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Skiing.
There is a lot to be learned about skiing but let us start with a few basics.
How not to break a leg:
The ski-boot is clipped into the bindings which are screwed to the top of the ski. These are adjustable for tightness. In front they will come out in a left and right direction if tested. And to adjust this part for yourself you will need two (preferably small, I always carry them when out skiing) screwdrivers, one straight head and one Philips head or cross head. This choice should allow you to adjust almost any binding.
Put on both ski boots, no need to tighten them too much. Start with the right boot stamped into the binding of the ski. Toe first and then stamp down the heel. Then try to twist out the boot at the toe either to the left or the right. It probably will not budge as the lads, always lads, who adjust your hired boots to fit your hired skis always seem to like a "good hard grip". If it does come out to your casual twist then it is far too loose and you will have to tighten it by turning the screw head at the very front of the front binding and tightening it a few turns, to the right, like screwing in a light bulb. Now when you twist it will not come out. Keep tightening a half turn at a time until to twist out the toe you need to give the right boot a bit of a medium kick outwards with the left boot (which is why you need to 2 boots to do the test). If it takes a huge kick to get the boot out at the front then it is too tight. This as mentioned is the most likely scenario [I bought new bindings in Livigno 8 years ago and as tightened they were 2 full turns too tight front and back, both feet.]
OK. First bit done. Standing now with the right boot happily correctly adjusted in the binding we must now do the back. You need a friend for this one. Your friend stands on the back of the right ski while you try to lean forward as you try to pull your boot out of the ski at the back. If the heel comes out then the binding is too loose and you must get out the screwdriver and this time screw it tighter at the back, usual hidden in a little bit from the very back. Keep testing until your heel lifts a few millimetres on a strong steady pull out. If it will not budge at all then it is again far too tight and you must loosen until you have the few mm play.
Do not be afraid to do these adjustments as often as you feel they might be necessary. Do not be in the slightest bit surprised if the they are crazy tight as first given to you by the ski renter (maybe their brother is the doctor who will quickly set your broken leg, should it happen) But, be assured, they have no idea how to adjust the bindings for YOU. Even if they adjust them with a computer, the computer will not know if you have a poor knee nor on which side. Speaking of which if you are paranoid you might mark the skis left and right discreetly and then if you have one ski binding looser than the other because of a tricky knee you will know which foot it goes on. Otherwise if the skis both came off in a fall and you put them back on the wrong feet with your next outing the loose ski on the wrong foot might come off then the resultant fall might wreak your other leg. Just a pedantic point). And you can always loosen them and tighten them again as often as you wish. Note. There is sometimes a coarse adjustment at the back binding which you can "kind of" lift up to make a major adjustment like if your friend wanted to use your skis but they had a much larger or smaller boot than you, but the principle is the same.
Now repeat for the other boot and binding. For your curiosity my bindings are set to 4 out of 10 front and back, both bindings, but yours could be any setting. Just remember that some people have a peculiar sense of humour and if I know that my bindings are set to 4,4,4,4 then I will also know if some kind soul has made some unauthorised adjustments while I was having lunch.
Last word on this subject. Do your adjustments NOW. Not after a quick ski. You might have a quick fall too
Ski sticks.
Ski sticks are needed for a few things in skiing:
They allow you to push yourself along on flat surfaces. For this purpose I have now bought the longest ski-poles I can find 135 centimetre and find them excellent for this use. But you can always bring them back to the hire shop and ask for a different length. IGNORE all the blandishments to take a short pole. Whatever pole you pick try changing about with your friends on one or two runs to see if a different length would be better.
There is a fancy way to put your gloved hands through the ski-stick wrist strap. This enables you to pole on the level without the risk of losing your stick if it gets itself stuck as it often does. However, I ignore the strap altogether as in a fall it can break your thumb. It happened to me 20+ years ago but because I have not put my wrist into the strap it has not happened since. But I have seen a few broken (they may not be broken but the do sting a bit I am assured). Also a friend of mine had fall and the only injury was to his nose as the handle of the stick gave him a swift tap on the nose. Sore? Yes. I must say that I have left a few poles behind but 99% of the time the person behind will kindly pull it out and bring it to you.
With the going is steep or un-comfortable, and this will happen often enough as you get better, you can get ready for the turn by first sticking the pole into the ground and kind of leaning on it as you complete the turn.................you sort of spin on it. Also you can use them to help you do a 180 degree (when you are terrified to attempt the usual turn but would rather reverse course by magic) turn by sticking the 2 sticks behind you into the slope and then lifting the lower ski up into the air in a huge arc and bringing it down facing back the way you have come. Then you do the same with the other ski. Sounds impossible but with practise (only in a quiet spot of course) it is actually easy. It might be the only possible move it there could be stones and ice and so on just where is the only possible place for a turn. Remember we are not talking STYLE here only safety and expediency.
Do not use the poles to stop you, unless you are already stopped. Use the snowplough or stand across the slopes at right angles to the "fall line" [The straight down].
The skis themselves.
When I went skiing first over 40 years ago I knew sweet nothing about it but I just loved snow. We went in to a ski rental shop and I was asked to put my hand in the air over my head and stretch as high up as I could go and to make a little cup of my folded over fingers. Into this little cup was placed a ski. Only today I measured this height and discovered it to be 7 feet 3 inches or 220 centimetres. They were huge, like barges. And for a complete beginner they were impossible to turn. Over the last 30 years I have gone from (sizes in centimetres) from 170 to 180 to 200 [6 feet 8 inches] then back to 175 and now I am on 148 cm ones. They are actually "ladies skis" as was humorously pointed out by the vendor but for ME they are prefect. Because they are short they will turn quickly, important if I am only an occasional skier.............aren't we all!
DO NOT LISTEN to the ski renter who will give you 101 reasons to take the length of ski he is suggesting. He is a nice fellow but when it comes to the occasional skier he has no clue. In any event you can change the skis as often as you wish during your week for free.
Also I now discover that the skis are changing again and the ones I bought 2 years ago in 2006 have been "improved" by adding 18 mm to the width. This seems like a great idea because if you are on soft fresh snow the shorter skis that I use have a tendency to sink into the snow. Wider skies will tend to float higher without sinking. Now also with the cost of bringing your own skis abroad of €30 each way each time it might well make more sense for me to rent instead of buying. However the money is spent now!! So I would definitely suggest renting for everyone but do buy your own boots...................and bring the 2 screwdrivers. VITAL
Fitness.
For many years I thought that there was no need to get fit for skiing but I was wrong. Fine if you are 25 and have 50 years of skiing ahead of you but I hate to waste a holiday. And I used to do a lot of cycling. It helped and is good for cross training as something to be done between walks but now, though, I find that if I can walk 4 miles twice a week I am not dying at the end of each days skiing. Today I must confess that I walked about 8 miles in 2 hours 14 minutes. I say in not to boast but to show what can be built up over time. I know a guy my age who walks on the hills for 5 hours at a time. My limit presently is about 3 hours and not every weekend I can assure you. But every little helps.
I also do "stretchers" which stretch the bits I feel may give trouble. [I do these in the bathroom while waiting for the bath water to fill, in my nip]. My neck has always been a bit stiff so I do what my chiropractor told me to do 40 years ago. I rotate the neck 5 full turns to the left, and then 5 to the right. As slowly as I can bear to. Sometimes I hear creaks and scratches, sometimes silence. About 3 times a week, daily would be better, of course. Then I try to twist my head off to both sides, one twist each side, this give increased range of motion. It has not fallen off yet!
Followed by Achilles tendon stretch, putting one foot behind me on the floor as far back as it will go and flat on the floor. Then lean forward until I can feel the pull. One each side.
Then I kneel and slowly, these days, come back until I am sitting on my heels. [Note. I hurt myself in the left knee six months ago and was a doubtful starter in a holiday 2 weeks after the damage. It slowly got better but even now I cannot sit down on the heels quite as I did before. See below for suggestions for not overdoing it.]
Then I lean on the bath with my hands and open my legs as far as possible and slowly widen then opening until it is "apparently" wider than 90 degrees. The further the better but do not try to do too much at the start. I do this one because once in five years I will come to a stop facing up the slopes and with my ski tips together and the heels about 12 feet apart. So far no damage when this happens.
Lastly I try to tip my toes with the knees held together and the legs straight. I am getting better at it and can now often get my knuckles flat to the floor for a tenth of a second. But if it is stiff today I just do what I can.
Important. In all these stretchers I only do what feels comfortable. Some days some of the exercises are difficult to do and if so I either skip it entirely or use reduced pressure or reduced range of movement. They are supposed to help prevent injuries, not cause more troubles.
There is a great web site and book called Where to Ski and
Snowboard.
If you are a beginner or expert
or in between try this click to give you a quick look at hundreds of ski resort
fearlessly graded to tell you all you REALLY need to know about the different
resorts. The website is free but the book to which it refers can be bought new
every year for about €23 at Hodges Figgis, Dawson St., Dublin 2
http://www.wtss.co.uk/
For beginners try this page
http://www.wtss.co.uk/jsp/index.jsp?lnk=900
Ideally you could look at the ski brochures and having picked a resort then look it up in the book to make sure it suits your needs.
Kilternan Dry Slopes.
And New Sandyford, Co. Dublin rolling slopes.
Kilternan Dry slope is a good place to discover
how to put on skis and boots etc. They will also give instruction
and lessons. I have not been there for many years but you can certainly
improve your technique there.
Just remember that all the warnings about ski-bindings and ski-stick straps still apply and also you run a further risk, if you do not wear mittens, of bending a finger should you fall, as we all do, and then leave just one finger hanging on the edge of the circles of bristles. Extremely sore. So wear mittens. You will see what I mean when you get there. Book well ahead of course and do not travel unless you are booked in. Click http://www.skiclub.ie/ for full details and prices.
And was talking to a real expert who tells me that the new ski machine in Sandyford Co Dublin is a winner. Price is €35 an hour. This guy, who is a really sharp skier who has been down the Swiss Wall in Avoriaz says that an hour of skiing works out at a real half hour as you ski for 10 mins and rest for 10 mins, but it is GREAT! Click http://www.skicentre.ie/ to see a video of it in action and all details. Might even try it myself.
Ski Mojo.
Every now and again a gadget comes on the market that does exactly what it says it will do, no fudging or humming-and-hawing. Such an item is the recently developed SKI MOJO. Unlike Cheno-unction (a great name but quare stuff) this is a quare name but GREAT STUFF.
I saw it advertised in the 2009 issue of the Where to Ski and Snowboard book. I looked it up on the web and liked the cut of it. The idea is that you strap into a harness which starts at your boot where a rod of glass fibre snaps onto a knob for fit to the back of your boot (5 mm hole). This goes to a plastic strap around your calf and then up to a slab of plastic with springs inside which fits outside your thigh bone. Same on both sides and there is a little strap of a seat to kind-of sit on.
You can have it in walking position enabling you to walk and go up and down stairs freely. When the switches on both sides are pushed then you can feel the springs begin to help.
So when you are crouched down in the correct
skiing position you are getting 33% of a boost from the springs. (Adjustable
from strength 1 to 15. I started on strength 5 and am now on strength 8.) On
the toughest of tests ... 456 vertical metres (1,500 feet) from 3,456 metres at
the top of the Grande Motte in Val d'Isere to 3.000 metres at the top of the
funicular I must admit the thighs burned a good bit on what was declared to be a
red run but was very steep and icy cold and I would rate red/black. Without
the MOJO it would have been a lot more difficult. Then from 3,000 metres down
to Val Claret at 2,000 metres (1,000 metres vertical drop) I was on a blue run with a friend
who is pretty good. He was much better than I coming down the red/black run
but when we started to race down the blue he asked for a 30 second pause at the
half way mark. What I explained to him was that every time I crouched down to
go in a quick and well controlled shuuussh I was in effect sitting down in a
chair having what might be considered a rest.
It did not feel like a rest of course, it just felt as if I was doing OK. But in fact I was going pretty long distances quickly and easily. Before all this we had started in Fornet, gone up the bubble to Cascade, down into the village on a "red" run which was icy, steep, full of boarders. Then up the Olympic towards Tignes, up Tomassues, into Val claret. Afterwards I pulled up out of Val Claret and eventual down into le Daille. With a half hour break for lunch we were skiing from about 10:30 to about 4:30. The website has ski-all-day in the title. Correctly.
Click: http://www.skiallday.co.uk/sm/ and have a look. Weight is about 2 kilos. You wear it UNDER your ski trousers of course. [Here you see it OVER the thermal long-jons and before I drag the ski trousers over everything.] And the switches are pretty easy to use even with gloves on. You must switch it off on chair-lifts and the like. Price is Sterling £ 289 but worth every penny if you are 71 years young and when if in spite of training with walking and cycling you have legs which are less than perfect now. I walk up to eight miles at a stretch and cycle up to twelve miles but the MOJO makes all the difference.
Boots.
Bought new boots in Snow and Rock, Dublin 14 and in spite of my
misgivings they were a bit too short which leads to blackened big toes on both
feet. Afterwards got them stretched at least three times but still a
bit short. HOWEVER spent a lot of time with Mike from Check
Republic who seemed knowledgeable and he explains that if I tighten up the TOP
closures on the boots FIRST and then the two front ones the foot will be held
back and all will be well. Tried this in the shop and yes
indeed it appears to work. Also found that if I waited ten minutes I
could take an extra notch on both top snappers. So will do this next time
skiing............tighten after 15 minutes.
However if buying again I would listen to my heart and take the boots longer to start with and to hell with the purists.
If you have a question please ask it. Skiing is a great sport and it would be a pity for you not to try it.
Phone +353-87-2530620 April 2012