David P. Mitchell - Skiing Made Easy

SKIING MADE EASY

Complete beginner to parallel turns

By David P Mitchell

Copyright 2018-20 David P Mitchell

Text and images

All rights reserved

To Ruth, Geoff, Lucy, & Nathan

This is intended as a practical guide to learning to ski, from complete beginner to parallel turns. Its based on many happy seasons of ski teaching in Val Thorens, during which time Ive seen how people learn and progress - what helps and what doesnt.

I learnt to ski as an adult, and trained to be a ski instructor with BASI (the British Association of Snowsport Instructors). Ive done all my ski teaching at the ESF (Ecole du Ski Francais) in Val Thorens.

The first and most important reason is because it looks (and is) great fun.

There are lots of other good reasons. It could be that its a way to explore beautiful snow-covered mountains, or that you have a competitive spirit and you want to go faster than your brother, sister, or friend. Perhaps youd like to be included on a work trip, or accompany a partner who is a keen skier. Thats fine, as long as you also end up enjoying it.

The book starts with a chapter about putting on your boots and skis, then goes through a beginners progression from snowplough to parallel turns.

For some of the techniques described, I suggest relevant exercises that can be used to develop and improve your skills.

Common faults sections appear once or more in each chapter. In these sections, I identify mistakes which are often made, and suggest ways of correcting them.

As well as the main content in each chapter, theres extra information under by the way sub-headings. Examples include carrying your skis, and using a chairlift.

The skier performing most of the demonstrations in this book is Marina Michaud, who grew up in Val Thorens, and trained with the Ski Club here. She has skied competitively, and is now a ski instructor in Val Thorens; she also has a University diploma in sign language, and her ski clients include skiers who are deaf or hard of hearing.

I hope you find this book useful, and more importantly, that you have great fun skiing and do it as often as possible.

The photos are, of course, a very important part of this book. It would be hard to follow the ideas and techniques explained, without also seeing them demonstrated.

Images are compressed as part of the process of creating an ebook. Whilst the pictures in the book itself should be adequate, if you would prefer to see larger and higher resolution pictures, you can find them in a photo gallery on my website ValThorensGuide.co.uk Skiing Made Easy photo gallery.

CHAPTER ONE: PUTTING ON YOUR BOOTS AND SKIS

I f youre new to skiing , the equipment you have to wear will seem foreign at first, but youll soon get used to it.

W hether youre buying or renting ski boots, get them from a reputable shop, to make sure that they fit well. Ill-fitting boots and painful feet are miserable.

Wear just one pair of socks. They can be thick ski/outdoor socks, or a normal pair of thin (but long) socks. Pull them up, so there are no rolls or creases in them, as anything that isnt smooth can be painful once inside ski boots.

Figure 1: Pulling the tongue of the boot forward

P ull the tongue of the boot forward, and slide your foot inside. Then push the tongue back into place, making sure it goes inside the two flaps either side, not outside them.

Figure 2: getting the tongue of the boot in the right position

D o up the buckles. The lower buckles, holding your foot in place, should be reasonably tight, so that when you make movements with your foot and leg, they transfer to the skis. The higher buckles, holding your shin in place, should be loose enough to allow some ankle flex, but not so loose that your shins can collapse forward.

Do up the Velcro strip at the top, known as the power strap, then put the elasticated cuff of your ski trousers over the boots.

Common faults: the elastic at the bottom of your ski trousers

The elastic at the bottom of your ski trousers goes outside the ski boot. Its purpose is to stop snow going into the boots in the unlikely (!) event of a fall. If you make the mistake of putting the elastic inside your ski boots, after a while it will probably hurt.

Figure 3: trouser elastic inside and outside the boot

W hen the elastic is safely outside your boots, you can pull the bottom of your ski trousers over it, for a professional look.

Figure 4: ski trouser leg pulled down over the boot

W hen you get outside onto the snow, put your skis down on level ground. Take a ski pole in each hand for balance, and stand with one foot in between your two skis, and the other lifted ready to put into your ski binding.

Sometimes, snow sticks to the bottom of a ski boot. This happens particularly when theres fresh, recently-fallen snow. It should be removed before putting the ski on. To do this, scrape the underneath of your boot on the front of the ski binding. Try to move your boot forwards and backwards over the binding, so as to scrape off all the snow from the whole sole.

Remember to scrape, not stamp.

Figure 5: scraping (in this case, theoretical) snow from the sole of the boot

S ome people tap their boot with a ski pole to try to remove the snow, but thats ineffective for all but the loosest snow.

If theres stubborn snow or ice on the sole of your boot, you might need to get a friend to hit the underneath of your boot with their pole.

Once the sole of your boot is snow-free, you can put your ski on. The front of the boot goes in first the little ledge that sticks out from the front of the boot fits into the front of the binding.

Figure 6: putting the front of the boot into the front of the binding

T hen make sure the heel is in the right place, and press it down firmly. (You dont need to stamp). As you push the heel down, the back of the binding will spring up. Thats it, youre in!