This is the age of parallel skiing, but it might be more accurate to call it the age of "sloppy parallel skiing." Nowadays it’s easier than ever to make turns with your skis parallel. In fact, two out of three skiers on the slopes don’t do anything special to turn their skis, they just twist ’em around in the direction they want to go. By twisting both skis more or less together, they pull off more or less parallel turns.
Most intermediate skiers know what I’m talking about. They turn their skis together, but the result is a kind of sloppy, ill-defined, wide-track skid rather than a graceful carving arc, where the two skis slice around in a narrow, elegant track. Parallel turns of a sort, but not the sort that instructors and experts make. Let’s do something about it. The secrets of a polished parallel turn are fewer than you think, and relatively easy to master.
The first, critical step is learning to ride the arc of the turn. This one is easy, if I can convince you to stand exclusively, 100%, on your outside ski. That’s right. Average skiers who make rough-and-ready, hit-or-miss parallel skids, skis wide apart, always stand almost equally on both skis. What’s the difference? Modern skis are softer in flex than earlier skis; this allows them to bend under the skier’s weight (so-called reverse camber), and this bent ski is what "carves" a pure round arc in the snow. But in order to make your skis bend, you really have to load them up with maximum weight. Suppose you weigh 150 pounds and stand equally on both skis; then each ski only supports 75 pounds. But if you stand completely over one foot, it’s like dropping an additional 75-pound sandbag onto that ski. You’ve doubled the weight on that ski, and it will bend and carve for you. It’s that simple. Modern skis are designed to turn best with the full weight of your body pressing down on only one ski, the outside ski of the turn. (By the way, the reverse bend, or reverse camber, in the ski is hard to observe--you can see it best in still photos--but it’s always there in a good turn.)
So your first step in mastering modern parallel is to develop the balance needed to put all your weight on one foot. Practice one-footed skiing on gentle flats and catwalks. Lift the light foot up off the snow just to check whether or not you’re cheating. Play with the idea, make it a habit. Your turns will improve immediately, and, believe it or not, your legs will be less tired at the end of the day. In actual skiing you don’t want to lift that light inside ski up off the snow--that’s too much work. Just let the light inside ski float along on the snow next to the loaded outside ski that’s doing all the work. Skiing this way is like walking in slow motion: first one foot ...then the other ...one complete turn on one foot ...then another on the opposite foot...
You’ll discover an interesting bonus. Not only are your turns rounder, more carved, and more efficient, but your skis will stay closer together. Say good-bye to that old wide track. It’s very easy to change the position of the light inside ski in relation to the weighted outside ski. If you stand on both skis equally, trying to move one closer to the other is as impossible as lifting yourself off the ground by your bootstraps.
Nothing else can change your skiing as much as learning to stand exclusively over that outside ski. I call this the best-kept secret in modern skiing, because it’s so hard to observe that great skiers are really standing exclusively on one foot--first on one foot, then on the other. But they are, and you can too. Naturally, that’s not all there is to polishing your parallel turns, but it is the most important step.