How to master using traversing stance

When on a slope or leaning over, one leg will need to be bent more than the other.

 

In ski boots though you cannot move your ankles much, and the only way to make one ski higher than the other is to bring the uphill/inside knee forward. This leaves you with the uphill/inside ski slightly in front of the downhill/outside ski. 

 

Another thing that you should always remember to consider is that the steepness of the slope that you are on will inevitably change your stance a little bit. Generally, the steeper that the slope is the lower or further away your downhill side ski will be. This is also true for the amount that you are leaning over. This can also sometimes cause your uphill ski to rise a bit. Your skis should still be positioned at about hip width apart so that you can go across the slope more effectively. However, if you are leaning over, they will actually become further apart and will increases or decrease depending on how much you lean. It is important to try to maintain your skis at hip width in order to keep their angle to the snow completely equal. It also allows for enough leg movement so that you can put your skis on their edges and roll your knees when you need to. It is important for both of your knees to be bent in order to absorb any bumps that you encounter. catskiing BC

 

As for the upper body, we have our feet one in front of the other and the position that allows the most movement, flexibility and comfort is the turn the body so that the shoulders are in line with the feet. This means that the body is not looking down the skis; it is slightly twisted towards the fall line. It also makes it so that our head is in a good position to look at where we are going and down the slope.

 

This element of the stance is very often missed by skiers, and one of the easiest ways to tell how good a skier is just by looking at them quickly, is to see if they have their body turned towards the fall line or not.

 

The upper body also needs to be positioned so that our weight is transferred to the downhill/outside ski, and to the middle of the ski lengthways. When just going across the slope without pulling any G-forces we simply lean forwards a bit to put our weight in the middle of our skis (longitudinal weight distribution), and to the downhill side a bit to put our weight over the downhill ski (lateral weight distribution).