Ski chatter on steeps

I would add one thing and it's a hard concept to understand and hard to put into practice. Just pressuring forward on the boot tongue will flex the ski more and it will dig a little deeper, but to carve hard, you want it to really dig deep. Imagine your skis are inclined to 45 degrees and you want to press the tips downwards. not outwards. Think about how you would apply pressure to do this. You can practice this sitting in a chair at home with your boots and skis. A little arm chair carving is great for figuring out what's going on.

While this will apply pressure in the right place, that will still not be enough to really hold a carve on firm snow. Still at home, go find your bathroom scales. Stand on the scales and flex your legs. Notice that you momentarely appear lighter. Now straighten your legs and notice that you momentarely appear heavier. Return to the arm chair and adopt your carving position again. Imagine sinking into the turn, sinking your inside buttock vertically down to a point a .5m inside of your skis, (not just flexing you legs). During this phase, you be will light, but it's early in the turn and the centrifugal forces are small. Now imagine you are rising out of the turn. During this phase you will be heavy. That extra weight from the rising action produces the downward pressure on the edges needed for the late part of the turn, when the forces are greatest.

This type of weighting is called a "cross over" turn and is the easiest way to presure the edges downwards. Another benefit of the action is that when you finish rising up you should be at the point where you want to transition to the new turn. If you get on the scale again you will notice that after appearing heavier as you straightened your legs, you suddenly appear momentarily lighter befor your weight returns to normal. this short period of being lighter is the time to switch edges while thier is little pressure on the skis.

Trencher

Trencher, I think I see what you mean.

To clarify then, at the start of the turn you 'fall' as our Austrian instructor put it on the last Holiday and rather than maintain that low forward position, gradually become taller and forward throughout the turn. Sounds like it would make sense. I have noticed that skiers who look like they are carving really well are not in a static position throughout the turn. They look more like they are, ummm, can't think of the right word, but they certainly aren't sitting and waiting for the turn to finish.

Sorry CTskigrrl, I seem to be hijacking your thread :wink:

It sounds as if your technique is good. I personally think that ski chatter is always going to happen to a certain extent on very hard/ icy pistes (like the ones you describe in CT.) However, using a stiffer ski (both torsionally and in flex) will reduce this markedly.

ellistine - you're not hijacking the thread. Fear not. Trencher's advice on carving is right on. Good luck with it!

An update on the chatter issue: I went skiing yesterday up at Stratton, VT. It had rained the night before, so they hadn' t had a chance to get the groomers on the mountain. When I got there in the morning, everything was rutted boilerplate and blue ice. I used Pavel's advice about skiing soft, and Trencher's advice about finishing the turns completely - worked like a charm. Chatter didn't disappear completely on the ice (of course), but it was not nearly as bad as it had been.

Skiing soft was the key yesterday since by noon it was 58 degrees. Everything that was ice in the morning turned to slush and glue in the afternoon. However, by skiing soft, I was able to easily handle the variable conditions (ice, slush, bumps, dirt, vegetation) that were apparent in each run. My bump skiing improved dramatically! Maybe I'm crazy, but I love spring conditions. Definitely keeps me on my toes!