realskiers

I hate to do this but I just read this thread as I have been away for the past few weeks in Montana and I didn't look at a ski forum the whole time I was away.

The only point I want to make is that if you look at video from the Alta Badia GS every year you will see the best skiers in the world stemming because the terrain is so steep and gnarly. One year I saw Benni Raich (one of the best technical skiers in the world) stem 3 turns in his run. So Bushwacka, do you think he finishes a run like that and the goes out and practices his stemming? Of course he doesn't because he does not want stemming to be his default move (in fact he doesn't wnat it in any of his skiing). The same goes for when we see WC racers skivoting or pivoting, they do this because they have to, because the course is set to tight with 27m skis for them to carve it, but every good GS skier is trying to carve as much of each turn and as many turns as he or she can, because it is faster. So the fact that pivoting and steering is required by you to ski a particular run, does not therefore mean that it is what one should aspire to have as the default move.
Again, I'm sure Jimmy Cochran doesn't come of that run saying "wow, I need to practice my steering more".