What defines a good skier? Before the advent of shaped skis, that was easy to describe--skiers used the same feet-close-together, up-pivot-sink technique in virtually all conditions.
Now the skill set of a good skier is a mixed bag of techniques.
Fluid-looking skiers still up-unweight and pivot their skis in crud and on the steeps. But when they get onto a groomed run, they ski like racers, rolling their skis on edge in a wide stance and carving. In the bumps, they have their skis close together again, and find a variety of ways to negotiate the peaks and troughs.
In other words, there are different ways of skiing well, and skiers who aren't updating their techniques are missing out.
"The idea is to increase your bag of tricks so that you can handle different conditions with different tools," says Sun Valley Ski and Snowboard School supervisor Tom Sbertoli.
The first step at any level of skiing is to learn to take advantage of modern skis. That involves using the skis' carving ability for at least the later part of the turn.
"The equipment is so much more manageable," says Bonnie Wetmore, a Sun Valley instructor and Professional Ski Instructors of America examiner. "It's actually kind of exciting—it brings new life to skiing. On the old equipment, you had to muscle the turn. On new equipment, once you get the balance right, it's easier."
One common balance problem is that most people, when they're learning to carve, keep their weight too far back, on their heels. Once they learn to get their weight forward onto the balls of their feet, that spreads pressure through the ski's length, allowing it to carve as it's designed to perform.
Wetmore uses several exercises to help her students learn proper balance. One is to hop up and down at the initiation of the turn.
"It's hard to hop a ski when you're too far forward or too far back," she said. "It kind of forces you to the middle."
Sliding around most of the turn and carving only the finish, to steer the turn into the hill and slow down, will probably suffice for many skiers. But skiers who want to take full advantage of Bald Mountain's miles of sweetly groomed corduroy will want to learn to carve a turn from start to finish.
Instructor Cliff Cunha, who helps coach the ski school's race clinic, points to World Cup racers as the prime example of that style of skiing. They tip their skis way up on edge to carve as tight a turn as they can, displacing their feet way out to the side of their bodies.
He acknowledges that that kind of skiing takes effort; the skier has to resist the centrifugal force that develops on every turn. It's tough to ski like that all day. But, he says, the rewards for those willing to make the effort are terrific.
"It's so much more athletic," he says. "It's putting skiing in a realm that's more like gymnastics."
Yet, when they're free skiing, even World Cup racers often back off on their edge angles and finesse their turns. When asked what separates good skiers from great ones, Charlie Webster, who runs the ski school's Mountain Masters program, has an immediate answer.
"There's one word," he says. "Touch."
Part of that mysterious notion, he says, is to use just enough edge angle for the situation. He cautions skiers against trying to carve in all conditions.
Webster's an advocate of doing lots of sideslipping exercises to gain that finesse. He goes so far as to claim that top-level racers get to be so good largely by sideslipping those hundreds of miles of racecourses. One exercise he likes is sideslipping backwards, which, he says, forces skiers to move forward.
"Most people have never been that far forward on their skis in their life," he says.
In powder conditions, on the other hand, Webster says there's no such thing as too much edge angle. Falls in powder, he points out, usually occur when someone catches on outside edge and goes over the high side. It's not like carving on the groomed, however; powder demands that the skier keep his or her skis close together so they can act as one platform.
Wetmore puts most of her effort when teaching powder skiing into getting her students to let their skis head downhill in the middle of the turn. Most people, she says, try to muscle the turn around too quickly, which creates a jerky turn and puts them off balance.
"When we point the skis downhill and let them go, there's no resistance and it's just a floating sensation," she says.
Instructors recommend that skiers take themselves out of their comfort zone and find out how versatile they can be. In the process, they should gain a good sense of which kinds of turns they're proficient at and which kinds they aren't. That way, when they take a lesson, they can specify to the instructor where they need work.
"Good skiing is about how many choices you have," Webster says. "Do your research and take a lesson. It's going to give you another way of looking at stuff that's going to make you more versatile and more relaxed."
Beyond the practical advantages, there's one more important reason—fun. For those who have skied for decades, learning to take advantage of the new equipment offers a chance to expand their sensations.
As Mountain Masters instructor Wray Farmin puts it: "You've got to find some way to get the fire rekindled again."
