Archive for category Alpine Skiing
Alpine Skiing Tips
Posted by admin in Alpine Skiing, Tips on July 3, 2011
Alpine skiing is a sport loved by many. It is quite popular in North and South America, East Asia, Europe, South Korea and Japan. It is gaining popularity in China. Slopes of steep mountains covered with snow are the best for this sport. It involves the use of lengthy skis to slide down the hills. The main challenges of the sport are to control speed and direction of descent. The snow plow technique is adapted to stop and turn the skis to the inward direction.
Skiers who are advanced in Alpine skiing use the parallel turn method while turning. The skis are placed parallel to each other to allow distribution of weight. The angle of ski (edge angle) is an important consideration. It determines the friction generated on the edges so as to allow turning. Modern skiers use Carving. This is an advanced technique where the knees are rolled on the sides. The hips and upper body are placed vertically.
With confidence, skiers are able to tackle steep, long slopes. In North America, the black diamond slope that is steeper has double lines and challenging glade sections. Medium slopes are marked with blue squares. They are not groomed by machines. Easy and smooth slopes are marked with green color markings on circles. Competitive Alpine skiing involves two disciplines. There is the free style and the racing type. Read the rest of this entry »
A Brief History of Alpine Skiing
Posted by admin in Alpine Skiing on July 3, 2011
The history of skiing is an interesting one. As the story goes, skiing was preceded by snowshoeing, or so we think. When Sondre Norheim, a Norwegian now heralded as the “father of modern day skiing”, invented the ski binding, skiers were able to turn while moving downhill – “Slalom” (also known as Telmark skiing) was born! Skiers used the new movements and skills more as a practical means of moving from one location to another through the snow but, soon, as better and more effective binding was created, allowing more freedom of movement on the skis, the practice began to morph into one of fun, challenge and finally sport.
In fact, just 75 years ago, very few people had ever heard of Alpine skiing (also known as downhill skiing). Alpine skiing was something only a handful of people knew about and it was predominately practiced in the European Alps. During the evolution of downhill skiing, there were a couple of hotels and overnight lodging accommodations in the Alps that remained open during the winter, but they were few in number and far between. During the winter season they housed a small sprinkling of cold-weather adventurers who came to the Alps to test their newly acquired skills on the snow. Read the rest of this entry »