the steepest pitches are best avoided when uncertain (as we did in this case). The final run was with Ozhan alone – climbing up from the Borsat chairlift and skiing down the North face. This was probably the least tracked snow of the day and it is a good long run which we did in two parts – both filmed. Arriving at our rendezvous at the the top of the Toviere we were only 5 minutes later than predicted. All of the above was carried out with the understanding that the entire snowpack is sitting on a base layer of hoar frosted ball bearings – caused by a month long first layer of snow exposed to prolonged temperatures reaching minus 30 degrees Celsius. Nobody really knows how the snow pack is going to behave so prudence is essential. Everyone was equipped with airbags, transceivers, shovels and probes – but one main key is not to ski in any areas where an avalanche can have obviously disastrous consequences – most avalanches spread out and the real danger is in areas where this is prevented (fills up a hole or hollow) or it sweeps over rocks or is confined to a couloir.
Omer just needs to learn how to turn – otherwise the waterskiing on the tails was impressive! Not bad for a first day off-piste.
Haluk was protecting tender back joints – not ideal in this sort of snow – so I didn’t include any video for him as this is not his normal skiing.
Refik uses the whole ski but there is a problem with how the dynamics and angulation are being used - leading to rotation and being unable to comfortably control the movement of the centre of mass through the end of the turns. The snow was very tricky so that really exposes those sort of issues – as would slalom in a race course. To sort this out would require a general restructuring of the understanding of “dynamics”, timing, angulation and the mechanical pivoting action of the ski (eliminating “steering” and torque being applied to the skis). The skiing is very strong and the attitude is excellent – the technical problems are ‘learned” from conventional teaching – which is largely BS!
Ozhan – like Refik is enjoying his skiing and the challenges of tricky snow conditions. A significant part of this is just the joy of being out in nature. The reason Ozhan gets stuck back on the tails a lot is because he pushing the skis outwards to get them below him – missing the first part of the turn. This is due to not being trained to pull the skis inwards and to use dynamics – moving only the centre of mass to drive and guide everything. Once again there is a great attitude and some relevant technical input could go a long way… (there was no time for any of that today)
Despite the enormous snowfall there was no powder snow to ski. Either the snow was packed densely by the wind or it was heavy with moisture – probably because it came from the South. Avalanche risk was still at 4 (out of 5) and the reality is that nobody knows how the snowpack will behave. We could only safely ski on off-piste slopes that were directly above pistes so that they were properly dynamited and controlled – or where the gradient was relatively moderate.
Timothy skied very well on his short slalom skis. It appears that they simply don’t make off-piste skis for adolescents. The reality was however that with his light body weight he practically remained on the surface of the dense snow even on relatively narrow skis. Timothy never quite managed to get off the backs of his ski boots and skis but he did manage a great job of “pulling inwards” with the ski fronts instead of pushing the tails out. He already had good dynamics (as he has always been taught this) but now he has overcome the emotional impulse to push the skis outwards. I know the technical work we have done – even just a few days from year to year - is allowing him to ski at a far more advanced level than most people ever manage – so I hope he takes more of an interest in skiing in future because he really seems to enjoy it and he is very capable.
Victor was working steadily on the technical issues from a few days previously – but commented early on that his leg muscles (quadriceps) were burning. This indicates that he was getting back in the ski boots. In Victor’s case the thing that would permit him to stay more on the fronts of the skis would be improved hip angulation – sinking deeper into the turn with it – and consequently reducing upper body rotation. This would also have to be combined with coming cleanly over the front of the lower ski to exit the turn – then immediately standing on the upper ski to create pressure – but not by trying to edge it (doing so is more appropriate for racing). We are largely exploiting the pivot actions of the skis even with significant dynamics – not a carving action that leads to “freeride” off-piste. The “pulling in” of the fronts feels remarkably like the conventional “steering” that people are taught to do by twisting the skis into the turn – but it is absolutely NOT steering or applying a torque to the skis. You are creating a sideways “pull” or a degree of sideslip into the turn and this is set up during the exit of one turn in anticipation of the next turn. Victor got it working on the last run of the day on which we found some demanding off-piste conditions – confirming that this did not tire his quadriceps.
