I want to start with a short background about myself. I started skiing as an adult late last season. I got 7 days last year and 7 days this year before today. I have been teaching myself using Lito's videos last year and PMTS this year. I have worked through book 1 all the way to the pole use chapter when I encountered the crummy day today. I call it crummy because it was a bit of a confidence destroyer. I've been progressing very well over the past 7 days, having had to make only minimal changes to my pre-existing technique, and getting quicker and more comfortable with steep slopes. Today, it was back to square one.
So, it rained a decent amount in Vermont yesterday, and temperature remained warm through this morning. I decided to go to Sugarbush, and they did not do much grooming (if any) on most trails. And the snow was soft yet dense and heavy. The kind of snow that would lead to forming mini moguls on the blues and proper moguls on steep blacks by afternoon. Anyway, my difficulties started right away.
Even on wide trails, I had a hard time finding my rhythm. I had to tip my free foot to various angles to get turns of varying radiuses as I didn't want the skis ploughing straight into the little walls of snow. But the bigger problem was that I felt like I had to do an excessive amount of counteracting and counterbalancing movements to stay in balance as I went over the various undulations in the snow. It did not seem like graceful or efficient skiing to me (Sorry, I don't have a video of my skiing as I went there alone). It took a lot of physical effort. And when I went over larger mounds, especially at speed, I could actually find myself pressuring the tail at landing rather than staying in neutral balance. In fact, I actually fell backwards and uphill onto a mound on snow because of this on a steep blue run near the top (Birch Run).
My main goal so far whenever I have hit the slopes have been to try to get a feel for the snow rather than rigidly sticking with techniques, especially as someone who did not start skiing as a child. I have been using one footed release and the phantom move everywhere, including today. But, as I continued to have a lot of difficulty getting the skis where I wanted it to go and also in getting efficient speed control, I started experimenting a bit. But, nothing I tried seemed to do it. Except of course rotating the feet and skidding into each turn! But once I started doing this randomly, I decided to call it a day since I didn't want to develop any bad habits, and the slush was starting to become ice with dropping temperatures. Another issue I noticed was when I would flex the free foot leg and pulled it closer to the stance foot as I was tipping the free foot, the tail would sometimes snag in a small mound of snow and throw me off balance.
So here's my question in prep for when I encounter this again: what is going on here? Is the fore-aft balance issues just a difficulty with knowing how to stay in balance under uneven surface, and something that I will automatically develop the more I ski, or are there other technical errors here? For instance, should I be doing two footed releases instead of one footed release? Should I not have all my weight on one leg? Should I not keep the stance foot in a mostly extended and contracted position in order to let a soft, flexed knee absorb some of the energy from the surface and not get thrown off balance so much? Finally, what do I do about the tail catching snow lumps?