Freeride - What Every Skier Dreams About - Andrzej Peszek, Szymon Tasz

3.3. Calm, patience and long movements

In the powder everything is happening more slowly. It is a bit like a movie played in slow motion.

The instability of the ground you move on is the reason why there is no place for sudden movements. All the efforts to change the position of your body or the centre of gravity are at best ineffective and usually counter-effective or even dangerous.

An attempt to speed this process up and "rebound" straight from the powder (without the stage of snow compression under the skis) would be at best ineffective and such sharp movement types would tire you out very quickly. All the other movements, such as digging a pole into the snow to initiate another turn or shifting the centre of gravity from one ski side to another, are smooth, start earlier and last longer in contrast to corresponding elements of on-piste skiing.

Skiing in powder is a test for your patience. The prize is all the pleasure of soft, free and effortless floating in powder.

we start our motion from straightening the legs at the knees and hips, what causes initial penetration of skis into the snow, but also builds the platform of the compressed snow ...

... from which, in the final phase of the motion, we bounce, bend the knees and hips, pull the skis up and ...

... eventually we make our skis emerge on the snow surface and that enables us to move to the next turn

Copyright

? Copyright by landie.pl Ltd, 2011

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, without the written permission of the publisher.

All forms of exercise may pose some risks, and before beginning any exercise or training programme, consult your physician.

Editor and photographer: Andrew Pesheck

Professional's insights: Simon Tasch

ISBN: 978-83-63017-17-0

Layout: Publisher landie.pl

Special thanks to ESF CHAMONIX

(Ecole du Ski Français) the largest ski school in France,

www.esfchamonix.com

to its boss - Martine Chevalier

and to Denis Paul Leroy (the wonderful alpine guide, ski instructor and privately, a rock singer and novel writer)

for exploring with us the amazing region of Chamonix.

(the mountain guides from Chamonix stick to the custom of skiing in the cap on their heads, we strongly recommend the use of helmets)

we thank the Faction company from Verbier for providing us with their skis for the photo sessions

www.factionskis.com

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Copyright

About the authors:

1. Freeride easy or for experts only?

2. Avalanche danger

2.1. How to reduce the risk of causing an avalanche and being buried in one

2.2. How to react when being swept away by an avalanche and how to save those already buried

3. Off - piste technique

3.1. New approach to the balance and the weight distribution

3.2. The speed is our friend

3.3. Calm, patience and long movements

4. Key elements of the technique

4.1. "Skis' platform"

4.2. Silhouette

4.3. Up and down motion

4.4. Poles and shoulders

4.5. Rhythm

4.6. Short vs. long - radius turn

5. Off - pist technique depending on terrain

5.1. Steeps

5.2. Trees

5.3. Couloirs

6. Exercises to prepare for soft rebounding and other techniques

6.1. Squat with jump on one leg

6.2. Moving a medical ball while standing on bosu

6.3. Bending on one leg with a medical ball

6.4. Jump from one bosu to another

6.5. Bouncing from the side of bosu

6.6. Change of legs by jumping while standing on Bosu

6.7. Jump from Bosu with the turn of 90 degrees

6.8. Change of legs by jumping with a 180 - degree rotation

6.9. Lifting the hips with one foot on a skateboard

6.10. Shifts to the front and to the back with one leg on a skateboard

6.11. Jumps to the side with the change of legs

6.12. Jumping on the high step

6.13. Jumping to the side up and down the high step

6.14. Jumping with one leg up and down the high step

6.15. "Obstacle course"

6.16. Jumping over "hurdles"

6.17. Low jumps up the stairs

6.18. Low jumps down the stairs

7. Tips

7.2. How to start your adventure with powder - "5 steps" for beginners

7.3. How to rise to a higher level - "5 steps" for intermediates

8. So let's get started...

9. Bibliography:6.15. "Obstacle course"

6.16. Jumping over "hurdles"

6.17. Low jumps up the stairs

6.18. Low jumps down the stairs

7. Tips

7.2. How to start your adventure with powder - "5 steps" for beginners

7.3. How to rise to a higher level - "5 steps" for intermediates

8. So let's get started...

9. Bibliography:

3. Off - piste technique

If any, what is the difference between off-piste (powder skiing) and on-piste (skiing on hard-packed, groomed slopes) techniques?

It may be assumed, with a 100 % likelihood, that when starting your adventure with powder skiing, you already have some experience and have mastered some elements of on-piste skiing.

That is why it is important when starting to think about off-piste technique to answer the following questions:

- Is the off-piste technique any different from the on-piste one?

- If yes, how different is it?

The answers to these questions are: yes, it is different, and very different.

Being a good on-piste skier and moving from a hard-packed, well-groomed trail to fresh, soft powder for the first time you are hoping that you will cope somehow and that your well-mastered on-piste technique will prove useful off piste as well. However, the first experience of an off-piste escapade is usually bad, not to say fatal. Going off the trail into powder, you suddenly sink, lose your control over the skis, you are not able to turn and usually after a few metres of a paniced struggle, you end up face down in the snow. Another try and the same result. Even if you finally manage to go a few or even a dozen metres, your technique is far from anything close to elegant and the supportive backward inclination is going to cause a burning pain in your thigh muscles and kill all the joy of skiing very soon.

in powder appears ''the third dimension"