Tips on dealing with slush

A snowHead

Hi guys, am so enjoying reading this forum again. Thank you so much for your combined knowledge (and banter)! I would love some tips on the following for our Easter skiing trip. I would guess I am a confident intermediate (12 Weeks but spaced out every 2-3 years (due to our location). I have a ‘dodgy’ right knee due to 2 past skiing accidents which tends to hurt at the end of the day. I am happiest on blues and reds, ok-ish on blacks. I am fairly fast generally. But my technique falls apart completely when skiing home at the end of the day in soft slushy snow. The rest of the (all adult) family seem to make light work of it (almost enjoy it). But it is my bete noire, and I am then much slower. Please give me some tips and techniques on how to ski slush? (Yes I am not adverse to down-lifting if need be, but at Easter this year, it could be soft snow from 2-3pm rolling eyes

onwards and we like to ski until the end if possible.)

A snowHead

Fat skis.

( which of course are horrible on early morning refrozen death pack so it is pick your poison)

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

We sometimes refer to slush as "poor man's powder" as it can be skied with a similar technique, skis, yes ideally fat ones, close together, subtle turns, bit of a bounce if necessary, no skidded turns. So just ski it like it's powder, but more aggressively. Muscle burn is likely, but it's great fun.

What's that, you don't know how to ski powder? Oh.

@Dave of the Marmottes, Yeah, but I'm not going out in this weather on my race skis. As it happens my new fats aren't too bad on firm pistes, although I've yet to encounter real rockard boilerplate since I got them.

You need to Login to know who's really who.

How much do you ‘sink’ in to slushy late season snow when you are on piste skis?

I’ve never understood the recommendation for fat skis when skiing heavy, wet snow on piste. Especially when it has a high water content and you have to cope with more surface area of the fat ski struggling to glide due to the level of “sticktion”.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

@rob@rar, Yeh! We agree! wink

As I read this, I was trying to fathom the benefit of fat skis in slush. I also reckoned that the greater surface area of fats would require more effort to bash through the slush.
I actually enjoy slush, as there's no chance of losing a edge as with ice. Go at it with power and high angles is my recipe. Smash the stuff out of the way, otherwise it may trip you. Great fun, but tiring.

You'll need to Register first of course.

@Mollerski, I ski slush either fast, making quite edgy GS type turns on gentler terrain, and on steeper terrain more like ‘poor man’s powder’ with a lot of pressure management to shape the turn. Neither requires fat skis, and my experience of skiing wet snow (eg EoSB elephant snot), a ski with a big surface area is a hindrance, especially if not well waxed.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

Sure others are far more qualified than me to offer coaching tips. I have found two things made the difference between happily progressing downward and floundering around in soft "end of day" snow. Most important for me was realising my skis had to be closer together than normal. I tend to ski with my skis somewhat apart, in soft snow that ends up with them going in different directions and the whole thing becomes much harder. Consciously keeping them together makes a big difference. I have also found picking the steepest line I can see helps too, maybe it involves more effort but it seems to actually be easier when in heavy slushy stuff.

After all it is free

Unfortunately will be on “good” rental skis so looking at the selection that means only 76mm wide.
So treat it like powder. Legs more together, but slightly diff techniques depending on the slope?
Reasonably fast on gentler slopes with big turns. But on steeper slopes, go for gentler turns and more up and down movement? I’m not great off piste/nervous (scene of the two accidents) but I know (roughly) what I’m supposed to do.

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

@Cato, think about how you make the skis turn. There are only three ways to make the ski follow around a curve: you can tip it on its edge; you can twist/skid it; you can press it against/in to the snow. Most turns we make on the hill are a blend of those three steering elements, and a good skier will vary that blend to match the conditions and how they want to ski them.

In heavy, slushy snow twisting/skidding the skis is (a) very much harder work, and (b) runs more of a risk of catching an edge or other kids of ski divergence. So that steering element is less effective when skiing slushy snow than it would otherwise be. So you are more reliant on edging and pressure management. Which of these is dominant in a turn will depend on how quick you want to go: faster, use more edge angle; slower use more pressure to bend the ski.

To refer to your first post, you might think your family were skiing effortlessly. I’d hazard a guess they were putting in a lot of effort, albeit with a good blend of steering elements. Slush takes more effort, no matter how you ski it.

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

@Je suis un Skieur, higher speed, GS turns work well if you’re on terrain that you are happy to ski quickly. But steeper terrain does require slower speeds, and you will have the option to press your turns around the slushy mounds (if they have started to mound up).

snow reports

@Je suis un Skieur, haha yes, I had a pair of totally worn out, knackered Rossi FIS GSs that were a dream in slush

Also... slushy bumps snowHead

You know it makes sense.

Straightline it.

Hockeystop at the bottom.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Keep your speed up and do a series of small/short hockey stops. If you over-skid a turn you'll get worn out as your pushing a lot of heavy snow out of the way. It's a bit like bumps technique as any skidded turn builds snow under your ski.

Alternatively, long GS type turns and just smash through it.

A snowHead

Thanks so much guys. Very helpful! I fear a straight-line could help horribly badly but I have noted no skidded turns (which I fear is my problem at the end of the day) but rounded pressured turns, keeping my speed up and facing down the fallline as the slush will slow me down. And legs more together. Let’s hope the cooler weather predicted materialises. Thanks!

A snowHead

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

You need to Login to know who's really who.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

You'll need to Register first of course.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

@Dave of the Marmottes, when I first learnt to carve, under the tuition of the venerable Phil Smith on the Grande Motte very early season, one of the things he had us doing was GS turns through the variable crap in-between pistes. The message was, "Hold the edge and let the ski do the work". I simply took that lesson and applied it to slush as another form of variable crap. In many ways it's easier; you don't get chucked around as much in a pure carved line because the slush gives way as you cut through it and once you get used to how it reacts you can deliberately push it around and play with it. I can still ski heavy winter crap the same way when I'm fit enough but I can't play with it like I can spring snow.

I'm probably a bit biased because I've done a high proportion of spring skiing but I'd take sunny spring conditions over heavy winter crud (or boilerplate) any day.

After all it is free

As per advice given above-ski like powder- rounded turns, facing down fall line on steeper terrain if you have the confidence to.

Basically imagine you are a boat… feet reasonably close together, working as a single unit ploughing through the slush and if you concentrate on one thing it would be keeping weight distribution as centred as possible anticipating early any pull away from the centre if the ski sticks to a ball of slush on occasion, maximising the area of ski in contact with the snow to optimise “plough effect”

@Je suis un Skieur, yeah I think it's great but there has to be some base to push back. Get too isothermic / rotted out and there just isn't which is why a wider ski does a better job of creating its own platform. At least that is my experience based decision. Don't get me wrong the previous laps the GS skis had been great fun but the (groomed) snow suddenly was overcooked and there was nothing.

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

I'm in the carve it up with loads of edge angle camp. In general a narrower ski with a bit of side cut is good for that. The only thing I'd add is a bigger shovel or some rocker does help when you don't get it quite right and smash into a pile of slush. I had a couple of moments like that when out on SLs in the slush recently (which obviously don't have either).

The other thing to watch for is when you are getting really high edge angles and you start booting our in piles of slush!