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Importance of strength and conditioning

We’ve all been there. Usually it’s early to mid afternoon on that second or
third day of the ski trip. The legs start to feel a little heavy and you can’t quite
hold the edge at speed you could yesterday. Your technique starts to become
a little rough around the edges and the dreaded ‘A-frame’ and ‘backseat’ start
to rear they’re ugly heads. Your friends have to stop and wait for you more
often and all you can think about is a sit down with a hot chocolate or a vin
chaud.
Why is this happening? Maybe it’s your boots, or those skis the guy in the
shop sold you. it’s not and you know what the answer is; it’s you. A little bit of
hard work on your strength and conditioning before you go away can help to
prevent all of the above. We’ve put together some helpful hints, tips and
exercises for you get on with to help you get the most out of your trip.

How to train:
We want you to get the most out your holiday and your time is precious, and
so any time you do have to prepare for your trip should be used wisely. In
order to do that we need to maximise the transfer of training, namely make
sure that what you do in the gym, has as big an effect on what you do on hill
as possible.
So first of all, you don’t ski sat down, so why sit down to train for skiing. You
also don’t use one muscle group at a time, so we can forget about all those
leg extension and hamstring curl machines. We want to use movements that
keep us in contact with the ground and use multiple muscle groups including
your core together, being able to do this is massively important for skiing
technique.
Skiing is a sport that occurs in all 3 movement planes (think
forwards/backwards, side to side and rotations) and so we want to train in all
3 planes. Using diagonal, sideways and single leg movements will help to
achieve this and will make sure you’re prepared for those direction changes
when you’re away.
As you enter a turn, you have to absorb force, this is called eccentric loading.
Think of this as the downward movement in an exercise like a squat. It’s very
important to control the eccentric movement on the way down as well as push
back up (concentric movement). In the strength exercises below, count 3
seconds in your head on the way down to make sure the muscles are
switched on as they have to be while you initiate the turn.

Increasing strength:
Strength is arguably the most important quality to a skier. The ability to
absorb, control and generate force is vital. Here we’ve included 8 exercises
that you can use to help increase your lower body and core strength before
you go away.
Back squat – A classic for developing lower body strength. By using free
weights we get more activation of the core to help maintain posture. Keeping
postural control, with particular attention on the lower back is a non negotiable
for all these exercises. Look to do 3-4 sets of 5-8 reps to increase strength.

Lateral squat – most movement in skiing happens side to side. This
exercises helps develop strength in that plane.

Split squat – It’s very rare in skiing that the loads going through each leg are
the same, that is why this is a great exercise. It offers a brilliant core and
balance challenge too.

Stiff leg deadlift – A great exercise for developing hamstring strength, a
muscle group that is often overlooked.

Drop landings - The aim of this exercise is to improve force absorption and
movement mechanics. Stay upright and aim to keep the knees inline with your
second toe on landing.

Side bridge – All 3 of these core exercises are aimed at developing core
activation and endurance, that way, even at the end of a long day, you can
still hold good form.
Curl ups.
Glute bridge.

Conditioning – ski fitness
So you wake up (or are woken up) at 7am, you open your curtains to see that
it snowed 30cm last night and it’s a bluebird day. A full day of pow lines
beckons until you get 20 turns in and your lungs and legs are burning. A bit of
conditioning work beforehand could have prevented this.
If you examine most people’s ski day you’ll see it’s quite intermittent with
periods of moderate to high intensity exercise (that’s the skiing), interspersed
with periods of rest on chairlifts, looking at piste maps and the occasional
refreshment stop.
As such, interval training offers a great transfer to your skiing, periods of
higher intensity exercise followed by rest periods. You can play around with
the work and rest times. As a starter though try 2 mins of hard work followed
by 2 minutes light intensity. Completing 8 of those is 32 minutes of exercise
so a short sharp session that crosses over to skiing brilliantly.
You can use intervals in a variety of activities we’ve listed below.

Skiers edge
Cycling (try intervals on your way to or from work during your commute, 2
birds with on stone. Stretching is particularly important after cycling)
Running
Cross trainer
Rowing machine
Ciruits

If your holiday is going to consist of touring and or hiking for your lines,
interval training will still help. You’ll also benefit from putting on your walking
boots and heading to the hills over here.

Flexibility for skiing
So, you’ve done your strength training and your conditioning work but no
matter how hard you try, you can’t flex your boot or get your weight to the
front of the ski. Sometimes, if you don’t have enough flexibility you’re just not
going to be able to ski well. Here we’ve included some key stretches to target
the usual suspects, common areas of tightness we see that hold people back.

Some key stretching exercises:
Calf
Hamstring
Hip flexor
Piriformis
Hip adductor
Lats

Balance:
Balance is the ability to keep your centre of mass over your base of support.
When you are skiing your base of support is essentially a big rectangle
running from outside edge to outside edge and the length of your skis, that’s
pretty big. But when we start moving at pace and particularly later in the day
when conditions can become a bit choppy and uneven, keeping balance is
more difficult and is when balance training can really come to the fore.
Here some drills you can use to start improving your balance. You may find
that starting on a flat floor is enough to start with before progressing to uneven
surfaces like balance boards and stability pods.
Try introducing them to your warm ups in the gym or for a real challenge
during your rest period in your conditioning intervals.
balance board split squats
Balance board balances/single leg
Skater hops

Thanks to Neil Welch MSc, ASCC currently strength and conditioning coach for the England junior ski team and consultant coach with nwconditioning. He has worked with British alpine skiing, ski-X and snowboard athletes as well as recreational skiers and snowboarders.”
Neil is avalable for private training/group sessions @ ‘Profeet’ contact him directly or through Profeet – neil@nwconditioning.com

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Tinderbox ski School Avalanche awareness course 2011/12

The hut is in a fantastic location and the perfect place to base yourself for a few days ski touring

Below is our first glimse of the Benevolo hut and our home for the night

Fantastic slopes to be accessed from the hut

Fresh tracks!

The team on day two head up for some turns

Afternoon at the hut

Ski touring on powder snow, no better!

Gear drying out at the hut after a fun day

More great terrain

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Getting ready for the first run

Skins on for another lap of fantastic powder snow, with plenty left for everyone!

Day two and another tour in the La Tour area, this time up to Col de Autannes and the awesome ski down to Trient in Switzerland.

Skin track gets a bit steeper, learning to kick turn is a must

Fresh tracks again for the team

Day three at the top of Col de Crouches

The atmospheric ridge to the Notch

A happy looking team at the top of the final climb!

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I only had three days to get as much testing done as possible so headed straight to the K2 site and the new range of skis. Big changes in the Adventure range are the introduction of the ‘Sideshow’ an all new TNC side wall ski with 90mm under the foot. Sitting nicely in the range a step down from the ‘Hardside’ at 98mm. Bridging the gap between the AMP series and the Adventure skis. Whether you mount a touring or alpine binding the ‘Sideshow’ feels solid and responsive underfoot with its wide sweetspot. Carving on piste it has a smooth flowing feel which puts a big smile on your face, its just one of those skis that feels right. Well balanced and heaps of fun.

Next on my list and a jump in width to 108mm is the ‘Sidestash’ below, no change with this this ski for 11/12 except for a graphic update. Sticking with the green flavour the ‘Sidestash’ continues to offer a firm all round performance as much fun on the piste with its playful side-cut with plenty of girth for bigger days.

More changes in the Adventure serise with the legendary ‘Pontoon’ 11/12 see’s a tail re-design flattening out the in the tail and smoothing out the rocker.
Most of the other groups of testers seemed to be getting stuck into the piste and all mountain skis, we decided to make the most of the fresh snow and go get some turns.

Hamish ‘Profeet’ owner and boot fitting guru spots our line.

Digging deep in that fresh Bormio goodness!

This ski testing is not all bad!

What a run!

Le Tour – ‘Col Des Autannes’  2777m to the summit of ‘Pointe Des Berons’ 2954m – Traverse ‘Autannes’ ridge to  ‘Les Grand Autannes’ 2679m. – 750m ascent
Return via right Autannes couloir.

The below image shows the top section of the main route up to the ‘Col Des Autannes’ on the left and the route to the main peak ‘Pointe Des Berons’

Looking back down the first narrow section of the climb

Coming up along the ridge after the first narrow section

Getting a closer look at the final pitch to the Col just left of center, Russ ahead on the track.

Final boot pack up to the first Col, ski’s on packs for the scamble up.

What a veiw from the ‘Pointe Des Berons’ towards Mont Blanc showing the stunning La Tour glacier

The Autannes ridge below looks way shorter than it actually is, we dropped in and skied the shaded slopes and found some nice old powder turns before skinning back up to the ridge and the foot prints in the foreground

Below is the Autannes couloir and our route back down into the La Tour resort below. 40º of old powder in the main chute which we skied in sections wanting to keep an eye out on one another and also to keep from sluffing each other.

The chute below, and a nice finish to the day!

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The recent stable snow and weather conditions have been perfect for getting out ski touring. On Friday this week we decided to head over to the ‘Col De Beugeat’ @ 2807m. The below image shows a couple of people half way up to the main Col, it then heads right and steepens before the final last section and a short and quite exposed rock scramble up to the Col.

View from the Col below showing our route across the mellow lower slopes from Flegere

After skiing the steep North facing slopes of the Col 50m 40º we headed right to the ‘Col d’Encrenaz’. Look at the below image, you can see the ‘Col d’Encrenaz’ between the two main peaks on the left of the image. After skiing the main chute to about half way, we skied left towards some fantastic rolling wide slopes before dropping into another steep chute towards the bottom. Finally traversing through the trees towards Le Buet and the train back to Chamonix. All in all a fun day out in the Aiguilles Rouges!

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First of all find a slope in a safe spot with untouched snow.  For our demo here I chose a slope with a similar aspect and altitude to slopes I’m interested in skiing this season. So the profile will give me an idea of the snow pack and the ‘compression test’ will give me and idea of how well the snow pack is bonded.

1,Probe the area to check the depth, dig a hole big enough to reveal a shaded side wall to test and a back wall to later use for the compression test, That would be around 100cm square.

2,Make the shaded wall as straight and smooth as possible, and dig down enough to give yourself a test wall around 80cm tall.

3,I’ve placed my shovel in the snow to make a patch of shade, this makes my snow surface temp reading more acurate.

4, Below you can see my test wall is all ready to go, I need to place the ruler so ‘zero’ is at the snows surface.

5, I’m taking notes on the snow surface temperature and air temp, location, elevation, and weather obs. Can you see my snow crystal card pushed into the snow to keep it cool?

6,Slope angle, not to steep!

7,Nice spot to play about in the snow.

7, I find the layers in the snow pack by sliding the crystal card through the snow,  feeling a change in how easy or dificult it is to move the card I can feel different layers. Once I’ve found a layer its marked with a wooden stick next to the ruler.

8,Temperature is taken at 10cm intervals, next to the ruler. I test each layer for its hardness and note the crystal size and type. I take a small amount of snow from each layer and look at it through a ‘loop’ so I know what type of snow crystrals are in each layer.

9,My note pad shows all the information I have collected.

10,Now its time for the fun bit, I need to clear the back wall down to about 90cm.

11,Using the snow saw I start to cut a column 30cm X 30cm X 80cm

12,Placing the shovel gently on the top of the free standing column I begin with 10 light taps from the fingers. Followed by 10 taps from the elbow, followed by 6 taps from the shoulder. For this test the result was CTH6 (compression test hard 6taps) Most skier trigered avalanches are atributed to ‘Easy’ which would be around 10-15 taps.

13,The snow spray from the column is a layer releasing!

For more detailed information on avalanche safety contact us for your specific Avalanche or Backcountry safety needs!