The season of ski sports and adrenaline rush when descending steep mountains is coming, so it's time to ask yourself how to choose alpine skis by height and other criteria for selecting a good ski pair. In this article I will describe the process of choosing skis, by the way, if you do not have cross-country skis yet, then be sure to read the article on choosing this pair of cross-country skis.
I recommend reading the article to the end, below there will be a video that will very well clarify the whole situation and the solution to the issue!
Alpine skiing types
What types of alpine skiing are:
- Alpine skiing for those who just got on them (experience up to 1 year of intensive skiing)
- Skis for athletes, designed for those who have already been on the ski for more than a year and confidently overcome the descent from the mountains
- The third type is created for professionals in this business, usually such skis are more expensive than all others.
All types of alpine skis combine different selection parameters, each type has its own original length, rigidity, elasticity, maneuverability in turns and other parameters. It is also worth breaking down all alpine skiing into skiing classes:
- Carving skis, designed for skiing on ready-made mountain slopes
- Universal alpine skiing, designed for skiing on those places where there are no prepared tracks
- Skis designed for big sports (used for slalom, cross, giant slalom, freestyle)
If you have already chosen what type of skis you want to acquire for the new skiing season, then advice on choosing alpine skis will come in handy for you, so, we begin to reveal all the secrets of the selection of alpine skis.
How to choose alpine skis according to the height and length of skis
A well-known question that torments all novice skiers at the entrance to a sports store - "How to choose alpine skis by height" we will analyze right now. It is worth immediately revealing the secret that when choosing alpine skis, you need to take into account not only height, but also weight, as well as skiing style and your skills. Only after you have decided on all the factors for the selection of skis, you should read the article further.
If you choose longer skis, be aware that such skis will behave better and more stable at high speed when descending the mountains. If the skis are short, this will affect their maneuverability, with such skis it will be easier to go down slopes with hard snow, as well as freestyle.
The advice to all novice skiers is that when you come to the store, pick up alpine skis by height minus 20 centimeters from your height, get up without hesitation with skis and measure yourself in the mirror subtract 20 centimeters from your height and the selection of alpine skis by height is ready.
For example, if your height is 175 centimeters, then take alpine skis 155 centimeters long. It is worth saying that when you start to maneuver on the slopes very well and gain tremendous experience, then you can already switch to a ski size equal to your height.
For women, the selection of alpine skis is carried out a little differently, they need to subtract another minus 5 centimeters from their height, that is, when choosing alpine skis with a girl's height of 160 centimeters, you will need to choose a size of 135 centimeters.
It is also worth considering the weight when choosing skis, if you weigh a lot, then you should take skis minus 10 centimeters from your height. On the account of the choice of mounts by weight, it does not mean anything complicated, the mounts will be adjusted to you by weight right in the store, the main thing is not to forget to tell your weight to the seller.
How to choose ski poles
The question of how to pick up ski poles should not bother you at all, pick up your favorite ski poles and look at yourself in the mirror, the only caveat is when you take a stick in your hand, put the stick on the floor. The angle between the elbow and forearm should be 90 degrees (right angle), it will become much clearer to you if you look at the picture below.
How to choose and install ski bindings
In this subsection, we will briefly consider the questions of how to choose bindings for alpine skis and, most importantly, how to install bindings on alpine skis. Let's start with the choice of mounts, but before that we need to know that the mounts must provide:
- good grip of the boot
- in an emergency it is easy to unhook
- it is good to complement the ski and boot as a whole, in other words, to match each other
It is best to select the bindings of the same company together with skis, in other cases you can create problems for yourself up to drilling new holes for the bindings. Recently, in all sports stores, bindings and skis are already complete, but with separate prices from each other.
When choosing alpine skis, I advise you not to rack your brains with the types of bindings, all bindings are separated by unfastening the boots when falling. You will not see the main difference, therefore, you should not think about choosing a mount for alpine skiing for a long time.
All fasteners have a certain load that you will need to install in the store, but I will tell you how to install the fasteners and the load on them later. The load is taken into account by several factors:
- How well you skate
- Your weight
- Do you often fall
If you ski very well, then the load on the ski in turns during the descent will be much greater than for a beginner in this business, which means that the upper force of the bindings should be much higher than that of a beginner.
When installing ski mounts, do not forget about weight, if you weigh a lot, then all the pressure is transferred to the mount, which means you need to set the force 15-30 kilograms less than your weight.
When installing bindings, it is also worth considering how often the skier falls, because the essence of the bindings is to knock off the ski in an unforeseen situation. If you ski very well and rarely fall, then I recommend you rigid bindings, when installing such bindings, the effort with which you fly from the mountain does not disappear anywhere.
Also, when choosing alpine skis and bindings, do not forget that skis with a waist wider than 70 millimeters have other bindings, for such alpine skis, bindings with wide ski-feet are used.
You can install the bindings on skis with a platform for bindings, or on the ski itself. If the skis are with a platform, then take the bindings of the same manufacturer, if there is no platform, then you need to select bindings, and sometimes drill new holes.
How to choose ski boots
Choosing boots for bindings is also not difficult, all alpine ski boots have the same base for bindings, so you can safely choose boots from any manufacturer you like.
However, there is one caveat when choosing boots, be sure to take transformer boots that can fix your leg motionless when you ride, and if you remove the foot lock, you can easily walk in them.
If you decide not to choose alpine skiing and are eyeing a snowboard, then advice on choosing a snowboard will help you. And if you do not know where to choose a ski resort in Siberia, then you are welcome to the Baikal ski resort “Mount Sobolinaya”, which is located right at the foot of Lake Baikal.
Also this season you can ride at the ski resorts in Sochi, I also wrote about this in my previous article about the resorts of Krasnaya Polyana, Laura and Gorki Gorod, you can find out about all the prices for renting equipment, instructors and prices for lifting.
Video selection of mountain skis for yourself
Where to buy a snowboard and all equipment?
Personally, I picked up my board and alpine skis at Planet Sport, here I bought excellent quality gloves and a special mask, if you don’t like to waste time running around the shops, then you can buy everything at once here, besides, the prices are very decent compared to the shops in my city.
As for branded equipment for snowboarding and alpine skiing, very worthy options from the world leader in winter sports can be purchased on Quiksilver, I advise everyone who loves quality and originality to shop here, I have already bought a couple of things and a fleece jacket, Now I'm thinking about the jacket.
Do not forget to go to the Sportmaster store, there is something to buy for the winter and active sports >>
Well, you already know how to choose alpine skis by height and other parameters, I hope that advice on choosing alpine skis and choosing bindings will be useful to you. Travel with travel-picture.ru
