Stuck in the wedge

[François Pugh]

From another thread.
"The amount of high speed uncontrolled straight line snow plowing still amazes me. Lost track of how many incidents I witnessed in just a few hours from skiers on trails they should not be on with their skill level. Given the recent thaw & freeze this past week combined with presidents weekend brought out all the yahoo’s; I haven’t seen ski patrol so busy in a while. I took a few runs early before getting hit with the chairlift safety bar. That was my sign to call it a day. "

The above quote from another thread reminded me of something I've been thinking of that's come to mind quite a bit this year in particular.

I am amazed at the amount of folk out on the hill skiing in a gliding wedge. OK, we all have to start somewhere, but it seems that people are now stuck in a gliding wedge for years and years. Back in the (good) old days, folks started out in a snow plow. It was uncomfortable and tiring. People generally wanted to get out of it and onto parallel skiing as quickly as possible. Even when the were stuck in it to turn, they generally skied parallel, then did the stem-christie to turn and then went back to skis parallel.

Now it's hard to keep your skis parallel when going straight, so I'm not surprised they are not skiing with skis parallel outside of turns, but it seems they don't learn to match edges, i.e. on both left edges or both right edges. No, what I see is they are in a gliding wedge with edges lightly engaged, but fighting each other, and they seem to be stuck in the gliding wedge for years.

Is it just me, or do other old-timers notice this. Do you thing it's an effect of the switch to the gliding wedge? (on the plus side we see fewer parallel skiers with a perma-stem).

 

[johnnyvw]

IMO, for most people at a ski area, it's a "recreation", not a sport to be mastered. Get down the hill standing up is the goal, no concern about how. It's just an amusement park ride....

 

[Magikarp]

Lessons are expensive, turns are tiring, going down in the straight line seems like the easy (and fun?) way out.

I will say it took me a few years to learn recognize and enjoy a good carving turn, and I'm still working on my technique every day.

 

[KevinF]

I hiked our local bump today (Wachusett for those of you in Massachusetts). The hiking trail runs along side a ski trail for a bit so I watched for a few minutes.

Granted, it’s a holiday weekend that brings out everyone, but to my unpracticed eye, every person I saw was in the back seat and I didn’t see a single real turn.

What I did see though was a lot of smiles. They appeared to be having fun. Enjoying the little jumps on the side of the trails, waving at the curious hiker (ie, me), laughing at their friends’ falls, etc.

Could they be having more fun with better technique? Almost certainly. Is there any chance of them putting in the work required to improve? Almost certainly not.

 

[Tom K.]

The amount of high speed uncontrolled straight line snow plowing still amazes me.

For us anyway, this becomes most prevalent during Christmas/New Year's week and President's Day weekend.

Mrs. K and I were skiing during the Friday Weekend Warmup, and saw the same things @KevinF noted above. Kind of entertaining, mostly non-threatening, and all appeared to be having fun.

I suspect that a lot of those people will leave happy, and not ski again until next season, which works fine for me.

 

[EricG]

The gliding wedge or straight line uncontrolled pizza was justified to an instructor by a father who’s teenager ran into a class and hit a 10-11 year-old girl with: The ticket let’s us go where ever the F we want, maybe your class should stay on the easier trails or you should be teaching them to stay out of the way of those skiing faster (much more vulgar in person). I had just brought a pole back the class that one of the kids dropped getting on the lift and was watching this all unfold from just below. When I left SP was involved and i hope the the young girl is ok since she was being brought down in a sled. I couldn’t imagine being the parent on the other end of the phone getting the call from SP about the situation.

 

[scvaughn]

I saw a lot of high-speed back-seat antics yesterday and today. Holidays bring out the inexperienced in droves, so I stay off of the groomers as much as possible.

 

[Tricia]

So, here is my thought on the matter.
I have more fun as I learn to ski better, but that doesn't mean that I wasn't having fun when I skied horribly in the past.
If these people in a wedge are having fun and not putting you in danger, let them have fun.
Maybe they'll figure it out and learn to ski better, or maybe they'll continue on their merry way having fun sliding on snow.

Where I get frustrated is when someone over terrains someone who is not skilled enough and puts them and others in danger.

 

[surfsnowgirl]

Don't typically ski a lot on presidents weekend for this reason. Bromley was exactly this yesterday with at least 3 sleds down by patrol. Heard reports of too many yahoo's on trails they shouldn't have been on. Magic was a bit of the same today but less people. I saw a lot of people sliding down the hill with lots of wedges, major back seat skiing and just going faster than their apparent ability level.

I guess people think they are skiing when they are bombing in power wedges so they don't bother to do anything about it.

I tend to ski the harder trails as they tend to be less crowded and when I'm in a crowded area I just ski the sides of the trails out of the way of the bombers.

 

[Tony Storaro]

IMO, for most people at a ski area, it's a "recreation", not a sport to be mastered. Get down the hill standing up is the goal, no concern about how. It's just an amusement park ride....

Damn right!

Let’s go skidding they say. That’s how it sounds literally in my language. 95% of the people just dont’t care.
Number of intermediates I saw in the last three days taking lessons to improve their technique: zero. ZERO.

In the past that was puzzling and annoying the s*it out of me, now I just stand at the bottom of the icy steep runs clearly marked as “advanced skiers only’ and enjoy the yard sale show.

 

[dan ross]

My biggest concern in the big picture is the sense of entitlement conveyed by the “ parent” in @ErickG post.
Who is going to teach this young person to drive? Behavior on and off the slopes is modeled.

 

[Erik Timmerman]

Plenty of people bombing with parallel skis. Is that better? There was a huge bloodstain at the bottom of Liftline at Stowe yesterday from someone that had straightened it into frozen moguls and slid the rest of the way unconscious on his face. Right after they got done cleaning him up I saw another person straight-line it right into the woods. Luckily for him he went into saplings and not one big beech or maple. He thought it was funny. People are stupid. To try and blame power wedge vs. Snowplow is ridiculous.

I taught family from Florida in a private lesson on Friday. I had them for three hours and they had never seen snow before. We rode the lift twice at the end of the three hours. I asked them if they were going to take more lessons. They were like we don't need to, we know how to ski now. I saw them in the afternoon on a blue run. I pulled my group over and said I don't want them behind us. It makes me wish that there was no grooming anywhere on holidays, they'd never get away with this if there wasn't.

 

[EricG]

People are stupid. To try and blame power wedge vs. Snowplow is ridiculous.

You’re not wrong, People are stupid and the overall sense of entitlement is frustrating.

 

[François Pugh]

Plenty of people bombing with parallel skis. Is that better? There was a huge bloodstain at the bottom of Liftline at Stowe yesterday from someone that had straightened it into frozen moguls and slid the rest of the way unconscious on his face. Right after they got done cleaning him up I saw another person straight-line it right into the woods. Luckily for him he went into saplings and not one big beech or maple. He thought it was funny. People are stupid. To try and blame power wedge vs. Snowplow is ridiculous.

I taught family from Florida in a private lesson on Friday. I had them for three hours and they had never seen snow before. We rode the lift twice at the end of the three hours. I asked them if they were going to take more lessons. They were like we don't need to, we know how to ski now. I saw them in the afternoon on a blue run. I pulled my group over and said I don't want them behind us. It makes me wish that there was no grooming anywhere on holidays, they'd never get away with this if there wasn't.

The straight-lining out of control, whether skis are parallel, or in a wedge or in a snow plow, is deplorable.

Oh, and I 100 percent agree, that were there no grooming, these out of control people would be stopped (by falling) long before they reached the speeds they are able to reach today.

However, that's not what has been on my mind; it's a different topic. What is on my mind, is are there more people spending years in wedge, than there were spending years in a snow plow fifty years ago?

 

[Tony S]

It makes me wish that there was no grooming anywhere on holidays,

LOL!

 

[surfsnowgirl]

Magic in particular has very limited terrain right now. There's a sign by the summit chair that says no novice way down but that doesn't stop people who shouldn't be up there.

I definitely agree parallel bombing is a problem too. People think because they are skiing fast they are good skiers but in reality they are one turn away from a yard sale.

 

[lisamamot]

The power wedgers scare me far less than what I call Flappers.

Flappers are generally teen through 20s, male, jacket unzipped, no poles or poles held and not utilized. They proceed down advanced trails, groomed or not, at an alarming speed bouncing around in skidded semi-turns with an utter lack of control. If I spot a Flapper, or even better a group of Flappers in the wild, I stop and observe from a safe distance before proceeding down behind them.

 

[AmyPJ]

Even better is they'll post their speed on various ski groups on social media and brag about how fast they are.

 

[ilovepugs]

The power wedgers scare me far less than what I call Flappers.

Flappers are generally teen through 20s, male, jacket unzipped, no poles or poles held and not utilized. They proceed down advanced trails, groomed or not, at an alarming speed bouncing around in skidded semi-turns with an utter lack of control. If I spot a Flapper, or even better a group of Flappers in the wild, I stop and observe from a safe distance before proceeding down behind them.

Am now visualizing Jazz Age accessories and styling for these skiers. Thanks!

 

[scvaughn]

The power wedgers scare me far less than what I call Flappers.

Flappers are generally teen through 20s, male, jacket unzipped, no poles or poles held and not utilized. They proceed down advanced trails, groomed or not, at an alarming speed bouncing around in skidded semi-turns with an utter lack of control. If I spot a Flapper, or even better a group of Flappers in the wild, I stop and observe from a safe distance before proceeding down behind them.

The ones that scare me even more than "flappers" are the ones who look like they're initiates of the Ministry of Silly Walks. *Avoid at all costs.