HOW TO BREAK THROUGH BY MICHAEL ROGAN

MICHAEL ROGANPSIA Alpine Team Captain

SKI’s director of instruction,

Michael Rogan, is a PSIA

Alpine Team captain, USSA

Team Academy coach, and

Heavenly, Calif.,

instructor. He spends his

summers enjoying more win-

ter at Portillo, Chile, where

he’s resident manager.

MAGAZINE PRESENTS

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ZHARPER PHILLIPSOlympic Skier

Harper Phillips is a 1994 Olympian and former member of the U.S. Ski Team. He’s an alumnus of

Green Mountain Valley School, Burke Academy, and Mount Mansfield Ski Club.

PRESSURE THE TONGUESFlex your ankles into the fronts of your boots

to pressure the fronts of your skis.

KEEP THE INSIDE ARM FORWARDDon’t let it drop or fall behind. Hold it up and

out in front to stabilize your upper body.

News flash: When your skis point straight down the fall line…they accelerate. It’s a part of any turn that is especially critical to understand.

Instructors and coaches often say, “Keep up with your skis.” They rarely tell you what that ac-tually means. It means taking care that your skis are not jetting out from underneath you and leav-ing your body behind in the backseat. It means maintaining a basic athletic stance throughout the entire turn.

It’s a fundamental law of good skiing—and one of the most frequently broken ones. Everyone does it, more than we all want to think.

So don’t feel alone. But do study this photo of Harper Phillips, who’s doing a great job of keeping up with his skis on the slopes of Snowbird, Utah. And next time you find yourself pointing your skis down the fall line, keep these fundamentals in mind:» Ankles flexed: By keeping both ankles flexed past 90 degrees, Harper keeps his lower legs in contact with the fronts of his boots. That transfers his weight toward the front of each ski—the sweet spot.

» Inside ski light: By lifting the tail of his inside ski in the fall line, Harper commits his weight to the outside ski, a move that keeps his body moving forward as his skis accelerate. He focuses his pres-sure on the front of his outside ski, knowing a pres-sured ski is a stable ski, even in rough conditions.» Inside arm forward: Notice how Harper keeps his left arm out in front of his body—his elbow in front of his chest. It has not dropped to and will not drop to—or behind—his waist. By driving it forward he ensures that his upper body stays sta-ble. When your arms drop, your shoulders usually do too, and that destroys an athletic stance.» Chin, knee, and toes aligned: By keeping his chin in line with his outside knee and his knee in line with—or slightly ahead of—his toes, Harper can keep his center of mass over the sweet spot of the ski. He doesn’t even have to think about where his hips are.

The creativity and gracefulness of your skiing are directly proportional to the quality of your bal-ance. The better balanced you are, the more you can do on skis.

Where Things Happen FastIN THE BELLY OF THE TURN, YOUR SKIS WANT TO HEAD FOR THE BARN. TO KEEP UP WITH THEM IN THE FALL LINE, UNSHAKABLE BALANCE IS KEY.

UNWEIGHT THE INSIDE SKILift the inside ski to focus pressure on the

outside ski, especially the front of it.

ALIGN CHIN, KNEE, TOESKeep your chin over your outside knee and

toes to pressure the sweet spot of the ski.HOW TO BREAK THROUGH

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ZMARCUS CASTONFreerider

Marcus Caston grew up racing at Snowbird, Utah. He starred in a segment with fellow Utahan Ted

Ligety in Warren Miller’s 2012 feature, Flow State.

VISIONEven as he deals instinctively with the terrain

he’s experiencing at this moment, Marcus

scans ahead two or even three turns.

STANCEWith his legs beneath him, partially flexed,

Marcus is ready to react, whether he needs to

extend to maintain snow contact or retract to

suck up a bump in the road.

FOCUSThere’s no room for distraction. Clear

your head and trust your instincts.

Watch any good skier, and one of the first things you’ll notice is his composure. No matter what the situation, he seems to flow down the mountain without effort or a care in the world. It takes a lot to rattle him, and when the mountain does present him with a sudden challenge, instinct takes over, keeping him well in control of his destiny. Great skiers—like Marcus Caston, pictured here—ski with strength, athleticism, and, most important, experience, qualities the rest of us possess in lesser degrees. But there’s a lot we can learn by watching and emulating, including these three fundamentals:

» Focus—always in the moment: The best ski-ers stay focused on the opportunities the terrain presents, what lies ahead, and the snow conditions they’re dealing with. They don’t get caught staring at obstacles or thinking about things that are of lit-tle consequence, like what lies behind them or so far ahead of them it doesn’t matter yet. Staying in the moment helps them keep cool under pressure.

» Athletic stance: Marcus stays compact. His

legs are retracted under him, which keeps his body and skis connected. If he were to extend his legs too early as the ground falls away, it is very possi-ble that he’d lose balance laterally and fall to the inside, and his ski wouldn’t bend in the soft snow and turn for him. Marcus is able to allow his in-stincts to take over his body movement, and his technique reflects that: grace, flow, and finesse as well as power, precision, and discipline.

» Forward vision: Notice that Marcus’s vision is focused down the hill. He’s gathering information on snow texture and depth, exposure, route options, ob-stacles, etc. This process, combined with his experi-ence, helps him make decisions at light speed. He can predict what he’s going to encounter with enough certainty that a surprise is highly unlikely.

Many big-mountain freeskiers employ technique that can be irritating to a technical eye. But the good ones, like Marcus, mix a freedom of spirit with solid technical skills to produce a style any-one would want to emulate.

The Fundamentals of GraceWHAT DO ALL THE BEST SKIERS HAVE IN COMMON? A READY STANCE, A LASERLIKE FOCUS ON THE MOMENT AT HAND, AND THE DOWNSLOPE VISION TO COPE WITH ANY SURPRISES.

HOW TO BREAK THROUGH

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CLAIRE ABBE BROWNFormer NCAA All-American Slalom Racer

Slalom ace Claire Abbe Brown is a former NCAA All-American for Denver University and a multi-

ple Nor-Am winner. She now travels the World Cup circuit as publisher of Skiracing

.com but looks quite comfortable in powder near her Utah home.

WIDER STANCEThere’s no longer any need to team up two

skis to get sufficient flotation. Today’s powder

skis are plenty wide individually.

TIP TO RIPJust as it does on groomers, getting the working

ski out from under you lets you get it up on edge.

Resist the urge to steer it by pivoting your foot.

Wide skis are nothing new—they’ve been around for a long time. But today’s powder skis are different weapons, blending width, sidecut, and rocker in ways that make them amazingly good at what they do.

They’ve changed the way we ski, too. For one thing, as we’ve spent more time nearer the sur-face of the snow, we’ve evolved from a world of short-turning powder conservationists who would ski next to each other, spooning tracks and making the pow last all day, to powder pigs who lay waste to huge swaths of powder in a single run, then complain about how fast resorts get tracked out. More important, the way we ski powder has come to resemble the way we ski groomers. What used to be two different techniques have morphed into one that has slight adaptations.

Only the best and most experienced skiers could master the technique necessary to ski pow-der in the skinny-ski era: legs held tightly togeth-er, lots of vertical movement, lots of flexion and extension, skis kept underneath the body, a fair amount of upper-body rotation, and weight dis-tributed evenly between skis. It was tricky, and powder was discriminatory about who could have success. The slightest lapse in concentration or technique could result in a sudden diverging of the ski tips and a cartwheeling yard sale.

Today, what works on groomers also applies in powder: a wider stance, skis out from underneath

the body, higher edge angles, less jumping up and down, and aggressive pressuring of the outside ski.

Today’s equipment provides all of us with the opportunity to take some of our groomed-snow technique and apply it to the deep stuff. Take a look at this photo of Claire Abbe Brown at Alta. Like all great skiers, she employs a hybrid of tech-niques:» A wider stance: Notice how Brown keeps her legs farther apart than skiers of the recent past. Her skis are wide and buoyant enough that it’s no longer necessary to clamp them together to make a bigger platform.» Commitment to the outside ski: No longer do you have to keep your weight distributed 50/50 between skis. Trust your outside ski and stand against it, as Brown does here.» Higher edge angles: Get your skis out from underneath your body, where they can bend and work for you. When your skis stay under you, bending them only causes the tips to point up. When your skis are out from under you, as Brown’s are here, they bend and arc in the direction you want to turn.» Patience: In deeper snow, you have to be extra patient. It takes some time for the snow to com-press enough to bend your ski and start the turn. Stay balanced against your outside ski and give your equipment and the snow a chance to work together.

Powder: Get YoursRAVAGED BY TODAY’S SURFACING-SKIMMING FAT SKIS, FRESH SNOW TRACKS OUT QUICKLY. WANT YOUR SHARE? BRING FUNDAMENTAL GROOMER SKILLS TO YOUR DEEP-SNOW GAME.

HOW TO BREAK THROUGH

PRESSURE PLUS PATIENCEFind your balance against your working ski and stand on

it. Sidecut and snow resistance will make it bend and arc

back beneath you and into the next turn.

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JOCHEN REIDERFreerider

Jochen Reider is a Salomon-sponsored freerider based in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.

He’s a frequent collaborator with photographer Christoph Jorda, who, when not chasing powder,

volunteers for far-flung assignments with Humedica, a Bavaria-based international aid NGO.

FLEX AND EXTENDAdapt your stance to match the steepness of

the terrain: downhill leg long, uphill leg flexed.

COMMITLean out, away from the hill, rather than in.

Stand on that downhill ski to maintain edge grip.

Every run has a first turn, the outcome of which can determine a lot. Get it right, and a great run is born. Get it wrong, and frustration awaits.

Because turns are connected, they can build upon each other. If the first turn goes well, it has a tendency to create another good turn, which leads to another and another. If it goes badly, often the next one does too. The cycle you create can be vi-cious or victorious.

That’s especially true when you’re charging a steep or technical line, like the one that German freerider Jochen Reider finds here in the back-country above a small village on the Russia-Geor-gia border. Fundamentals of tactics and technique come naturally to a seasoned skier like Reider, but we can learn from his example so that our own first turns can set a pattern for success on ever more challenging terrain.

Tactics» Gather as much info as you can about the snow conditions. Is the snow soft? Hard? Crusty? Will it slough? If so, you’ll need a plan for how to escape it before it knocks you off your feet. » Be aware of the lighting. Going from light to dark, as Reider does here, is harder than the other way. Be prepared for a moment of blindness.» Keep some momentum. Don’t stop unless you

have to. Stopping focuses your mind on where you are and not where you’re going.

Technique» Notice how Reider’s legs work independently. The right one is deeply flexed, the left much straighter. Adjusting to the steepness of the slope like this helps Reider keep his weight on the downhill ski.» And notice also how Reider has his head out over his downhill ski. This allows him to maintain a sol-id athletic position, and it keeps him from leaning into the mountain and losing the grip of his down-hill edge. Remember, for better edge grip, lean out, not in.» If you were to draw three lines, from ski to ski, hand to hand, and through his shoulders, they’d be close to parallel. Lines like these are great indica-tors that your body is moving synchronously and supporting a single goal: to be balanced and ready to turn.

Mindset» Often overlooked, the right mental approach is a key to success. Make sure you’re looking for op-portunities to do something positive. Too often we see obstacles to trip on or avoid. When that is what you focus on, you don’t have the correct mindset. Focus on opportunities, not obstacles.

Dropping InTACKLING A STEEP AND TECHNICAL LINE? THAT FIRST TURN IS CRUCIAL. GET IT RIGHT—WITH TACTICS, TECHNIQUE, AND MINDSET—AND GOOD THINGS FOLLOW.

HOW TO BREAK THROUGH

THINK AHEADKnow what to expect—snow quality, light, and line

options. And think about opportunities, not obstacles.

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DAVID CHODOUNSKYU.S. Ski Team Slalom Skier

David Chodounsky grew up racing at Buck Hill, Minn., alongside Lindsey Vonn. (Both were coached

by the legendary Erich Sailer.) Before becoming the U.S. Ski Team’s best slalom skier, he led Dart-

mouth College to an NCAA title and graduated with a double major in engineering and geology.

STAND HARD ON THE OUTSIDE SKIHave faith in sidecut. If you tip a ski on edge and

pressure it, it’ll bend and arc back beneath you

before you fall to the inside.

GET LOWTo angulate at the hip and get the outside ski on

edge, you’ll need to keep your upper body low.

Even though he’s not leaning in, Chodounsky’s

hand is brushing the snow.

Obviously, the guys on the U.S. Ski Team are on another planet, skillwise, from the rest of us. Case in point: David Chodounsky, shown here tearing up a slalom course.

Chodounsky, a.k.a. “Chowder” to his friends and teammates, is a gifted athlete, one of the best slalom skiers on the U.S. Ski Team. We don’t ex-pect you to be the athlete he is, though we can all strive to be more athletic than we are—improving your skiing requires it. And while skiing like a U.S. Team slalom ace might be forever beyond your abilities, studying a world-class racer’s technique can be very productive. Understanding a few key things and emulating them to the degree that you can will lead to improvement.

Flex your legs independently. Having the awareness and ability to shorten your inside leg while lengthening your outside leg helps you move your body to the side of your skis. This in turn gets your skis on their edges, where their sidecut can help you turn.

Make angles with your body. Notice that Cho-dounsky makes an angle between his spine and legs. His spine is a lot closer to vertical than his legs. This is called hip angulation, and it is a very good thing to develop.

Control your poles. Controlling your poles helps you control your upper body. By lightly dragging his inside pole, Chodounsky can sense the snow and where his body is in relation to it. By keeping his outside pole parallel to his out-side leg, he is moving his upper body in a way that complements the movements of his legs. Another way to look at it: Keep the pole tip lower than your hand. If your poles are flying around and bouncing a lot, it’s an indication that your upper body is doing the same.

Get low to the snow. By keeping his center of mass close to the snow, Chodounsky is able to ex-tend his outside leg way out from underneath him, putting his outside ski high on edge and deeply flexing it. He’s so low, in fact, that his inside hand is touching the snow, though he’s careful not to lean on it.

Stand hard on that outside ski. Notice how there’s far more snow spraying off Chodounsky’s right ski than his left one. That shows that his out-side (right) ski is doing the work, as it should. As you focus on using your outside ski to turn, you’ll find that if it’s properly pressured, you can trust it to hold while its sidecut bends it into an arc that brings it back underneath you.

Channel Your Slalom AceMAYBE THE ANGLES YOU MAKE WILL NEVER BE CHODOUNSKY-LIKE, BUT BE INSPIRED. AS ALWAYS, THERE’S MUCH TO LEARN FROM THE WAY THE RACERS SKI.

HOW TO BREAK THROUGH

MAKE ANGLESThink about keeping your upper body vertical

while your legs angulate, tipping your skis up

on edge.

CONTROL YOUR POLESFlailing poles are a sign of wasted movement.

Use them efficiently, inside pole brushing the

snow, outside one parallel to the leg.