THE NOVICE; Mastering the Practical Curtsy, on Skis (original) (raw)

Health|THE NOVICE; Mastering the Practical Curtsy, on Skis

https://www.nytimes.com/1999/01/26/health/the-novice-mastering-the-practical-curtsy-on-skis.html

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THE NOVICE

Jan. 26, 1999

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January 26, 1999

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What was I doing on this snow-covered hillside, trying to make artful turns on my cross-country skis? I gave up downhill skiing in the first place, nearly 20 years ago, because I was too nervous to ski with enough confident speed to carve classy turns and handle the big, steep, mogul-filled hills.

But now I was deep into the ''telemark,'' a technique I had avoided for years. Developed about 100 years ago and named for a region in Norway, telemarking is something like a hybrid of cross-country and downhill skiing. Telemarkers use skis with a free heel and employ a series of turns to navigate a serious mountain and to ski through the magnificent vistas of untracked back country.

But I didn't think I needed this technique. I enjoy cross-country skiing and have become fairly strong and accomplished, capable of handling everything from the bridle path in Central Park to intermediate trails, both tracked and untracked. I can also manage the occasional black diamond trails, the designation applied to the most difficult, in places like Yosemite National Park; Big Sky, Montana; Aspen, Colo.; Jackson Hole, Wyo.; and the Catskills, Adirondacks and White Mountains. Without the telemark.

When challenged by a steep stretch of terrain I could always snowplow. This bit of expertise looks like its name and is done in a pigeon-toed stance while digging in with the inside edges of the skis. It forces the tails of the skis outward while the tips almost meet, and is effective at slowing you down on some pretty steep stuff.

Only small children would snowplow in public on downhill trails. But for a cross-country skier, the snowplow, though hardly attractive, is unembarrassingly handy. Depending on how much you stem one ski or the other, and how you place your weight, you can also execute a well-controlled turn on a snowplow.

So why would I need that odd-looking telemark turn, which seemed awkward, with an exaggerated, deeply bent knee? It always looked to me like a curtsy on skis, something I figured I would have to do only in the unlikely event that Queen Elizabeth II suddenly materialized on the ski slope.

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