by Dr. Telemark, PhSki
Traversing Up Hills
Traversing is performed much the same as climbing straight
up a hill. The main difference being that in traversing
the uphill sides of the skis are "edged" into
the hill. Traversing is used on hills that are too steep
to climb straight up. Instead, a series of straight climbs
are made at shallower angles across the face of the slope,
punctuated with kick-turns or uphill step turns at the
end of each straight line segment. Effective traversing
depends on good planning. The turns are done easiest where
the slope flattens out for a bit. A kick turn on a hill
is performed the same was as on flat ground, with the
following two exceptions: 1) the skis should start and
end perpendicular to the fall line to prevent sliding;
and 2) the skis should be "edged" into the hill
to prevent slipping.
Uphill step turns are executed differently. From the
lowered-body, bent-kneed uphill climbing position, first
move the ski pole out and downhill on the side of your
body in the direction you want to turn. Then, lift up
and swing the ski on the same side of your body out to
the side and set it down in the direction you want to
go. Meanwhile, keep your weight on the other ski for support
and edge it slightly so that the inside edge of the supporting
ski acts as a brace. Make sure that the toe of the ski
that you have moved out to the side is ahead of the knee
and slap the ski down sharply to set the wax or help the
no-wax pattern to grip. Also, make sure that the basket
of the pole is behind the foot and the hand and grip are
beyond the basket on the uphill side. This will allow
using the pole as additional support when it comes time
to transfer all the weight to the ski heading in the new
direction.
Now, with all the weight on the re-aligned ski and your
body still in a lowered position, lift and slide the ski
that is headed in the original direction slightly forward
so that the ball of the foot is ahead of the knee. Then,
swing the lifted ski around parallel to the supporting
ski, and set it down so that the foot of the lifted ski
is behind the foot of the supporting ski. At this point
you should be in the same body position as when straight
climbing on the previous segment of the trail, but heading
in a new direction back across the slope.
It will help to maintain a lowered body position and
avoid bending over at the waist. Also, keep the uphill
edges of the skis angled into the hill to avoid slipping.
If you feel yourself slipping backwards when you try
to make an uphill step turn, then the hill is to steep.
In this case, it is better to use a kick turn. It is important
to not try to traverse too steeply. Traversing works best
on open terrain and long steep slopes. It’s the
way downhillers used to get to the top of ski slopes before
ski lifts were invented. There is one famous slope in
the Sierra Nevadas called KT 29, because it required twenty-nine
kick-turns to reach its summit.
