Alpine Skiing

Alpine skiing is also called down hill skiing. Lengthy skis are attached with each of the foot to slide down the hills covered with snow. It is a sport liked by many people around the world. It is widely popular in the countries of North America South America East Asia Japan South Korea and Europe. Skiing is becoming increasingly popular in China also. Steep Mountain slopes combined with snows proves to be the best combination for the development of skiing at mountain resorts.

Skiers face many technological challenges like controlling the speed and direction of the descent. Skiers adopt snowplough technique accordingly to stop and turn the skis in the inward direction. Advanced skiers adopt elegant and speedy methods.

Parallel turn is the popular method of turning adopted by the advanced skiers in alpine skiing. Each of the skis is placed parallel to one another so that distribution of the weight can be altered during the turning in any particular direction. The angle of the ski is related to the slope, which is also called, the edge angle is a vital factor that is to be taken in to consideration as the friction that is created on the edges is being determined.

Carving is the advanced skiing technique used by the modern skiers. The knees of the skier are rolled on the sides so that they can be turned easily. The upper body and the hip should be placed vertically that will enable easily turning of the knees and the feet. Turning can be done smoothly with out skidding by adopting the radical properties that are involved in skiing. Parabolic ski can be maintained by leaning against the centre of the mass while turning.

The skiers can tackle steep long and slopes that are uneven easily as the gain confidence. In North America flat easy and smooth slopes are highlighted with green colour markings on the circles. Difficult and medium slopes are marked with blue squares. They are not groomed by machines and their natural state is left unaltered. The black diamond slope is comparatively steeper and it consists of double fall lines and gladed sections that are challenging.

There are two disciplines that are involved in the competitive alpine skiing. They are free style and racing. The fastest turning around the gates can be attained with the help of racing. Slalom giant slalom down hill and super giant slalom are the four popular racing disciplines. Slalom is regarded as the technical and the downhill is considered as a fast event.

The rules of the skiing sport are governed by a set of rules that are prescribed by the FIS. Some of the rules include side cuts boot heights binding risers and regulation of the ski sizes. Alpine skiing competitions are also in existence apart from free style and racing competition. Many non FIS competitions have emerged in recent years.

Big mountain and Extreme skiing contests are the recent introductions that have gained popularity. The ski routes start from the top of the mountains and include rapid turns and cliff drops. Athletes are judged based on the technical difficulty that tend to appear on their routes and the tricks that are adopted by the skiers.