If you can make the stemming turn and the Telemark and Christiania
swings, you will, under most ordinary conditions of snow, be able to
turn or stop with ease under any circumstances. Sometimes, however,
you will encounter snow, the surface of which is covered by a crust,
not thick enough to bear the runner's weight without breaking, but
sufficiently so to make it impossible for him to shear round through it
even with a Telemark swing (for when the skis cut into a thick crust
they will only run in a straight line).
Under these circumstances the only neat and quick way of turning or
stopping is to do so by means of a jump which places the skis more or
less broadside on to their original course, and this is not such a
difficult matter as perhaps it sounds.
This jump is made with the feet level, and the skis close together and
parallel, in just the same way as a jump used for starting on the side
of a hill or as a substitute for the kick-turn. Pay the same attention
to the points of getting the weight well on the toes before making the
spring, and of then crouching low and jumping with a free, swinging
action, not a timid, jerky one, and _be sure to press the knees
together_.
The skis should remain about parallel with the surface of the snow
throughout the jump; if the jump is used for making an uphill turn, the
points of the skis must be well lifted, if for a downhill one, their
heels.
[Illustration: FIG. 42.]
You will find it far easier to keep your balance on landing, if you
remember _not_ to jump to _one side_ of your course (Fig. 42, A), but
to come to the ground with your feet as nearly as possible _on_ your
original line of progress--though, of course, pointing across it,
instead of along it, and, according to the speed at which you were
running, more or less ahead of the place where you took off (Fig. 42,
B).
The secret of using the jump round successfully lies, not in the actual
making of the jump, but in knowing the safest and most effective way of
applying it.
Suppose, for instance, you are running either across a slope or
straight down it, at a very moderate speed, and wish to stop, you can
easily do so by means of a jump round towards the hill, which will
bring you almost or quite at right angles to your original course
(Plates XLVII. and XLVIII.). As you land you will naturally have to
lean inwards to compensate for the outward throw. The amount of inward
lean necessary varies with the speed at which you are running before
the jump. When the speed is at all high the inclination at which you
would be safe from an outward fall is so great that on landing after
the jump, if you were to make one, the skis would almost certainly
skid, and you would fall inwards; while, if the skis did happen to
hold, your legs would not have enough strength to withstand the shock,
but would collapse under you.
When running at all fast, therefore, it is impossible to stop with
one jump. You must first jump a little way round, so that you face less
directly downhill, and check your pace; you can then jump again and
stop yourself (Fig. 42, C).
In the same way, if you wish to jump round instead of making a downhill
turn, you must either make your tacks at a gradient which will keep
down your speed sufficiently to allow you to make the complete turn in
one jump, or you must check your pace before making the downhill jump
by turning slightly uphill with a preliminary jump. This is exactly
equivalent to checking the pace by making a slight uphill swing before
making a downhill one.
The higher the speed, the slighter the change of direction that one can
safely make in one jump, and at a very high speed it would, for this
reason, be impossible to stop even in two jumps. There is nothing to
prevent a runner from stopping or making a downhill turn at the highest
possible speed by means of a series of jumps, but a turn so made
covers so much ground that it is practically useless. This does not
much matter, however, for the kind of snow which makes jumping round
necessary is not such as to tempt one to run very fast.