tkarhu wrote: ↑Thu Jan 05, 2023 3:49 am
tkarhu wrote: ↑Wed Jan 04, 2023 3:40 pm
I also weight the inner rear edge of my front ski in deepish (10-40 cm) snow, too, with my Gammes. I am just wondering, what is the mechanics why and how that works? I can repeat the trick, but understanding the mechanics could let me use my skis in more creative ways.
I have a few initial assumptions, what could be the reason.
1) Could the trick work because that weighting helps carving? I think pressuring is not that important in deep snow because skis really do not carve there I guess. So if that would be a hard surface trick, it would sound more like a carving thing I guess. Well Gamme nordic rocker for sure might do something there, but is that enough to carve?
2) Could it work through weight placement against an external force? Many sea kayaking techniques use such tricks. For example, you lean your body weight towards the front of a kayak, if you want to turn your kayak towards a wave. Similarly, when you put weight on the back of your ski, the rear part of your ski starts to press towards the external force (ie. downhill snow), and its front end will move away from the force. You could think of this also as two rows of men pushing against each other, like in some sports. At places of the row where your own team pushes hard, it will move towards or through the opposing team’s row. At places where you push less, the opposing team will push through your team’s row. Likewise, the less weighted end of a kayak will move away from a wave, and the less weighted end of a ski will move uphill, away from the friction that you are facing. (This idea feels somewhat counter intuitive to me, but it really works at least for the sea kayaking part of it because I use it in practice.)
3) Could it be related to skidding, ie. sliding on a surface? With stiff double camber skis, a carved turn would have a loooong arc. Pressuring the back of a front ski makes the front ski skid (ie. side slide), which helps to make tighter turns. Yet you do not want the tail of the front ski to cut into the snow, but rather to slide across the snow.
To summarize, item #4
4) Pressuring the rear of a ski lifts its tip up. This leads the ski tip towards the surface of snow, where it has less weight on top of it, and moves lighter.
Idea #4 got clearer, when I re-read
@DropKneeDiehard's following post in another thread:
DropKneeDiehard wrote: ↑Tue Nov 29, 2022 3:38 am
A Swedish Telemark Legend from the 90s taught me to ski with most of the weight on the rear ski (In certain conditions) using the front ski as a hover craft pushing on the heel of the front ski to raise the tip.
I have yet another short list — understanding trivial things can be helpful, when doing things.
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What to do, when turning:
* Sliding sideways, ie. skidding
* Sliding forwards (+ pressuring —> carving)
What not to to, when turning:
* Sticking (to snow, skis or poles)
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Point 4) is actually part of why the double camber powder trick works, I guess. When you have less snow on top of a leading ski, it leads you to a more helpful place that pointing its tip towards the bottom of a snowpack. Similarly, if kayaking down a wave your kayak's front part sticks under water at wave bottom, you will soon be doing a cartwheel. Better not make your ski gear stick
Cartwheels can be fun when kayaking, but maybe not, when skiing.
By the way,
@TallGrass,
@lowangle al,
@Stephen and you others have shared great insights in this thread lately. Thanks.