TPS Archives

Reprints From The Professional Skier

Spring 1994 - "Keeping Your Cool In Cruddy Conditions" by Max Lundberg

This article is reprinted from The Professional Skier. All copyrights apply. Please see our copyright and disclaimer notice page.

Standing at the top of a run you've always considered a favorite, you suddenly wish you were someplace else. The terrain hasn't changed, and there is more than enough snow - in fact there was 20 inches of perfect powder here two days ago. So why do you feel that annoying sense of hesitation?

Because in the two days since the storm, the snow has been skied and chopped up by a hundred different skiers, leaving piles and hard lumps in place of the smooth powder. Two warm days followed by cold nights and swirling winds have turned the snow into a real challenge, even for "Super Skier."

People have tried to give this problem snow a more sophisticated name, but "crud" is what it is and "crud" is what you may as well call it. So, how do you negotiate the crud while displaying controlled, graceful skiing? How do you learn to actually enjoy this challenging snow condition and make it look as if you know what you're doing?

The first requirement is the same as for all skiing. You must begin with a good basic stance, standing so that you are gently flexed at the ankle, knee, and waist, with your weight over your whole foot: the ball of the foot, the arch, and the heel. Staying centered over your skis is important for skiing any condition but is critical when skiing difficult snow. I seldom give "don'ts," but here is one you must adhere to if you want to ski the crud: Don't start out standing on the heel of your foot.

You often hear skiers talk about needing to be in a lower stance for skiing powder or difficult conditions. My advice is to find a comfortable stance and adjust as the conditions may require. Avoid starting in a low position and staying there. This requires too much leg strength and will cause you to tire easily.

Some deep snow conditions may require you to weight your skis equally, but in crud, the outside or downhill ski should be the controlling ski through the arc of a turn and, thus, should be weighted more heavily than the inside ski. Cruddy snow conditions will bounce you around a bit and you will feel the skis pull away at times, but a good basic stance will enable you to make corrections without too much difficulty.

The hardest thing to do in crud is to change the skis' edge and start a turn. I am most successful when I think of drifting or floating into the turn (initiation) and powering out of the turn. Many skiers in inconsistent conditions get into too much of a hurry and try to force the ski through the turn. You can make a turn with a pivoting movement, but there is nothing in the construction of your ski that supports a pivoting turn, particularly when the sidewall of the ski slams into lumpy snow. It's like trying to slice bread with a dull knife; something always gets mashed in the process.

Letting the ski drift into the turn isn't as passive as it may sound. The upper body faces in the primary direction of travel, downhill. And, when you release the edge, your leg is turning down the hill, gently guiding the ski from edged to flat and then back to edge on the opposite side. The important thing is to guide the tips of your skis downhill enough so that when the ski comes up on edge, it can bend and slice through the snow in a cutting action. This slicing motion is far more effective than smashing through the turn.

For me, getting the ski to carve is the key to successfully skiing difficult snow. Once the ski comes to its edge, tense the muscles of your leg, pushing down on the inside edge. Bend the ski just as you would to carve a turn on a packed slope, and then guide it through an arc so it will slice through the snow. Also, try to stay in the fall line and go directly from one turn into the next. When you draw a turn too far across the hill into a traverse you lose rhythm, making it far more difficult to start the next turn.

Some conditions are so rough that you may feel uncomfortable changing the edge on the snow. Try to bend the ski as much as possible through a short arc and then not only relax the leg, but retract it so the ski comes off the snow for the edge change. Your legs should still go through the same rotary movement to bring the skis to edge as they would if the skis were on the snow. When you bring your skis back into contact with the snow, your edges should already be changed so you can pressure the outside ski and guide it through the remainder of the turn.

Another significant challenge when skiing crud is dealing with the buffeting sensation created when your skis go from one condition to another: piles of snow, short packed segments, tracks at all angles to your path, wind pack, or even frozen clumps of snow. Again, you must keep yourself centered over your feet when encountering the constant changes in crud or, for that matter, powder or bumps. As one of our associates told me the other day, "We're never really in balance, we just past through it occasionally while moving from one dynamic experience to another."

Crud and other difficult conditions can intimidate even the most proficient skier. We must constantly remind ourselves how the tools we use are designed to work. We can't force our skis through difficult snow conditions, but we can slice through them. Remember that not all bread slices the same way: some cuts without much difficulty while some has to be torn apart.

As with learning to master any condition, proficiency doesn't come easily. Regardless of how comfortable your movements may be on groomed terrain, it takes time and practice to adapt to all snow variations. We, and our students, must be willing to put forth this effort to enjoy the performance we would like.

Max Lundberg is PSIA's education research and development manager.