Skiing How To: The Anatomy of a Turn

As skiers, how do we identify our sense of being, what motivates us?  Is our participation purely recreational or do we harbour aspirations to reach an elite level? Seeking to constantly improve making the ‘perfect turns’, is there even such a thing?  

At the mercy of mother nature, like Jekyll and Hyde, the mountains can be stunning one day then completely uninhabitable the next.  Then there’s the issue of risk and how much is too much.    

Having spent my entire life on skis, the lens through which I view these concepts continues to evolve over time. That’s the beauty of skiing. It’s one of the few sports that allows for participation as we move through time.  Multi-generational if you like. A rare activity that can be enjoyed by one, two or even three generations all together. Parents can ski with their parents and the parents of parents can ski with their grandchildren.  Huh?    

As a kid I played all the conventional sports but still to this day, none produce the same sense of fulfilment I get from sliding on snow. Most sports are governed by rigid rules and regulations. Run here, tackle there, don’t overstep the line, yada, yada, yada.   

Maybe it’s the anti-conformist side of free skiing that appeals to me. The feeling of going against the grain and pushing the boundaries (which comes back to risk).  Picking the right moment to dial it up to eleven, or knowing when to listen to environmental and human factors playing it safe.  

When I think of skiers past and present who’ve influenced today’s interpretation, they all blazed their path in different ways. That’s the thing about boosting around on a pair of skis, it’s different. It allows for expression in so many ways. Essentially if there’s snow, you can ski on it. Sometimes there doesn’t even have to be snow, just ask Candide.

Within reason, a skier can turn their skis wherever they want. Perhaps an exception being the icy race tracks of the World Cup circuit or the Olympics. But then even Bode Miller found ways to challenge the establishment, finding speed in places no one else dared to. 

This brings us back to the ‘true ski centre’ of this discussion.  Does the ‘perfect turn’ exist?  After all, the ‘turn’ is at skiing’s very core.  It has been since the start and still is now.  Whether it’s big mountain freeriding, powder, park and pipe, moguls or simply ripping around the resort with your friends, it can’t be done without turning your skis.  It’s the one constant across all forms of the sport.

The notion of the ‘perfect turn’ is tricky to comprehend given there’s so many different settings to consider.  Is it achieving max angulation on the piste with a perfect body position?  Feeling the ski bend as pressure is progressively applied.  Or is it a ripping pow slash with no edges or textbook required as snow billows up into the atmosphere.  

A free-skier floating effortlessly through an open powder field is going to interpret their surroundings differently to a World Cup Racer tackling a terrifying downhill track. The heightened senses of a Freeride World Tour athlete staring down the Bec des Rosses will analyse the complex terrain differently to a weekend warrior.

And there-in lies the quandary of the search for the ‘perfect turn’. The juxtaposition if you like. Long vs short, powder vs crud, groomers vs a World Cup Mogul course.  It’s comparing the incomparable. Maybe we shouldn’t even try.  

Maybe the ‘perfect turns’ are the ones made in our subconscious mind on the eve of a powder day. Dreaming of making a bee-line to your favourite run. The secret stash at your home resort, the one only you and a select few know about.  

Imagining the contours of the terrain, the texture of snow. Each ‘perfect turn’ envisioned in sequence. One, two, three, feel the snow and the rebound it provides.  Letting it rip turn after turn, long, short, shallow or deep. Skis, body and mind perfectly in sync. It’s the peaking arousal of the senses, the ultimate rush.

Last winter was definitely no world beater here in Australia, feeling like the eternal spring as El Nino did its thing.  

Challenging conditions for laying down the ‘perfect turn’ although on the right equipment, and with the right attitude, maybe it can be done. This brings us back to the original question. Who’s to say what the ‘perfect turn’ looks like and more to the point, does it really even matter? As long as you’re living in the moment, absorbing only what’s in front of you.

At Hotham we were fortunate to have some of the most talented skiers in the world turn their skis however they wanted. Olympian Harry Laidlaw scored the best powder day of the season in July. One of Australia’s leading GS skiers, Harry skis with grace and power and is equally at home off piste as he is on. I was fortunate to be skiing with Harry this day and it was a privilege to witness him strap the wide boards to his feet and rip some powder turns wherever he wanted.

Around this time offered the best conditions of the season which also saw the homecoming of Hotham big mountain skier and World Extreme Champion Andrea Binning and her family. Andrea’s Norwegian husband Stian Hagen needs no introduction, having been at the forefront of the international free-skiing and mountaineering scene for decades also.  

Together with their kids Aksel and Camile, they’re the epitome of an adventure family. A great example of how the love of skiing and a life in the mountains can be passed on and enjoyed by multiple generations. To see Andrea and Stian out ripping around the resort with their family it was obvious the future of skiing is in safe hands.  

So, what’s the underlying theme or take-home message? Maybe there isn’t one, other than any day skiing is better than not skiing. Sure, nothing beats bottomless powder, but if we only skied the deep days we’d miss out on so much. Mountain life fosters friendships spanning a lifetime.  

This winter take the singles line and strike up a conversation with a stranger on the chair. It’s amazing the connections that can be made when forced to share a confined space with someone you’ve never met in a raging blizzard! It’ll usually start with ‘how good’s today!’ or ‘gee, I like the look of those skis, what are they?’ For those few minutes polar opposite lives collide, swapping stories with a common interest. Skiing.               

Maybe the ‘perfect turns’ exist, maybe they don’t. It could be as simple as they’re the ones we’re making at the time no matter the conditions. Everyone’s ‘anatomy of a turn’ will be different and that’s ok. Our own individual brushstrokes on the canvas of skiing.  If you ever do stumble across the ‘perfect turn’ bottle the feeling and savour it. In the meantime, we can all have fun searching.