Season Diary – Day 1
Updated: Dec 19, 2024
Tuesday December 3, 2024
It’s always sad to be cooped up inside when the snow is still falling outside. After reports of a slow start to the season and snow bases being in short supply across the Alps, the arrival of snow just before we arrived and as we watched out the window at dinner the night before was always going to be a pleasing sight.
But this was a morning spent indoors in the pursuit of something bigger. I am here in Tignes taking part in the Ski Club of Great Britain’s Reps' Course – officially the Mountain Safety and Leadership Course – to qualify as a Rep and serve the Ski Club in resort or on their holidays.
The snow this season has been weird, but today was one of the weirdest snow days I’ve so far experienced in my skiing career. After the dump last night, plenty of the pistes here were in perfectly good mid-season condition.
But at the same time, there were plenty that weren’t. A brace of cold weather means the snow cannons are running at full whack, and there is plenty of artificial snow on the ground. In parts that is okay, but in others it has already set into hardpack boilerplate, causing some serious discomfort along the way.
At the same time, there is plenty of ice around, too. On multiple occasions I managed to sit down as my edges refused to find grip and my skis slid out from under me. I have a feeling I need to give my edges a sharpen, too, but a good workman never blames his tools; I’ll blame the snow instead …
What was even more bizarre is there is some perfect powder to be found around the place. We scored some seriously good turns in between reps on piste – mostly up high just off the glacier around 3,000m, without too much trouble from rocks as we went.
So we decided to find some …
The Reps' Course is partly classroom-based, but a huge part of it is about the skiing. Building up your own skiing, as well as, when in the role, enabling group decision making and skiing safely off piste.
Today was the first of a pair of days focusing on my own ski performance. I don’t tend to share my own technique journey too much – I have my own bad habits and foibles that stem from a variety of sources, that so far no amount of skiing has been able to force me to change.
To touch on the biggest two, I have a nasty habit of sticking my arse out when I ski, which is a sign of my body position and balance being slightly out of place of where it should really be. The other is that I leave the slightest hint of weight behind on my inside ski.
The former I have known about and struggled with my entire skiing life. I think it is a symptom of being tall and slightly inflexible, and it was highlighted to me when I did my instructors course back in 2014. The latter is a much more recent understanding, that has come about from testing skis.
Elan have this whacky thing where the front of some of their skis is a different shape on the inside and outside of the ski: rockered on the inside to grip the snow, but cambered to pull the edge off the snow and make it easier to swing the skis back the other way. It was skiing these skis that I came to the realisation that I have this habit, because this unique technology is designed to flatter this flaw in my skiing style (not explicitly, but let’s go with it).
All that was until this afternoon. With one bit of advice from the instructor – to open my thighs and use my outside leg to help the inside leg tilt into the turn, rather than moving independently – suddenly I had solved all my woes. Thrashing out this “old” skiing style of pulling your skis and legs too close together (a comment to which I have mild objections) has done wonders for my skiing style, already.
Final Thoughts
Today was the first afternoon of what will be a long slog of a fortnight, clocking up plenty of miles and exploring a huge array of factors that go into being a good Rep. But as a start to the season? Not half bad.
.jpeg)
留言