Learning to Ski

[Arrian]

I gotta try me some of those newfangled parabolic skis. I'm still using a pair of old style straight skiis that I picked up for $100 a few years back.

-Arrian

[MRT144]

Lake Tahoe is as good as it gets for skiing in the sierra. Its beautiful to boot

[duke o' york]

Learning is easy: put your skis together and hope.

[Brundlefly]

Well I appreciate all of these responses.. thanks again to you all.

Now I'd like to know what are your top three things to remember while skiing.. things that you concentrate on while skiing that help you to ski better..

And if anyone who has been to Tahoe can reccommend any non-skiing activities there, that info would be helpful. I'm going to be there for just 5 days and I plan to spend most of that time at Heavenly, however there may be some opportunities to do other non-ski activities.

[Arrian]

Skiing is sorta like golf in that there are too many things to remember. It seems like a million different things can go wrong with a golf swing. I feel similarly about skiing... until I get out there and do it for a while (yes, even after skiing for years, the first time out is always a little rough until it comes back to me).

Having said that...

1. Weight forward, over your skis. This is really hard, actually. You will naturally want to lean back. I still fight that constantly.

2. Use the "snowplow." They will teach you this, don't worry. It's basically arranging your skis in a wedge and this prevents you from really picking up speed. The best way to avoid barrelling down the mountain out of control is to turn, but you won't really know how to do that properly yet, so the snowplow is your best bet at first.

3. Bobbing up & down in rhythm with my turning helps me. Weight down, over skis, knees bent, then rise up a tad and shift weight for turn, then back down, then rise up and turn, etc. But that might be too advanced for a total newbie.

Listen to the instructor, but also don't let information overload ruin your day. The one lesson I ever took irritated me because I was doing a bunch of things wrong and I couldn't concentrate at them all at the same time. Narrow it down to one or two things. Once you've dealt with those such that you no longer have to think about them (this isn't gonna happen in a day), you can start thinking about other things.

-Arrian

[Jon Miller]

Learn to ski on the bunny slope. The Snowplow is entirely useless thing to learn, as when you can ski you never do it.

JM

[Arrian]

To each their own, I guess. The snowplow can be useful for preventing disaster while a begginer gets used to merely being on skis and whatnot. Sure, you discard it later, just like a kid discards training wheels from his/her bike.

-Arrian