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I think ultimately, the way to enjoy a great mountain like Whistler, is to ski all snow all terrain, like the fantastic terrain off the peak chair. And the way to do that - what you have to be able to do is balance, and you use your ankle joint to do that.
Now like I was saying, you've got to be able to bend your ankle. Hard for me to show you, obviously, how you bend your ankle, because it's in the ski boot. But check this out. (top left) When I bend my ankle, notice that the heel stays down. The knees go forward, but the heel stays down. See, I’ve got real mobility in there. That's how you do it.
So you may not want to go with the naked ankle, but here's what you can do. Undo the boots, undo the top two buckles, undo the power strap - you can leave the top ones ones done up, but get your boots undone. Now you don't have any plastic that you can use as a crutch, you've got to use your ankles to balance with. You can still ski quite nicely, it doesn't feel quite as sporty, a little looser, but this is a great way to get those ankles working. Remember how that looked when I had my boot off, how I said that I kept my heel down as I bent my knees? That's what you've got to be able to do. You've got to feel that you flex your ankle within your boots.
Now let's do the boots up, and I’ll show you how it works. So now, with the boots done up, I have much more lateral responsiveness. I can push my feet ahead because I’m bending my ankles. Trust me, learning to use your ankles like that is just so useful when it comes to skiing in powder, or chowder or broken snow, and it's the right way to use your ski boots. (right)
Here's a mistake a lot of people make - they just jam their shins forward, jam them so far forward, that their shins hurt, and then the heels lift up, and then the tails come loose.
Instead, what we want to do is work the shins in a narrow range of movement, and maybe get the feet a little further ahead than you're used to. Now, within that range, we move laterally, and the boots have fantastic responsiveness laterally, and they allow you a little bit of movement fore and aft, so your ankles can work.
And that's your tip for skiing all snow and all terrain here at whistler mountain.
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