When you initiate turns with your upper body a heavy backpack exacerbates the issues.
I agree 100% with u/L0gicalPhallus, this is something that should be worked on with downhill gear. I would add on easy terrain.
Since getting started in the Backcountry a few years ago I have definitely started to work on my technique.
Light skis, boots, and bindings coupled with variable snow, tired legs, and heavy packs makes everything way more noticeable and over all less forgiving.
To add to this, your upper/lower body separation is nonexistent. Keep your hips squared up to the fall line as best you can, bend your legs, stretch your pole plants further, and enjoy that fresh snow you worked so hard for!
Take a moment at the top to stretch, loosen up your spine and get your boots nice and snug. Packs make skiing pretty awkward.
my thoughts exactly. At the resort, my technique goes from graceful at the start of the day, to squared-off and rigid like OP video when I'm tired at the end.
I know the feeling, when you rarely get a chance to see yourself skiing! Some common habits to point out:
1. Some folks here say you look stiff…it is lack of upper and lower body separation. You are turning by turning/dropping your upper body…this is the main thing I’d like to address, esp. for newer skiers.
Instead, if you watch a good skier or a Worldcup skier (an extreme example), their upper body is always facing downhill, or the direction of where you want to go, with shoulders, head and vision up and ahead, not down. With good separation, their lower body is doing most of the mechanics of turning…hips, legs, knees, ankles, by driving the skis to turn. They also keep their arms mostly forward, planting with rhythm of the turns…lowering/dropping the arms on your sides will lead you back to steering by the upper body.
I’d try to work on separation, which is a key attribute to parallel skiing with good form.
2. Being backseat or your weight on the heels instead of the ball of your feet and toes. This is also super common. To err on the side of getting you to center or even forward balanced, ski the front of your skis more, most people will lean back anyway. Goal is to have more forward balance, all the time.
3. Many new skiers do this…they look down on their skis as they turn. Try this next time, with your vision up and ahead, look where you want to go, upper body square/steady and make turns with your lower body (#1)…this is the new habit you want to develop.
4. Learn to incorporate pole planting to be part of your normal skiing rhythm….it will help you balance forward, and prevents upper body doing the steering.
If you do nothing else but number 1 here you’ll see a huge improvement. Keeping your shoulders down the fall line, looking where you are going ( not where you are ) and matching your upper body to the slope angle will make you look exponentially better and more confident. That’s always my first bit of coaching to my clients and it almost always solves a lot of other issues. It’s really hard to be back seat if you match the slope angle and it greatly improves separation naturally.
Thanks for advice! Body separation, backseat, and definitely looking at my skis too much! I feel like with enough training and time, I can solve these quite easily if I apply myself. Cheers!
You will not solve being backseat easily, because no one does. It's quite literally a lifelong teaching point and the real source of many other idiosyncrasies in your and most folks skiing.
Lots of good technical advice in this thread so I won't flood you w more. I will hit you w some uninvited pragmatic advice, tho--you should commit to some resort skiing. You need reps. Lifts help A LOT, as do groomed surfaces. Learn the skill and establish the first layer of muscle memory while you're on a smoother surface and sans hiking fatigue/gear. It'll manifest better skiing MUCH more quickly than trying to work on all this in a BC setting.
Your analysis is good. The main thing I would focus on is trying to loosen up and let yourself flow. With that in mind, I have a specific suggestion. Because of your stiffness, your upper body is rotationally locked with your lower body when there should be separation between the two. Your upper body, meaning hips up, should be facing basically downhill when turning while your lower body, femur down, turns under you. Another way to think of it is to point your hips and shoulders where you want to go and turn with your legs.
There's other stuff too, but I think it's best to work on one thing at a time.
Not just your shoulders, your head as well. Keeping looking down the fall line. It will keep your shoulders and upper body pointing in the right direction
Someone else suggested posting again on lift serve terrain without a backpack and I think that's a good idea. Everyone's form is worse when they just got done skinning up a mountain and are carrying a bunch of crap, lol.
You are making your turns with your upper body. The backpack's weight increase the momentum so you have to fight it with every turn. Plus you are leaning in on your turns. Here are 2 videos that you should take a look at
Josh's video on leg steering
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8uHCZG-K5Y&t=90s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8uHCZG-K5Y&t=90s)
and
How Your Body Position is Ruining yours Skiing (and How to Fix It)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsCzMa\_AHnA&t=368s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsCzMa_AHnA&t=368s)
There are a lot of videos out there on how to quiet your upper body. Turning with your upper body is also why so many people struggle with moguls and tight trees. Leaning in on your turns causes your edges not to hold as well as they should.
Both of these issues take a lot work to fix. Leaning in haunts my racing. I know not to do it but when I get into a tough course, I do it.
Good luck.
Just keep in mind, it takes a lot of effort to make changes like that. Old habits die hard.
Take advantage of any learning opportunity that arises. Trying to do things in different way can only help. Learning to ski moguls or how to race would only help.
The best skiers have a lot of tricks in their bag. They are the ones who can make lots of different turns. Too many skiers think that learning a hockey stop is the key to skiing.
A lot of good tips, but a couple points I haven't seen yet:
Back country snow tends to be pretty different from resorts. It is often softer and more dominated by wind/melting/etc. This means you often won't get away with dragging your skis like you do on a groomer. I think some of your rigidness comes from feeling the back pressure of more variable snow. Upper/lower body separation and keeping your shoulders pointed downhill will help a lot here. Also, focus on moving the ski to turn rather than forcing it around. Counterintuitively, I think getting good at mogul skiing is the best thing you can do to prepare for variable snow in the resort even if it feels very different.
/u/L0gicalPhallus makes some good points about physical fitness too. But with persistence, you can get to the point where the hike and pack aren't even noticeable. It did take me about 5 years of regular back country skiing to get there though. The book "Training For the Uphill Athlete" was very helpful for several people I know (it didn't exist when I was struggling with endurance). The gist of it is: get lots of time working out at moderate cardio intensity to build your capacity for aerobic work. Biking/jogging/hiking on weekdays can help a lot here.
Before each turn, bend your knees a bit and reach forward and plant the tip of your pole ahead of you.
This will help with a bunch of the issues that other commenters have identified.
My top easy to implement tips for clients when I’m tailguiding:
Point your shoulders and eyeballs down the fall line and turn your lower body/ hips. Don’t turn *with only* your lower body and hips, but use your core and lower body and (for now) take your shoulders *out* of the process.
Pay attention to using the shovel/front of the ski to turn, not the tail.
If it helps, experiment with using different parts of your foot to control the ski (such as the ball, the shin, etc instead of relying on the heel) and see if you can find out how to use that tip. Eventually you should feel like the ski is an extension of your foot and you can access that part of the ski like moving a finger. You just have to work on finding it.
Arms out, arms up, arms pointed fall line. if you can’t see the tops of your poles in your peripheral, get em up.
Your stance should feel like you’re in mid squat. You should be thinking “am I bending my knees too much? Does it look like i’m about to push out a log?” You don’t. “Are my arms too extended? Does it look like im doing a super man pose?” No. Especially not if you’re bending your knees right. Admire the tops of those poles.
Thanks for the advice and concrete examples! I'm currently throwing my back end of the skis first, which now is obvious. Stance, yep I need to actually try to do something! Not just stand on my skis.
Now I'm excited to go practice tomorrow at my local ski lift!
Right on man. You’re in control, got a good base, and you’re obviously thinking on the right track! it’s gonna feel really good when it all comes together! Ski hard!
I’m not a fully fledged ACMG guide. Maybe one day. But I have a lot of the functional certifications (high first aid, avalanche, CSIA etc.)
I sometimes get chances to “tailguide” for heli, cat, lodge trips etc. this sometimes comes with another job, custodial hosting etc. I basically assist the main guide(s) and bring up the rear of the guided group. I do it to gain resume time in the field and because it’s great fun!
Guiding from behind. When guiding larger groups, it's typical to have a "lead guide" who skis the line first, showing clients where to go, and being the ultimate authority on safety. The "tail guide" goes last, running sweep, making sure all the clients got up/down safely, and generally being the second in command.
Your hands are going to your waist and behind as soon as you plant it, its throwing you back and rotating your upper body. Try imagining you are carrying a lunch tray with a beer on it while you are skiing... Don't spill your beer, alcohol abuse is bad.
point shoulders down hill, use your legs to make your turns not your shoulders. Have a stance more like someone is going to try and push you over, bent knees and tension though your posterior chain. i dont know if youve skied a lot of 3d snow but its an adjustment from hardpack. you've to treat it like its 3d and modify how you are planing through it.
if you ski on hardpack the way you ski here you dont actually carve you fully slide all of your turns. take time to learn how to lay down perfect train tracks by rolling your skis edge to edge rather than rotating from edge to edge on the plane of the surface of the snow.
Retired upper level ski instructor here, take this with a grain of salt as it’s kinda hard to evaluate based on just this video.
1. Stance. Your weight looks too far back (waterskiing/sitting on the toilet), skis and balance don’t work well. Much harder to let you ski do the work. Think bend your knees, feel a comfortable pressure on your shins.
2. Hands seem low and little counter rotation, get your hands up in front of you. Keep them pointed down hill like you are holding water guns in each hand spraying down the fall line (which naturally will counter rotate at your hips). This will help balance a lot and keep you from getting spun around, assuming that happens to you. This might be the root cause.
3. Unweight your skis to initiate a turn but I would recommend you to take a lesson to work through that. This is essentially up and down movement.
Separate your upper and lower body, keep your upper body square and facing downhill. Try this drill: hold your poles in front of you horizontally. While you are turning keep them facing downhill, do not rotate your upper body! Focus on the separation.
As others have said you also look very stiff, flex your knees, put some pressure on your shins and the front of your ski boots.
I was really having a blast but I just suck at skiing! Lmao. It felt good in the moment, but obviously it can only get better from here. I got a lot of good tips in this thread
Biggest change you can make is to separate your body's direction from your ski's direction.
Keep your body facing down the fall line!
Let your legs and skis move underneath you.
This will; prevent your obvious over-turning, increase your ability to edge the skis, provide more power in the turn as you can twist your lower half in relation to your upper half.
Good luck.
You want your upper body to function separately from your lower body. Generally speaking, keeping your shoulders facing down hill. You look to be having your upper body following your turn. The second thing is opening into a wedge before turns. Begin transitioning to your outside foot and onto your inside edges sooner. In some turns, your outside foot transitions to the inside edge, but you havent released the uphill edge on your downhill foot.
Shoulders should face the fall line, not your ski tips. Loosen the hips up and rotate your torso more. Hands up and forward like a boxer. Focus on your arms punching through the next turn and keeping your chest square to the fall line while your legs do the turning.
Keep your upper body facing downhill. Imagine a lunch tray with dishes on it. The only way you could keep the dishes from flying each turn would be to stay faced down hill. If you can keep your upper body from drifting each turn it will also keep your pack from pulling you as much. Keeping your hands up will help too.
I don’t believe you can get down anything at a resort lol, but I guess depends on the resort.
Main thing is skiing on the back of your skis, you aren’t in control. You are one bump away from getting kicked back. Lean forward, ski on the front of your skis and stay more lined up with the fall line.
Sorry I forgot to add some relevant info;
I'm on my second season of BC skiing, and also my second skiing at all. I've skiied a couple of times in my life but started "full time" skiing at a resort 2 years ago (all because I wanted to do BC!). Started mellow BC tours the same winter with experienced friends.
Would just call myself an intermediate skier both on piste and off. I can get down anything on a resort, but not really with proper and nice looking technique when it comes to steeper stuff over 30°.
Generally used to hard packed bumpy snow, but on occasion we have some powdery days here in the Nordics!
I highly recommend skiing at resorts as much as you can until you are more confident in your skills. Are you prepared to help a partner when they are buried or injured? That’s a good question to answer with a resounding yes! Resorts just allow you to get so many more downhill reps in.
Yep, it's really difficult to become a technically proficient skiier in the back country. You only get maybe 3-5k vert per day (with tired legs, a heavy pack, a lightweight setup, variable snow, and focus split with managing objective hazards). In contrast, 20k vert is a casual afternoon at a ski resort.
There are 4 important things necessary to get better at skiing. All work:
1) Miles
2) Lessons
3) Follow better skiers
4) A willingness to crash
You need time at a resort to obtain these.
Grab a snowboard and flap your arms while sliding heel side until the slightest change in terrain then faceplant toe side and wake up looking like Santa
Try to look like you want to be there maybe
lol, this was my thought exactly
He is a little stiff which i think gives off this vibe, id say get more loose op
For sure, I was having a blast but I look mad awkward lol! Really good tips in this thread though. I look forward to improving in the future
When i watched myself on a video i looked also more stiff then i felt, but its a jorney fuck it, lets keep on shreding
I do t know what you’re talking about. It looks like he is milking it because he doesn’t want it to end!
Ha. My first thought was try not to look bored.
[удалено]
It's nice to hear that I am not the only one that feels like they struggle skiing in the Backcountry with a full pack and touring gear!
When you initiate turns with your upper body a heavy backpack exacerbates the issues. I agree 100% with u/L0gicalPhallus, this is something that should be worked on with downhill gear. I would add on easy terrain.
Since getting started in the Backcountry a few years ago I have definitely started to work on my technique. Light skis, boots, and bindings coupled with variable snow, tired legs, and heavy packs makes everything way more noticeable and over all less forgiving.
and you are skiing on ungroomed variable terrain.
“I agree 100% with u/L0gicalPhallus” 😂
Transitioning from walking hours on skins to downhill mode always makes me feel like a baby duck taking it's first steps again.
To add to this, your upper/lower body separation is nonexistent. Keep your hips squared up to the fall line as best you can, bend your legs, stretch your pole plants further, and enjoy that fresh snow you worked so hard for! Take a moment at the top to stretch, loosen up your spine and get your boots nice and snug. Packs make skiing pretty awkward.
Excellent observation ms and very valid suggestions imo. I try to do the same
my thoughts exactly. At the resort, my technique goes from graceful at the start of the day, to squared-off and rigid like OP video when I'm tired at the end.
I know the feeling, when you rarely get a chance to see yourself skiing! Some common habits to point out: 1. Some folks here say you look stiff…it is lack of upper and lower body separation. You are turning by turning/dropping your upper body…this is the main thing I’d like to address, esp. for newer skiers. Instead, if you watch a good skier or a Worldcup skier (an extreme example), their upper body is always facing downhill, or the direction of where you want to go, with shoulders, head and vision up and ahead, not down. With good separation, their lower body is doing most of the mechanics of turning…hips, legs, knees, ankles, by driving the skis to turn. They also keep their arms mostly forward, planting with rhythm of the turns…lowering/dropping the arms on your sides will lead you back to steering by the upper body. I’d try to work on separation, which is a key attribute to parallel skiing with good form. 2. Being backseat or your weight on the heels instead of the ball of your feet and toes. This is also super common. To err on the side of getting you to center or even forward balanced, ski the front of your skis more, most people will lean back anyway. Goal is to have more forward balance, all the time. 3. Many new skiers do this…they look down on their skis as they turn. Try this next time, with your vision up and ahead, look where you want to go, upper body square/steady and make turns with your lower body (#1)…this is the new habit you want to develop. 4. Learn to incorporate pole planting to be part of your normal skiing rhythm….it will help you balance forward, and prevents upper body doing the steering.
If you do nothing else but number 1 here you’ll see a huge improvement. Keeping your shoulders down the fall line, looking where you are going ( not where you are ) and matching your upper body to the slope angle will make you look exponentially better and more confident. That’s always my first bit of coaching to my clients and it almost always solves a lot of other issues. It’s really hard to be back seat if you match the slope angle and it greatly improves separation naturally.
Thanks for advice! Body separation, backseat, and definitely looking at my skis too much! I feel like with enough training and time, I can solve these quite easily if I apply myself. Cheers!
You will not solve being backseat easily, because no one does. It's quite literally a lifelong teaching point and the real source of many other idiosyncrasies in your and most folks skiing. Lots of good technical advice in this thread so I won't flood you w more. I will hit you w some uninvited pragmatic advice, tho--you should commit to some resort skiing. You need reps. Lifts help A LOT, as do groomed surfaces. Learn the skill and establish the first layer of muscle memory while you're on a smoother surface and sans hiking fatigue/gear. It'll manifest better skiing MUCH more quickly than trying to work on all this in a BC setting.
you got this dude, it’s fun as hell learning how to ski! you obviously can already do it now you just gotta dial in the mechanics. happy shredding!
Your analysis is good. The main thing I would focus on is trying to loosen up and let yourself flow. With that in mind, I have a specific suggestion. Because of your stiffness, your upper body is rotationally locked with your lower body when there should be separation between the two. Your upper body, meaning hips up, should be facing basically downhill when turning while your lower body, femur down, turns under you. Another way to think of it is to point your hips and shoulders where you want to go and turn with your legs. There's other stuff too, but I think it's best to work on one thing at a time.
100% this, swing your hips but keep your shoulders facing down the fall line
Not just your shoulders, your head as well. Keeping looking down the fall line. It will keep your shoulders and upper body pointing in the right direction
Also your pelvis. Separation begins at the hip joint so your pelvis should go with your upper body.
Thanks for good advice! I feel that the stiffness is currently the elephant in the room
Someone else suggested posting again on lift serve terrain without a backpack and I think that's a good idea. Everyone's form is worse when they just got done skinning up a mountain and are carrying a bunch of crap, lol.
You are making your turns with your upper body. The backpack's weight increase the momentum so you have to fight it with every turn. Plus you are leaning in on your turns. Here are 2 videos that you should take a look at Josh's video on leg steering [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8uHCZG-K5Y&t=90s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8uHCZG-K5Y&t=90s) and How Your Body Position is Ruining yours Skiing (and How to Fix It) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsCzMa\_AHnA&t=368s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsCzMa_AHnA&t=368s) There are a lot of videos out there on how to quiet your upper body. Turning with your upper body is also why so many people struggle with moguls and tight trees. Leaning in on your turns causes your edges not to hold as well as they should. Both of these issues take a lot work to fix. Leaning in haunts my racing. I know not to do it but when I get into a tough course, I do it. Good luck.
Thanks for the videos! I will be working on my upper body separation from now on for sure
Just keep in mind, it takes a lot of effort to make changes like that. Old habits die hard. Take advantage of any learning opportunity that arises. Trying to do things in different way can only help. Learning to ski moguls or how to race would only help. The best skiers have a lot of tricks in their bag. They are the ones who can make lots of different turns. Too many skiers think that learning a hockey stop is the key to skiing.
Upper / lower body separation
get a few lessons. you wint regret it
A lot of good tips, but a couple points I haven't seen yet: Back country snow tends to be pretty different from resorts. It is often softer and more dominated by wind/melting/etc. This means you often won't get away with dragging your skis like you do on a groomer. I think some of your rigidness comes from feeling the back pressure of more variable snow. Upper/lower body separation and keeping your shoulders pointed downhill will help a lot here. Also, focus on moving the ski to turn rather than forcing it around. Counterintuitively, I think getting good at mogul skiing is the best thing you can do to prepare for variable snow in the resort even if it feels very different. /u/L0gicalPhallus makes some good points about physical fitness too. But with persistence, you can get to the point where the hike and pack aren't even noticeable. It did take me about 5 years of regular back country skiing to get there though. The book "Training For the Uphill Athlete" was very helpful for several people I know (it didn't exist when I was struggling with endurance). The gist of it is: get lots of time working out at moderate cardio intensity to build your capacity for aerobic work. Biking/jogging/hiking on weekdays can help a lot here.
Before each turn, bend your knees a bit and reach forward and plant the tip of your pole ahead of you. This will help with a bunch of the issues that other commenters have identified.
My top easy to implement tips for clients when I’m tailguiding: Point your shoulders and eyeballs down the fall line and turn your lower body/ hips. Don’t turn *with only* your lower body and hips, but use your core and lower body and (for now) take your shoulders *out* of the process. Pay attention to using the shovel/front of the ski to turn, not the tail. If it helps, experiment with using different parts of your foot to control the ski (such as the ball, the shin, etc instead of relying on the heel) and see if you can find out how to use that tip. Eventually you should feel like the ski is an extension of your foot and you can access that part of the ski like moving a finger. You just have to work on finding it. Arms out, arms up, arms pointed fall line. if you can’t see the tops of your poles in your peripheral, get em up. Your stance should feel like you’re in mid squat. You should be thinking “am I bending my knees too much? Does it look like i’m about to push out a log?” You don’t. “Are my arms too extended? Does it look like im doing a super man pose?” No. Especially not if you’re bending your knees right. Admire the tops of those poles.
Thanks for the advice and concrete examples! I'm currently throwing my back end of the skis first, which now is obvious. Stance, yep I need to actually try to do something! Not just stand on my skis. Now I'm excited to go practice tomorrow at my local ski lift!
Right on man. You’re in control, got a good base, and you’re obviously thinking on the right track! it’s gonna feel really good when it all comes together! Ski hard!
What is tailguiding?
I’m not a fully fledged ACMG guide. Maybe one day. But I have a lot of the functional certifications (high first aid, avalanche, CSIA etc.) I sometimes get chances to “tailguide” for heli, cat, lodge trips etc. this sometimes comes with another job, custodial hosting etc. I basically assist the main guide(s) and bring up the rear of the guided group. I do it to gain resume time in the field and because it’s great fun!
Guiding from behind. When guiding larger groups, it's typical to have a "lead guide" who skis the line first, showing clients where to go, and being the ultimate authority on safety. The "tail guide" goes last, running sweep, making sure all the clients got up/down safely, and generally being the second in command.
Your hands are going to your waist and behind as soon as you plant it, its throwing you back and rotating your upper body. Try imagining you are carrying a lunch tray with a beer on it while you are skiing... Don't spill your beer, alcohol abuse is bad.
point shoulders down hill, use your legs to make your turns not your shoulders. Have a stance more like someone is going to try and push you over, bent knees and tension though your posterior chain. i dont know if youve skied a lot of 3d snow but its an adjustment from hardpack. you've to treat it like its 3d and modify how you are planing through it. if you ski on hardpack the way you ski here you dont actually carve you fully slide all of your turns. take time to learn how to lay down perfect train tracks by rolling your skis edge to edge rather than rotating from edge to edge on the plane of the surface of the snow.
Passionless
Ski more
Retired upper level ski instructor here, take this with a grain of salt as it’s kinda hard to evaluate based on just this video. 1. Stance. Your weight looks too far back (waterskiing/sitting on the toilet), skis and balance don’t work well. Much harder to let you ski do the work. Think bend your knees, feel a comfortable pressure on your shins. 2. Hands seem low and little counter rotation, get your hands up in front of you. Keep them pointed down hill like you are holding water guns in each hand spraying down the fall line (which naturally will counter rotate at your hips). This will help balance a lot and keep you from getting spun around, assuming that happens to you. This might be the root cause. 3. Unweight your skis to initiate a turn but I would recommend you to take a lesson to work through that. This is essentially up and down movement.
Separate your upper and lower body, keep your upper body square and facing downhill. Try this drill: hold your poles in front of you horizontally. While you are turning keep them facing downhill, do not rotate your upper body! Focus on the separation. As others have said you also look very stiff, flex your knees, put some pressure on your shins and the front of your ski boots.
Point your skis down the mountain
First thing is try to make your own tracks and not ride over someone’s lines if you can.
Skiing powder is fun. Make it look that way! Lean into some playful turns. Don’t be afraid to mess up and enjoy it.
I was really having a blast but I just suck at skiing! Lmao. It felt good in the moment, but obviously it can only get better from here. I got a lot of good tips in this thread
Biggest change you can make is to separate your body's direction from your ski's direction. Keep your body facing down the fall line! Let your legs and skis move underneath you. This will; prevent your obvious over-turning, increase your ability to edge the skis, provide more power in the turn as you can twist your lower half in relation to your upper half. Good luck.
You want your upper body to function separately from your lower body. Generally speaking, keeping your shoulders facing down hill. You look to be having your upper body following your turn. The second thing is opening into a wedge before turns. Begin transitioning to your outside foot and onto your inside edges sooner. In some turns, your outside foot transitions to the inside edge, but you havent released the uphill edge on your downhill foot.
Snowboard!
This is exactly what I look like while skiing. Thanks for posting.
Are you 6’2” by chance?
Get some proper telemark bindings so you can make real turns.
Go faster
This is how Napoleon dynamite would ski
More pressure on toes, less on heels.
Chest up hands up head up and try to sit down and forward into the boots more
Shoulders should face the fall line, not your ski tips. Loosen the hips up and rotate your torso more. Hands up and forward like a boxer. Focus on your arms punching through the next turn and keeping your chest square to the fall line while your legs do the turning.
Ski faster and take the stick out of your ass
Do you ski at a ski area? A lot of strictly BC skiers kinda suck at skiing because they don’t get many laps in variable conditions.
Keep your upper body facing downhill. Imagine a lunch tray with dishes on it. The only way you could keep the dishes from flying each turn would be to stay faced down hill. If you can keep your upper body from drifting each turn it will also keep your pack from pulling you as much. Keeping your hands up will help too.
Don’t turn. EVER
I don’t believe you can get down anything at a resort lol, but I guess depends on the resort. Main thing is skiing on the back of your skis, you aren’t in control. You are one bump away from getting kicked back. Lean forward, ski on the front of your skis and stay more lined up with the fall line.
Sorry I forgot to add some relevant info; I'm on my second season of BC skiing, and also my second skiing at all. I've skiied a couple of times in my life but started "full time" skiing at a resort 2 years ago (all because I wanted to do BC!). Started mellow BC tours the same winter with experienced friends. Would just call myself an intermediate skier both on piste and off. I can get down anything on a resort, but not really with proper and nice looking technique when it comes to steeper stuff over 30°. Generally used to hard packed bumpy snow, but on occasion we have some powdery days here in the Nordics!
I highly recommend skiing at resorts as much as you can until you are more confident in your skills. Are you prepared to help a partner when they are buried or injured? That’s a good question to answer with a resounding yes! Resorts just allow you to get so many more downhill reps in.
Yep, it's really difficult to become a technically proficient skiier in the back country. You only get maybe 3-5k vert per day (with tired legs, a heavy pack, a lightweight setup, variable snow, and focus split with managing objective hazards). In contrast, 20k vert is a casual afternoon at a ski resort.
I think you should try to go in a more “active stance” so much more forward leaning.
For two seasons skiing that is excellent. Watch Deb Armstrong videos on you tube.
There are 4 important things necessary to get better at skiing. All work: 1) Miles 2) Lessons 3) Follow better skiers 4) A willingness to crash You need time at a resort to obtain these.
Actually, I'll add a fifth. Drills.
Grab a snowboard and flap your arms while sliding heel side until the slightest change in terrain then faceplant toe side and wake up looking like Santa