One thing is certain about skiing powder: You have
to maintain roughly equal pressure on both skis. Forget this and you'll quickly
hook the inside ski.
Unfortunately, learning to ski with your skis
equally pressured is very hard. Ease into it with the following exercises and
it'll be much easier.
On easy groomed terrain.
In a straight run, hold your arms comfortably in
front of your body and make sure you feel your shins touching the tongues of
your boots.
Continuing in a straight run, "walk"
from ski to ski, then slowly tone it down until you are pressuring both
skis--equally weighted.
- Feel what it's like to weight your skis
equally.
Now make long radius turns on easy terrain while
putting more weight on the inside ski as you cross the flow line. There's no
harm in taking it to an extreme by lifting the outside ski.
Now gradually transfer the weight earlier and
earlier in the turn, until you keep your skis equally weighed throughout linked
turns.
- Remember the feeling when you get to the
powder.
Having mastered that, gradually shorten the turn
radius until you can make medium radius turns (on groomed terrain) with your
skis always weighted roughly equally.
- Be patient, as it can take days to master this
technique fully.
- Make sure you don't "bank" by
leaning your whole body into the hill--always keep your upper body facing
slightly down the hill.
- Keep slight pressure between your shins and
your boot tongues--stay in the Sweet spot!
Print this out for future
reference and remember to have fun!