Introduction to Carving: How to Tip the Ski on Edge & Feel a Full Carve Turn

In this lesson I was skiing in Zermatt with Mark and Alexi from the US. The goal was an introduction to carving — how to tip the ski up on its edge, what a full carve turn actually feels like, and how to build it from scratch. We broke the lesson into three parts.

What carving actually is

Before we got started, I wanted to be clear on what we're actually trying to do. Carving is about getting the ski up on its edge — the more you tip the ski onto its side, the more it bends, and the tighter it can turn. The ski's sidecut (the shape built into it) does the turning for you, as long as you get it on its edge.

My goal in carving is to get the ski as far up on its edge as possible, so I'm using the ski's own design to shape the turn rather than skidding or pushing through it. That's the difference between a carved turn and a skidded one.

Part 1: The end of the turn — J turns

The best way to feel what carving actually is, is to start at the end of the turn, not the beginning. That's why we started with J turns.

Here's how a J turn works: point straight down the slope, pick up a bit of speed, then simply roll your feet onto their edges and let the skis arc around — all the way up the hill and back to a stop. You're not turning with your legs or your body. You're just tipping the ski onto its edge and letting the ski's design carry you around.

The feeling you're after is the ski gripping and bending as it comes around. That bend and that grip — that's a carve. Once you can feel it at the end of the turn, you know what you're chasing in the rest of the lesson.

Part 2: The start of the turn — skis on edge before they point downhill

Once the J turn feeling was there, we moved to the start of the turn. This is where most people lose the carve — they let the skis point downhill before they tip them onto their edges, which means the ski skids through the first half of the turn.

The goal here is to have the skis on their edge before they point down the fall line. To do this, you roll your feet onto their edges while you're still across the slope — so the ski is already tipping and bending as it comes round to face downhill. The top of the turn is carved, not skidded.

We practised going well across the slope first, really rolling the feet onto their edges before the skis pointed down. One thing I kept reminding them: always check up the hill before doing this, and check again as you come round, so you don't cut out in front of anyone.

Part 3: The transition — tip, don't twist

The transition is the moment you change from one edge to the other — from finishing one turn to starting the next. This is where the carve is most easily lost, and the fix is simple but easy to get wrong: tip the ski up onto its new edge, don't twist it.

Twisting the ski to change direction is the skidding habit. Tipping it — rolling the foot from one edge across to the other — is what keeps the carve. The movement is in the feet and ankles, not the upper body.

Once Mark and Alexi had that feeling, everything clicked. You could see the carve holding through the transition and linking cleanly into the next turn. More speed helps too — carving at higher speeds is actually easier because the ski has more grip and more bend. Mark was flying by the end and nailing it.

Brilliant session from Mark and Alexi — by the end both of them were linking proper carved turns and feeling the ski do the work. That's what it's all about.