Sit just uphill from your skis.	Grasping both poles with one hand on the handles and the other by the baskets. Plant them in the snow just behind your uphill hip.
Once in position, use a quick pull/push with both arms to shift yourself forward and over your skis.	In deep snow, cross your poles to prevent them from sinking into the snow as you use them to stand up.

Back On Your Feet

You've just fallen over and ground to a halt. Sit and recuperate for as long as you need, but be sure to let your companions know that you are not hurt. Then get up...

• Collect your skis.
• Check that the bindings are open.
• Put your skis back on.

Tips

• Always put your downhill ski on first. If you only lose your downhill ski, turn around.
• In powder it can be very hard to keep snow off the bindings. You may have to flatten an area in order to get your skis back on.
• Open the bindings, check the the bindings and boots are clean, then put on the skis.

If Your Skis Stay On

Standing up on skis can be one of the greatest challenges at first. Yet once you have learnt the trick it will be hard to understand why you ever found it so hard. Trust us.

The first thing to do after any fall is to place your skis below you, across the fall line. You can either slide them round or roll over on your back (the dying beetle technique). Once your skis are below you, you are ready to stand up.

Tips

• Make sure that your skis are exactly across the fall line before you begin straining to stand up.
• Plant your poles right next to your hips, to ensure adequate leverage.
• Use a short sharp effort to gain some momentum.
• Get your weight forward and over the skis before trying to stand upright.
• Check you have your hat, goggles, glasses, and all equipment before skiing off again.

The Schuss

Letting Yourself Slide

Schussing means letting your skis run straight downhill. The term 'schuss' comes from the German word for a shot which should describe your trajectory. Your goal should be to be able to schuss down the slope, relaxed and confident in your basic stance. In time, the schuss will be the fastest thing you can do on skis.

It is most important to choose an appropriate slope for your first attempts. Look for a gentle slope, with a natural run-out area at the end to help you stop. Make sure it is clear of other people, since at this stage the chances of your being able to stop or avoid obstacles are not high.

Use the bullfighter turn to get into position with your skis pointing down the fall line.	Assume the basic stance and let yourself run. Look ahead and steer your skis gently with your feet to keep them parallel and pointing downhill.
Respond to bumps and dips in the terrain using your ankles, knees and hips. Keep your upper body calm and relaxed.

Always return to the basic stance.

Tips

• Keep the pressure distributed evenly on both skis, otherwise you will veer across the slope. Keep your skis at hips' width apart for maximum stability.
• The most common beginner stance is with straight legs, bending only at the waist, rather than at the ankles, knees and hips. Don't forget your basic stance the moment you start sliding.
• Keep your eyes a few metres ahead. If you look at your ski tips, you can't react to changes in terrain.
• Schussing may be quite scary at first. Be consoled: although it seems fast to you, you are unlikely to exceed five miles an hour on your first slopes.

Exercises

Try the following exercises while schussing, to improve your stance, balance and ability to absorb bumps and dips.

• Stance - Vary your body position as you schuss, leaning forward and then back, flexing low and then standing tall, varying the width of your stance. In which position do you feel most comfortable? In which position is it easiest to steer? To absorb bumps?
• Relaxation - Ski along and pick up a snowball or glove; get a friend to hold out a pole at shoulder height and ski under it.
• Balance - Lift each ski off the snow for a few metres; do a little jump; ski a few runs without your poles.

Falling Over

Yielding To The Inevitable

Falling is an inevitable part of skiing. There is no dishonour involved, and even good skiers fall over. It is one area in which beginners excel, because they have more practice than advanced skiers. Hurling yourself to the ground because you couldn't stop even used to be a recognised technique, known as the 'arrêt Briançon'! There are times when you really don't want to fall, such as when the slope is extremely icy or dangerous. In normal conditions, however, a fall is nothing to worry about, it can even loosen you up and show you that skiing needn't hurt! Learning when to take risks and when to play safe is an important part of mountain craft.

Tips To Avoid Injury

• If falling sideways, try to keep your knees from hitting the snow first as this will tend to twist them. Land instead on your seat.
• Don't fight the fall too hard. If you take a real high-speed crash, try to roll with it: swallow-diving into the snow can be harder than expected.
• Stop sliding as quickly as possible. Bring your legs below you so you can use your feet, with or without skis, to brake to a halt. Don't wear slippery clothes.
• Never jam in your poles to stop. One of our most convincing childhood cautionary tales was about our mother who used her pole as a brake and broke her jaw on the handle. They reset it nicely though.

Terminology

• Face plant (also head plant, shoulder plant, etc.): Driving of relevant piece of anatomy deep into the snow.
• Three point yard sale (or in extreme cases, five point, seven point, etc.): Generous distribution around the mountain of equipment - skis, poles, goggles, hat, scarf, gloves... with an end result resembling a back-yard jumble sale.
• Snow snakes. Malicious but rarely-seen reptiles living just below the surface of the snow. Responsible for many otherwise inexplicable falls.
• Wipe out. Adopted from surfing. What happens when you get thrown off the frozen wave.
• Pre-release. A binding set too loosely or obstructed with snow will occasionally eject you unexpectedly, particularly in bumps or powder. This is the best excuse for any fall in which you lose a ski - almost impossible to refute without video evidence.
• Catching an edge. Letting a downhill or outside edge catch in the snow usually results in instant catastrophe.

What A Release

Making your own adjustments is risky, and instructors are often reluctant to help, in case you get injured and sue them (especially in the United States). If you do decide to try, many lift operators will be able to lend you a screwdriver. Failing that, a Swiss army pen-knife or a coin can be used. Only tighten or loosen the release setting by half a turn at a time, as the adjustment is sensitive. If the problem persists, get the binding checked professionally.

SnowPlough

The snowplough turn (or wedge turn in North America) is the most straightforward of all turns. It is effective and reliable, and you'll see even experienced skiers use it when the visibility is poor, or when it's their turn to carry the picnic. It is initiated from the snowplough position by steering your skis into the fall line with your feet and legs. As you turn, the pressure you apply through your feet must move to your outside ski, just as the back seat passengers in a car are pushed against the door in a tight curve. To balance against this force, you must set your outside ski on a strong edge and push against it.

Start in a gliding snowplough across the slope.	Steer your skis towards the fall line with your feet.	Sink slightly and allow the pressure to shift to your outside ski.
Push your outside knee forwards and into the turn.	Keep pushing against the outside ski until you come right out of the fall line.	As you finish your turn, rise back up into the gliding plough, before beginning the next turn.

Practise exaggerated edging of your outside ski by pressing both hands against your outside knee.

Exercises

• Hold both poles out in front of you with the baskets in one hand and handles in the other, to keep your upper body calm.
• Tighten your turning radius by making a short slalom course out of ski poles. For a longer string of turns, force yourself to turn on a certain count. Start on ten, then reduce the time between turns by turning on nine, eight, seven...
• Press both hands against your outside knee while you turn (see below). This helps you to apply pressure to your outside ski and use your edge correctly.

Tips

• Your skis know how to turn better than you do. Start the turn with gentle steering, the rest should follow.
• Don't use your shoulders to start the turn: although you may force your skis around, the turn is hard to control and you risk over-rotating and ending up facing uphill. At this stage, don't worry about planting your poles.
• Learn to accept the frightening acceleration as you turn into the line. Don't lose your nerve.
• Make sure you begin your turn before running out of room at the edge of the piste.
• Try to get into a turning rhythm, starting each turn as you finish the last: rise and start, sink and finish; rise and start, sink and finish.

To Snowplough Or Not To Snowplough

The goal for most skiers is to perform parallel turns in all terrains. You probably want to achieve this as soon as possible. Several teaching methods have been designed to avoid snowplough and stem turns altogether. Some skiers find these helpful as they don't later have to unlearn a tendency to plough or stem their skis in turns.

Snowplough turns, however, are not a blind alley leading off the road to good parallel turns: they are a valuable step along the way. They teach the independent use of your skis, good edge control and steering with your outside foot and leg.

Given the choice between building towards good technical skiing and quickly learning an indifferent parallel turn, it is worth working on your snowplough turns.

Practise on a very shallow slope. Get a feel for steering your snowplough into the fall line and allowing your weight to transfer to your outside ski. Make sure your upper body stays calm.

Traversing

Skiing across the slope, rather than directly down the fall line, is called traversing. Traversing is useful whenever you have to cut across the slope in order to reach a specific goal (such as a café). It is also a good way to control your speed: acceleration is greatest when you're pointing straight down the fall line, and least when you ski across it. Until you can link your turns so that they flow into each other, they will be separated by traverses. You will spend a lot of time traversing, so it's worth getting comfortable in the correct stance. Traversing is an invaluable technique so make sure you adopt the correct traverse stance

Exercises

• Traverse with your uphill ski lifted slightly off the snow. Because your centre of mass has to be over your downhill ski, you have to exaggerate the lean out from the waist, teaching independent use of upper and lower body.
• Practise traversing at varying speeds. For a slow traverse, point your skis almost across the hill. To speed up your traverse, choose a steeper line.

Stem Turn

When you feel comfortable with your snowplough turns allow your skis to come parallel between turns. This is less effort than staying in the snowplough position throughout, and allows you to master higher speeds.

Start in a parallel traverse, push into snowplough and turn as usual. As you finish your turn, let your skis come back together. Push out again into a snowplough to start the next turn. Try to get into a rhythm.

Begin in the standard traverse stance.

Push out into a snowplough and begin your turn.

Continue as for a snowplough turn.

When your turn is complete bring your skis parallel again in the standard traverse stance.

Sideslipping is a controlled way of losing height. Sideslipping consists of letting your skis slip down the fall line, controlling your speed by a careful use of the uphill edges. It introduces the use of parallel skis to brake. You can use sideslipping to get yourself out of difficulty if you ever find yourself somewhere just too steep or too narrow. Never feel embarrassed if you need to sideslip. Even the most advanced skiers fall back on this technique when they run out of space to turn. Sideslipping is an important skill, which will help you when it comes to mastering controlling a skidding ski in a turn.

	Your ski can slide straight ahead or slip sideways across the snow. Skidding is a combination of sliding and slipping.
Stand with your skis across the fall line in the 'non-slip' position. Hold your downhill pole off the snow.
Release your edges smoothly by standing up and allowing your knees to roll out from the hill. Your skis will begin to slide down the fall line. Keep them pointing across the slope by steering gently with your feet.
To stop, apply your uphill edges by sinking down and rolling your knees back towards the mountain.

EXERCISES

• Descend a moderately steep slope in a series of short sideslips. Start with slow, smooth sideslips and work up to short, fast sideslips with aggressive stops. How quickly can you bring your sideslips to a halt?
• Falling like a leaf (see below): forward and backward diagonal sideslipping. Steer your tips slightly down the fall line with your feet as you sideslip, and you will move forwards. Then steer your tips up the hill and begin to sideslip backwards. This is a good exercise to refine your edge and steering control.

Falling like a leaf: Steer your tips slightly down the fall line to sideslip forwards. Then steer your tips slightly up the fall line to sideslip backwards. Practise falling like a leaf to improve your edge control.

TIPS

• Sideslipping should be a very controlled move, like letting in the clutch on a car. Take your time and don't do anything sudden. Develop a feel for when your edges are losing their grip and starting to slip.
• Keep the pressure on your downhill ski to ensure a smooth sideslip. Make sure also that your weight is distributed between your heel and the ball of your foot, or you will find it hard to keep your skis across the fall line.
• Staying flexed throughout improves your balance and readiness to react to the terrain.
• Look where you are going, not where your skis are pointing.
• Always keep your skis slightly on their uphill edges. If their downhill edges catch, you will go over. Similarly, if you ski over your poles, it's curtains.

Kick Turn

When you need to change direction but can't put in a real turn, you can use a kick turn. This is how to get out of a tricky situation if you run out of piste space but still need to turn. Practise kick turns in both directions before you really need them.

TIPS

• Place your poles carefully before you start your kick turn. You don't want to have to replant them while you are teetering on the brink of disaster.
• Replace the downhill ski exactly parallel. Otherwise, when you transfer your weight, you'll start to slide.
• Lean back into hill, not out over the valley, using your poles for support.
• If you have knee problems, try to avoid kick turns.

Climbing

Herringbone climbing is considerably faster than sidestepping. Start facing up the slope with your tips apart and your tails together. This puts your skis on their inside edges. Using your poles for support, step one ski at a time up the hill. The name comes from the track you leave. Herringbone climbing is a little trickier than sidestepping, and can't be done on a very steep slope.

TIPS It is your inside edges, not your poles, that should do most of the gripping. The steeper and icier the slope, the more edge you will need and the wider your V must be. On steeper slopes, shift your grip on the poles to get better support. Keep the poles planted away from your skis to avoid stepping on them. Switch to sidestepping if the slope becomes too steep. If you find herringbone climbing too frustrating, come back to it once you are more comfortable on your skis.

Step one ski at a time up the slope, using your poles for support. You should leave a neat 'herringbone' track.