Stem Christie - Definition and Overview

The Stem Christie in skiing is a development of the stem technique, where the uphill ski is stemmed or pushing out from being parallel with the downhill ski to form a V shape.

The Stem Christie was developed in 1910 by the Austrian ski guide Johannes Schneider. Along with the other two stem techniques, it formed the basis of his Arlberg technique and instruction method.

Terminology

Uphill ski refers in this case to the back end of the ski, i.e. behind the skier.

Downhill ski refers to the front end of the ski. i.e. in front of the skier

The technique

Having brought the skis into the V shape mentioned above, more pressure is applied to one of the skis, so causing the skis to start to turn (to the left if applied to the right ski, or to the right if applied to the left).

Once the turn has commenced, the downhill ski is gradually brought parallel with the stemmed ski as the turn is made so that at the end of the turn both skis are parallel and pointing in the desired direction of travel.

See also

• Snowplough turn - (also known as the wedge turn or stem turn)
• Parallel turn

• Skiing and Skiing Topics