Introduction
Ski touring and back-country skiing have grown in popularity in recent years as people have come to appreciate the beauty of the hills in winter and the solitude and unspoiled vistas that open up away from the piste. Edinburgh Ski Touring Club exists to help members ski tour in Scotland safely and in congenial company. Club members have predominantly come to ski-touring from a hill walking background and are looking to extend their pleasure by getting out in the hills in winter. The emphasis is on the whole route, and traversing plateaux and climbing hills are not simply meanings to reach remote and untouched downhill slopes, but part of a rewarding day's exercise. Recently many members have sought to learn some telemark techniques to increase their enjoyment and to allow them to ski slightly steeper terrain. The picture shows someone telemarking a reasonably gentle Scottish slope. The picture shows the free heel being used to good effect to give a low stance and good stability.
The ESTC style
Skiing in the mountains in Scotland can be dangerous and people can have different attitudes to risks and strategies for managing risk. In general ESTC does not seek to ski where and when the risks are highest and the need for advanced skills and equipment is greatest. For example, the risk of avalanches is much higher in some areas than others and 90% of Scottish avalanches actually occur during heavy snowfall.
In general the club encourages people to pick routes and ski well within their limits, to develop their skills to cope with situations they hope not to meet, and to equip themselves to cope with conditions in which they might not choose to start a trip but which they may meet due to the changeable nature of Scottish weather.
The club provides opportunities for less experienced members to enhance all aspects of skills relevant to safety in the hills in winter by drawing on the greater knowledge and skills of more experienced members.
To help you get a clearer grasp of what this statement about the club means it will be helpful to distinguish four other major types of skiing:
- Downhill Skiing
- Off Piste Skiing
- Track skiing (Nordic, Ski de Fond, Langlauf...)
- Skating
Downhill or Alpine Skiing
This is the most popular form of skiing amongst British skiers. The defining features are: the use of mechanical lifts to gain height, the use of equipment designed to give maximum control for the specialist task of coming downhill, and the use of prepared pistes to provide a variety of different levels of difficulty. This is the style of skiing we see most often on the television, and provides the blue riband events at the Winter Olympics. The economics lead to the development of resorts and package holidays to keep prices down for users and to enable the costs of development and maintenance to be met. So you ski in company with many other people. Skis are waxed on the base to improve their gliding speed downhill and are engineered to keep the whole ski, or at least its edge, in contact with the snow. Control of skis for downhill work is determined by the bindings and boots which join the skier to their skis and the metal edges of the skis which allow them to turn and brake on ice and hard packed snow. High stiff plastic boots and bindings that lock the foot, heel and toe, to the ski give maximum performance for speed in descent.
Beginners use slightly lower boots and have bindings which are design to protect their legs by breaking out and releasing the foot more easily if too much force is applied in the wrong directions. As any one who has downhilled will know that the advantage of downhill control comes at the expense of the flexibility to move on the flat or uphill, the fixed heel is its key strength and key weakness. The skills of downhill skiing are not, however, limited to downhill skis.
In general, if you can ski
downhill comfortably on fixed heel skis you will be able to use most of
these techniques with free heel skis, but will find that you need to go
slower and pick less steep slopes for your descents. Experience at
downhill skiing does give you many transferable skills, and as long as
speed and steepness and the adrenalin rush are not the only reason you
ski, downhill is a good platform to develop Nordic skills. Downhill
snow sports are changing all the time, snowboarding and mini skis are
two developments that have transformed downhill skiing resorts.
Off piste skiing
Some downhill skiers outgrow the confines of the pistes and there has been a growth of off-piste downhill skiing as people have experienced the joys of powder skiing and want more of it. Heli-skiing and the development of non-pisted slopes in resorts caters for those who want the downhill thrills but want the time and effort to get to the top of the slopes minimised.
The picture shows heli-skiers
descending through deep powder. Heli-skiing is banned in much of Europe
and heli-skiing in America, and where allowed in Europe, is always
expensive. For many people, therefore, off piste means away from the
crowds and finding fresh powder and this has led to the popularity of
ski mountaineering which involves climbing under your own power in
places where there are no lifts, no pistes, and hopefully no people
either.
(top)
Track skiing (Langlauf, Ski de fond, Nordic)
Track skiing is usually carried out at lower altitude and on more rolling country and often uses the tracks through forests. These characteristics are found more in northern Europe and this style of skiing developed in Germany, France and Scandinavia, where there was good prolonged winter snow cover at lower levels. The forests protect the snow from the heat of the sun and preserve good snow cover and provide protection from the wind, the tracks built for extracting timber are generally fairly gentle in gradient and perfect for the development of tracks.
In traditional track skiing the skis are long thin and light, and designed to glide forward easily as the skier kicks forward and pushed simultaneously on their poles. For recreational users the middle of the base of the skis is often a pattern of fishscales which grip the snow and provide friction when they are pushed down on (weighted). One ski is pushed down while the other glides forward and progress is made by alternating which foot is pressing down on the snow and which is gliding forward.
Originally, and still for competition skis, the friction between the ski and the snow was achieved by using waxes applied to the centre section of the ski base. The skis are designed to run in manicured tracks which are pressed into the snow by a special piste machine. Poles are shoulder height so that the upper body can contribute to more effective pushing. Because the skis run in tracks and the terrain is gentle there is no need for metal edges to turn the ski, this means skis can be kept light. Because skis are light, and it is the track which turns the ski, there is no need to rigid boots or heavy bindings. The kick and glide techniques are crucial to any form of ski touring across mixed terrain and track skiing is a good base on which to develop Nordic touring. Aerobically it is one of the best total body forms of exercise.
Track skiing has grown massive competitive activity and under the name Nordic skiing is a major component of the Winter Olympics. Before marathon running had gained its current popularity, long distance mass participation Nordic events, like the Trans-Jurassienne, mixed elite athletes with weekend tourists to generate fields of thousands.
The picture shows the person on the left in the tracks while the person on the right is skating on the piste beside the tracks. The terrain is gently rolling although there are steep mountains in the background.
Skating
The light skis and long poles of traditional track skiing allow you where there is firm and smooth snow out side the tracks to leave the tracks and to pick the skis off the snow and use a skating motion to push forward off one ski and then the other. This has led to the development of a very stylish and fast form of cross country skiing and the typical track ski site now uses a piste bashing machine to make tracks with tracks down the side and a broad groomed skating piste in the middle. To skate you need to be fit, well co-ordinated with a good sense of balance. Anyone who has mastered skating is likely to have a good set of skills to develop into the specific techniques for ski-touring.
Ski-touring or Nordic Ski-touring
In Scandinavia track skiing developed from a form of skiing which was used as a practical method of getting around the country-side by farmers, but also by the military and border patrols, and here skis were heavier and had edges to assist braking and steering in un-manicured snow conditions. Boots were stiff heavy leather boots, developed from winter walking boots, to provide a flexibility to lift the heel but a rigidity to aid turning the ski onto its edges to brake and turn. These heavier skis and boots allowed the development of a unique style of skiing called telemark skiing. Ski-touring in Scotland in general has been based on this tradition and this type of equipment but at the present time the popularity of telemark skiing in the United States and the great technological advances in the use of plastics and other composites is making for a convergence between downhill skis and skis for use in the back-country.
Traditionally touring skis simply clamped and extension of the thick leather sole of the boot at the front and made no provision for releasing the foot under excessive pressure. These bindings worked well in gently rolling mountains but limited the steepness of slope that could be easily descended. The new plastic boots and bindings which provide both release under excessive pressure and greater rigidity by holding the complete boot to a front pivot point are encouraging people to be more adventurous and tackle steeper slopes and use more telemark techniques. Many people in the club have leather boots and straight edged Nordic skis with light bindings and find these appropriate to their needs for ski-touring in Scotland and Norway, others are already buying the new generation of telemark boots and skis and are finding them equally suitable for the style of skiing that the club practices. The straight edged Nordic skis may have fishscales or be waxed. In either case the camber of the ski ensures that the grippy part of the ski is in contact with the snow when climbing or crossing the flat, the weight of the skier is pushed down on one ski and off the other which is pushed gliding forward.
On steeper climbs, skins are use to improve the adhesion between the ski and the snow and to prevent back sliding. On the type of terrain that is found in Scottish ski-touring, the new equipment allows telemark, downhill and traditional Nordic techniques to be mixed. Straight fishscale skis may provide better grip than waxed skis and depending on where you want to go mean you may not need skins and therefore may be spared the hassle on putting skins on at the bottom of slopes and taking them off at the bottom. Ski-touring always involves making choices about the steepness of the ascents and descents you want to make and the amount of time you spend skiing in to the bottom of the hill, skiing across the plateaux. In winter ski touring you are usually less constrained by footpaths than when walking, and the depth of the zig-zags you choose can control the steepness of your ascent. ESTC occupies the middle ground between extremes and groups form around the known preferences and skills of members.
Gillette N and Dostal J (1988) Cross Country Skiing (Baton Wicks Publications Ltd., London) is the basic 'how to' text for cross country skiing.
(top)Ski Mountaineering
In the Alps and Pyrenees the
steepness of the slopes in the high mountains have made people
unwilling to give up the advantages of fixed heel skis for the control
they give in descent and they have developed Ski Mountaineering
equipment especially to allow ski-touring from refuge to refuge in the
high mountains. This is a late season activity to benefit from longer
days and more settled weather and requires high levels of winter skills
in navigation and safety to mitigate the remoteness of the territory
and the fickleness of the weather.
The equipment has been developed so that the bindings allow the heel to be released for walking uphill but be rigidly attached for the descent. The ascents tend to be steep and there is little flat or rolling terrain and there is less advantage in developing the gliding performance of equipment. Ski mountaineering equipment, therefore, prioritises the descent characteristics of the ski such as the American descent shown in this picture. Skins are attached to the bottom of skis for the ascents and skis are waxed to improve their downhill glide rather than as with Nordic skis to improve their grip on slopes and plateau.
A great personal site by Anar Andalkar provides a rich insight into American ski mountaineering.
© Copyright Edinburgh Ski Touring Club 2010. e-mail: webman@estc.org.uk Last updated March 2010