MORE THAN CARVING.
September 14, 2025. In skiing, and particularly in racing, the carved turn is the fastest turn, but what’s a carved turn, exactly? A true carved turn leaves parallel clean lines in the snow, one line from each ski. How you apply pressure to the outside ski as you roll it on edge bends into the shape of the desired turn as it makes the arc without skidding. The inside ski matches the outside ski, usually with little or no pressure on it, but it’s still on the snow.
Carving is faster and gives you much more control, especially on hardpacked snow or ice, than skidding. It’s a critical skill toward becoming a great skier and racer. Once you can consistently carve turns, there are only two ways you can make time in a slalom or giant slalom course: 1. pressuring the ski in the fall-line during the apex of the turn, and 2. moving aggressively through the transition between turns. Let’s break down these two opportunities, starting with a review of the three phases of a ski racing turn:
Three Phases of a Ski Racing Turn
• Initiation: The turn starts by applying pressure to the ski tip, then building pressure more and more as you progressively roll the ski on edge and apply pressure progressively from the ski tip to mid-ski. The tail of your ski will naturally follow. Tip pressure occurs at the rise line above the gate. Highly skilled racers take it even “deeper”, meaning, they have the strength, timing, and sense of line to initiate the turn slightly past the rise line. However, unless you’ve raced at a high level, stick with initiating the turn at the rise line.
• Apex: The apex or middle of the turn is at the point when your skis are pointing down the hill in the fall line, and where maximum pressure and edge angle occurs. The ski bends under the pressure, like a loaded spring under tension, while it presses against (carves across) the snow surface.
• Release: In fact, your skis are like springs as you release pressure you’ve built up in the turn. This rebound provides the energy to accelerate you toward the next turn, if you control it correctly, using it to move forward, not upward.
To accomplish this, you need to do the following:
• Maintain a balanced body position over the middle of the outside ski (not sitting back) as pressure builds in the turn. In addition, from a balanced position, you have the best chance to react to a challenging or unexpected situation.
• Move actively forward as you transfer your weight to the new outside ski. (Be careful not to turn too early or go too straight in the rush to ski faster down the course.)
• Shape the turn appropriately and put it in the right spot to avoid a line that’s too high, too early, or too low.
• Actively and progressively put weight on the outside ski, bending the ski in the fall-line (loading the spring).
• Keep the upper body quiet, with level shoulders (don’t lean in) and without breaking at the waist. Your torso should be counter-rotated to the direction of your skis.
• Be as fluid as possible as edge angle increases through the apex of each turn and then decreases as you finish the turn. The goal is to ski “arc to arc,” without an excessive pause between turns.
Through all three phases of a ski racing turn, you must have:
• Flexed ankles: Your ankles should flex progressively forward as the knees drive into the hill, followed by the hip. High inside hip: Your inside hip should feel “high”, i.e., pulled up, not dropped.
• Balanced position: Your hips move continuously forward such that pressure is through the forefoot (metatarsal), not the heel, of the outside foot. Your upper body needs to keep up with you feet.
• Upper body stability: Your upper body should remain stable, oriented down the hill, without excessive overall movement, tipping, or rotation into the hill. A stable upper body allows pressure and edge angle to build progressively through the apex of the turn.
• Hands forward: Your hands should be relaxed and forward, ideally with the downhill hand feeling “heavier” than the uphill hand to aid weighting and balancing over the outside ski.
• Parallel shins (skis): Both skis should be rolled on edge the same amount to promote fluid arc-to-arc skiing down the course. Parallel shins also allow you to continue a turn and maintain line should the outside ski accidentally lose contact with the snow.
• Constant contact between your shins and the tongues of your ski boots: Shin pressure on the front of the boots promotes correct fore-aft balance. Your shins should never leave the tongues of your boots. But shin pressure should not be static. As a turn progresses, shin pressure should increase, too.
• Snow contact: Skis only respond and gain speed when they are in contact with the snow. Rebounding skis that pop you into the air, rather than forward toward the next gate, might feel snappy but don’t help you go faster.
You should feel the following sensations during each phase of a turn:
Top of the Turn = Building Pressure
• Initiate the turn with the tip of the outside ski but then quickly let the entire front of the ski draw you into the turn. Loading the middle of the ski all at once can cause the ski to chatter.
• The inside ski matches the edge angle of the outside ski. Think “perfectly parallel.”
• Establish a balanced platform on the middle of the new outside ski.
• Initiate edging by driving the knees and ankles, and then the hip, through the top of the turn. This is known as “triple flexion”. Pressure and edge angle should build from the ski up.
• Begin to separate the upper and lower body at the hips, keeping the inside hip pulled up (not dropped) as you build pressure on the outside ski.
Apex of the Turn = Bending the Ski in the Fall Line
• Edge angle and pressure continue to increase in the fall line.
• Shoulders and hips are square to the skis, meaning the torso and skis are facing down the fall line at this moment even though your feet are out to the side, not under the torso.
• The feet separate vertically, not horizontally, as needed based on the pitch of the slope and the offset of the course. More pitch and/or more offset requires more vertical separation of the feet.
• From the side view, the hips are in a balanced position over the middle of the ski, with the hands forward.
• From the front view, parallel lines can be drawn through the feet, knees, hips, hands, and shoulders.
Release of the Turn = Managing Pressure
• From the apex of the turn to the end of the turn, the edge angle and pressure on the ski progressively decrease.
• As pressure and edge angle decreases, separation of the upper and lower body decreases.
• The skis progressively flatten as they pass underneath the body. Weight transfers to the new outside ski (edge), starting with tip pressure again.
Transition Between Turns
• The core moves actively toward the top of the new turn, “up and over” (though it’s really “forward and over”), to keep the athlete in balance, and so the new outside ski is immediately available.
• The skier moves fluidly from turn to turn, releasing pressure so that the energy built up in the turn accelerates the skier into the new turn. No jerks or jolts! The faster and smoother the athlete can cover the transition distance while maintaining appropriate line and turn shape, the faster the run.
• Weight transfer occurs with the skis are parallel and on the snow, without a step to the new outside ski or spring into the air. A step is used only rarely as a way to recover line if the skier gets too low.
A word about hitting gates:
Slalom: In slalom, the gate is cleared just before the turn is released but before the pole plant: Clear. Plant. Move! Ideally, the feet should be outside the pole, and the body should inside it so that the clear with the outside hand is natural and quick in front of the sternum. No reaching past the zipper! That said, it’s okay clear with either hand or any part of your body. REMEMBER: Clearing is a function of line. A clean, carved turn without clearing the gate is always faster than a skidded turn with a clear.
Giant Slalom: In GS, the inside forearm, shoulder and/or side of the back can brush the gate, but there should be space between the feet and the gate to avoid “stacking up” over one’s feet, i.e., no separation of the upper and lower body. “Stacking up” flattens the ski at a point in the turn when the athlete should have the most edge angle. Mowing over or clearing panels is generally slower unless the athlete is particularly big, strong, and skilled.
Photo to the right: Lisa Ballard clears a gate during the 2018 FIS Masters Criterium (world championships) at Mammoth Mountain, California. Her level shoulders are facing down the hill, countered against the direction her skis are going. Her left (outside) hand is in front of her chest as she’s about to clear the gate.
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