Off we come.

So let me just come around and get myself strapped in.

I'm out here in beautiful Switzerland.

As you can see by looking down the valley, there's not much snow down there at the moment, but up here above 3,000 meters on the glacier, the conditions are pretty good.

I'm testing out the new Carbon Supermatics today, and I've done a couple of runs already, and I'm actually pretty surprised how well I'm getting on with them.

I kind of thought they'd be too stiff, but I'm enjoying them.

I'm filming this on the new Insta360 X4 camera, which I just love because it's up the quality so much from the X3, and it just gives me a much, much better image.

You can check that down on the link below if you're interested, but for now let's come into this run.

So we've got a steeper section down the side over here.

We've got all the ski racers training on this top part, so there's a little section open to the public if we just continue on.

So what I'll do to begin with, I'll just demo you a few turns, and then we'll get into what I'm doing, what turn shapes I'm making, what technique I'm employing to ride this steep stuff.

So let's just check around before we start.

Okay, let's get into it.

Always takes a few to get into the rhythm.

Okay, good.

So let's talk firstly about my tactics, and what I mean by tactics is the turn shape that I'm choosing to use.

So I'm making tight or small radius closed turns.

So that just means that my turns themselves are small, and closed just means that I'm coming fully across the piece or 90 degrees to the full line.

So the full line is the path gravity would take down the slope, and I'm cutting across that path.

The reason I'm doing that is to slow myself down.

By cutting across that path, I slow myself right down, and that's how I'm controlling my speed.

And I'm trying to control my speed as much as possible by using that turn shape, using those small S-shaped turns all the way down.

You can, of course, just control your speed by skidding the whole way down, but personally, I find that's not much fun.

And whilst you can do that on a piste, it doesn't really work in any other conditions.

So if you want to start trying to ride by using your turn shapes, you're going to find it's much easier for you to then progress onto other terrain.

But this isn't me trying to convert you to turning.

Let's assume you're already at that point and you want to do that.

So we're going to start with the end of the turn or the beginning of the next turn, that close part where the board is going across the slope, because it's really, really important you get that right, because if you're not, you're just going to mess up the whole turn.

And one quick drill that I like to always do when I'm riding steep slopes or getting people to ride steep slopes is simply to start in a calf traverse like this across the slope.

The board's gripping, I'm going across, and then I can just pop around into a turn and get that board gripping across the slope once more.

And the reason that this part is so important is that you're only going to be able to get an early edge change, which is where we change edge before the board's pointing down the slope, if you are traveling across the slope.

And this calf traverse is a great way to do that.

So I'm going across the slope, and by doing this, that allows me to roll the board onto the new edge.

And then by doing that, by getting that early edge change right there, I get this smooth arc to the turn here.

And that is so important.

Once more.

That arc to the turn is so, so important, because what that arc does is allow us to transfer our momentum from going one way across the slope to go the other way across the slope, which is all we're doing when we're turning.

We're going left and right across the slope.

And a lot of people think, I'm riding a steep slope, I need to really quickly make this edge change and really quickly get the board around.

But in doing that, they lose that arc of the turn.

And if you just flip the board around really quickly, because you don't have that smooth arc, you just send your board and the momentum of your center of mass carrying straight down the full line, and you're actually going to skid much more.

And as soon as you get this arc of the turn, you'll be amazed at how much easier it is for you to grip and go across the slope because you're actually putting less pressure through the board.

Let me just illustrate that for you.

So I'm going to come around.

I'm just going to flip the board around really quickly.

And it just pushes you into a skid down the slope.

Let me show you once more.

I'm going to really quickly get that board around.

My momentum is just going down this way.

And it takes me a while to get down, get the board gripping and going across.

Whereas if I don't rush that, if I don't kick the back foot out, if I just roll the board from one edge to the other, my momentum is now traveling in line with the board.

And there's so much less pressure going through the board here.

It's so much easier for me to get the board gripping and going across the slope.

Okay, so it's the short tight turns with that smooth arc, making sure you're gripping across the slope at the end of every turn.

And now let's talk a little bit about the technique that I'm enjoying to be able to do just that.

All right, it's a little bit flat here, so we'll get over this section.

And it all comes from having the space, having this solid platform that you find in the carve traverse.

Let me show you.

I'm in the carve traverse, the board's gripping.

And what I'm going to do, I'm just going to push up out of this position.

It's only a small movement, but I use to propel my hips and my center of mass over the top of the board.

Watch this, slight push, over we go.

Board's gripping, when I'm ready, push off, over we go.

All right, let me just come over to this side.

Because what happens at every edge change is that our center of mass is passing over the top of the board.

Every edge change you make, that has to happen.

You have to cross your center of mass over the board.

And you can think about your center of mass as being right here in your hips.

When we're on the heel side, your hips are back behind the board, stacked over your edge.

And I need to get them over there, and it's by doing this small push right here that allows me to cross my hips over to the front of the board.

Up and over.

Now, the other technique I'm using to help me get these short turns around is to steer the board somewhat with my knees.

It is in fact all the joints of my front leg right up into my body, so my front ankle, knee, and hip.

As I'm pushing off from that platform, I'm pushing my hips over the board.

And at the same time, pulling that knee around.

And that's going to pass over the board before my back knee does.

And what that allows me to do is just to start twisting the board torsionally through the middle, and that will engage the top part of my sidecut right here, which is then going to grip and pull me around in a tighter turn.

Now, I'll link a bunch of videos down below that fully explains the knee steering movement in much more detail because it's a little bit complicated, but that's also a central technique that you need to get these short turns on steeper terrain done.

The next thing I'm going to do is just start eliminating that traverse.

You still want to have that sensation that the board is gripping and going across the slope, but as soon as you feel that, you can then pop yourself up into the next turn.

If I was practicing these or I was teaching someone how to do these, start with that traverse.

It's really good for making sure your weight's in the right place, the board's definitely gripping, but then once you've got that, just cut it down so you're going straight from one turn into the next.

I'll quickly demo that.

We are very rapidly running out of space on this piece and it's going to flatten out in a moment, but let me try and show you a couple.

Coming across, I'm in my carve traverse, up and over, board comes around, gripping, into the next one, into the next one, into the next one, into the next one, into the next one.

It's really not very steep now.

You can see you can still actually practice the timing and the coordination of these movements on a more gentle slope and then you can take them to something steeper as well.

That's how you ride steeper slopes.

Make sure you're closing that turn.

Super, super important to close off the turn.

That's how you control your speed, that's how you slow yourself down.

By doing that, you get your edge in, you get the board gripping, that gives you that solid platform to push yourself up from.

It's a big movement, you don't need to be down here and suddenly up here, but just a slight push to give you the impetus to cross your center of mass over the board.

Use your front knee and hip, pass those over to torsionally twist the board to get the edge to engage.

That's going to pull you around through the turn.

Your back knee, your back hip follows over afterwards.

You just sink down onto your new edge into a strong position.

If you've managed to achieve that smooth arc to the turn, there's not going to be a huge amount of pressure going down through the board.

It should be relatively easy for you to get the board gripping, going across the slope, controlling your speed, and then you just repeat the process into the next one.

All right.

Thank you for watching, guys.

If you've got any questions, any videos you'd like me to cover, drop your ideas down below, and as always, I'll see you in the next one.

Nice to be down here in the sun.

I might get a few more here.

All right, up and over.

A big bit of ice there.

Let's come around the big icy patches.

Don't try and really engage your edge in those.

It's not going to work.

Keeping your head up, looking where you're going, always really helps as well.

Off we go.

And we're done.

We should probably end this video, shouldn't we?