Dirty skiing?

[mdf]

Just lean back, you'll be fine.

And don't pivot. Long gouges that don't reach the edges are a badge of honor

 

[fatbob]

OK Now we're getting somewhere:

Dirty skiing can be

- skiing actual dirt or certainly suboptimal conditions that many would turn their noses up at
- skiing less classically good snow or terrain in your own manner
- using your own blend of legit technique and low down cunning to mix it up on "better" slopes
- any combination of the above

Most of all it has to be FUN. Now type 1 or type 2 fun is another question.

Any offers to expand the definition?

 

[Doby Man]

I always thought dirty skiing was one or a number of:

1. Skiing in three day old underwear.
2. Skiing commando (better)
3. Skiing in a silk thong visible above waistline
4. Skiing on snow with a splash of olive brine
5. Skiing with focus on duration, intensity, rhythm, timing and yodeling
   

 

[fatbob]

Maybe a question for the instructors

What "good" habits do you have to get more advanced students to loosen up on in order to be able to adapt to more difficult conditions/terrain?

 

[Monique]

- using your own blend of legit technique and low down cunning to mix it up on "better" slopes

Now I'm picturing Cersei skiing (Tyrion comments early in the first book that she has "a certain low cunning") ... I imagine she'd ski with a wine goblet in hand ...

 

[fatbob]

Sure GRR Martin (bless his prevaricating redundant heart) wasn't making a crude sexual joke?

 

[Jim McDonald]

Bronn the sellsword: he doesn't ski with honor, but he wins.

 

[Monique]

Sure GRR Martin (bless his prevaricating redundant heart) wasn't making a crude sexual joke?

Actually, despite everything else going on in GRRM's books, I don't think this was a Hamlet moment.

HAMLET
112 Lady, shall I lie in your lap?

OPHELIA
113 No, my lord.

HAMLET
114 I mean, my head upon your lap?

OPHELIA
115 Ay, my lord.

HAMLET
116 Do you think I meant country matters?

OPHELIA
117 I think nothing, my lord.

HAMLET
118 That's a fair thought to lie between
119 maids' legs.

 

[Frankly]

Some of the Catskill resorts come to mind.

 

[Fuller]

I'm learning a lot at this Ski School!

 

[slowrider]

Just lean back, you'll be fine.

Thee all popular power tail glide.

 

[Chris Walker]

OK Now we're getting somewhere:

Dirty skiing can be

- skiing actual dirt or certainly suboptimal conditions that many would turn their noses up at
- skiing less classically good snow or terrain in your own manner
- using your own blend of legit technique and low down cunning to mix it up on "better" slopes
- any combination of the above

Most of all it has to be FUN. Now type 1 or type 2 fun is another question.

Any offers to expand the definition?

OK, for purposes of this discussion I really like this third definition here (with an honorable mention to the one about yodeling above). Using this definition I have one nagging question. What does one need to do in order to become good at "Dirty Skiing"?

I would love to hear opinions on this from people who know more than me (which is pretty much everyone on this board).

I think the question:

Maybe a question for the instructors

What "good" habits do you have to get more advanced students to loosen up on in order to be able to adapt to more difficult conditions/terrain?

leads down one path to answer my question, but is there perhaps another way to approach the problem?

 

[crgildart]

OK, for purposes of this discussion I really like this third definition here (with an honorable mention to the one about yodeling above). Using this definition I have one nagging question. What does one need to do in order to become good at "Dirty Skiing"?

Rock skis that you really TRULY aren't concerned about wrecking. That said, there is also the knowledge that hitting a rock skidding sideways can send you cartwheeling with zero warning.. Someone else mentioned full length gouges instead of sideways gashes hitting edges.. The latter can be indicative of a crash as well.

 

[fatbob]

Bronn the sellsword: he doesn't ski with honor, but he wins.

True facts Bronn the sellsword had the biggest selling UK No 1 single of 1995

 

[KingGrump]

Well if a perfect on groomer carve is "clean" then dirty skiing is kinda the opposite - a blend of hackery, jiggery pokery, skid slidery and improvisation.

I think letting your tails deliberately slide out at the end of a turn in spring snow to get that glorious loose spray is a "dirty" move but the real point is that dirty is in the eye of the beholder like how much brine do you need in your martini.

For me a perfect carve is a very small part of my skiing universe. Don't get me wrong. I love the feeling of a clean carve when it happens. I'm often off in the wild woolies, steeps, bumps, trees and what not. The snow condition is generally errr, interesting and/or at least 3D. For most of those conditions, a clean carve is the last thing I needed and/or wanted. I still ski technically as "clean" as I can so I can have more reserve to incorporate the "non-clean" movements required to ensure a positive outcome. I don't consider it as "dirty" skiing. I look at it as making the best of a interesting situation.

OK Now we're getting somewhere:

Dirty skiing can be

- skiing actual dirt or certainly suboptimal conditions that many would turn their noses up at
- skiing less classically good snow or terrain in your own manner
- using your own blend of legit technique and low down cunning to mix it up on "better" slopes
- any combination of the above

Most of all it has to be FUN. Now type 1 or type 2 fun is another question.

Any offers to expand the definition?

I'll take "D" for 20.

Maybe a question for the instructors

What "good" habits do you have to get more advanced students to loosen up on in order to be able to adapt to more difficult conditions/terrain?

I'm not a instructor. but I'll give it a try.

Sex. It works for me.
It loosens the hip for improved upper and lower body separation.

I'm just a short fat old guy who know nothing but like to lose elevation on the side of a snowy hillside with the help of gravity. So please accept my answer with a healthy dose of skepticism. Check with with your primary care physician (PCP) prior to proceeding.

What does one need to do in order to become good at "Dirty Skiing"?

Do lots of it and do it often. Yes, both "Dirty skiing" and the other thing.

 

[François Pugh]

I don't mind if folk call the tune, but I'll brook no wining should those folk be called on to pay the piper.
EDIT: posted from page one discussion on ducking ropes and consequences there of.

 

[Monique]

For me a perfect carve is a very small part of my skiing universe. Don't get me wrong. I love the feeling of a clean carve when it happens. I'm often off in the wild woolies, steeps, bumps, trees and what not. The snow condition is generally errr, interesting and/or at least 3D. For most of those conditions, a clean carve is the last thing I needed and/or wanted. I still ski technically as "clean" as I can so I can have more reserve to incorporate the "non-clean" movements required to ensure a positive outcome. I don't consider it as "dirty" skiing. I look at it as making the best of a interesting situation.

Quoted for truth, just because the emphasis on carving is a pet peeve of mine. But I don't know that clean skiing needs to mean carving. I've seen fluid bump skiing that isn't carving, but is still clean.

 

[Crank]

For me a perfect carve is a very small part of my skiing universe. Don't get me wrong. I love the feeling of a clean carve when it happens. I'm often off in the wild woolies, steeps, bumps, trees and what not. The snow condition is generally errr, interesting and/or at least 3D. For most of those conditions, a clean carve is the last thing I needed and/or wanted. I still ski technically as "clean" as I can so I can have more reserve to incorporate the "non-clean" movements required to ensure a positive outcome. I don't consider it as "dirty" skiing. I look at it as making the best of a interesting situation. .

Yes and I would add that a lot of that type of skiing, call it dirty if you must, involves use of tactics and strategy including route finding, avoiding terrain traps, seeking the best snow, most fluid line, fun and interesting terrain to play with... the list goes on and the techniques employed can be quite varied. Come to think of it it's not dirty at all - it's just skiing.

 

[BS Slarver]

@Frankly - pretty sure that crap didn't happen in the Catskills ?!?
Maybe at Villa Roma ... but that place doesn't count.

Perhaps some dirty skiing there as they have 3 snowguns

 

[Chris Walker]

OK, this is getting really interesting for me! (Nothing to do with coffee but I'm also excited we have a coffee emoji now. @Philpug and @Tricia rock!)

Quoted for truth, just because the emphasis on carving is a pet peeve of mine. But I don't know that clean skiing needs to mean carving. I've seen fluid bump skiing that isn't carving, but is still clean.

What in your opinion is the genesis of the emphasis on carving you mention? Is it in ski schools that you feel this skill is over-emphasized to the detriment of other important skills?

Excellent point that clean skiing doesn't need to mean carving. Even World Cup skiers aren't carving all the time. We've spent some time developing a definition for Dirty Skiing, but is clean skiing just carving? I don't think so. To me it's starting to sound like Clean skiing is skiing that is fluid, balanced, and intentional. Dirty skiing, by contrast is making more instinctual recovery moves when you get thrown off balance or in a tight spot that may not always be pretty, but they are effective? Am I zeroing in any?

Do lots of it and do it often. Yes, both "Dirty skiing" and the other thing.

OK, ha ha, focusing for the moment on the skiing part of Do lots of it and do it often: To get better at skiing dirty, do you need to ski dirty often, or can you, by deliberately practicing and drilling the fundamentals of stance, balance, pressure, edging, rotary skills, etc., build the skills needed to tackle the "tricky" terrain where "dirty" moves are needed?

Yes and I would add that a lot of that type of skiing, call it dirty if you must, involves use of tactics and strategy including route finding, avoiding terrain traps, seeking the best snow, most fluid line, fun and interesting terrain to play with... the list goes on and the techniques employed can be quite varied. Come to think of it it's not dirty at all - it's just skiing.

Perhaps this is why I'm having so much trouble wrapping my head around the concept of "dirty" skiing. If deliberate, practiced techniques are being brought to bear to ski the slope effectively, can we really call it dirty?