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A basic skill you need to develop for skiing steeper slopes is the ability to turn your feet—to turn your feet without turning your body. Now if you want to ski like a member of the Whistler Freeride team you'll probably be straight lining the steep, so you can disregard this advice. The rest of us mortals have to be able to turn the feet and legs, so we can control our speed.
One way you can get the feeling for that is to take out the up movement which can contribute to upper body movement. Do that by holding the poles in the middle of the shaft and then ski really low with the feet ahead. The whole idea is to try and get the feeling of turning the feet below the hips; ie, turning just the feet, not the upper body. (pic 1)
Here I’ve got the poles halfway; this prevents the upper body from moving up and down so all I can really do is turn my feet. (pic 2)
So use that little drill to get the feeling of turning just the feet and legs. Then hold your poles in the regular way again. 'Cos you're gonna need your poles to help with the timing of the turns and to keep your upper body facing down the hill.
Face the upper body down the hill, plant the poles, turn the feet and that should allow you to make a controlled descent of the beautiful Whistler Bowl. That's what I try to do anyway, a controlled descent. So try grabbing your poles in the middle, stay low and figure out how to turn your feet back and forth. I hope that works for you!
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