Stem Christie

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

The turn was named after Kristiania (now Oslo), Norway, where the name Kristianiasving was used for the parallel turn, differentiating it from the Telemark turn.

The technique was introduced to central Europe 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.

Uphill ski is now referred to as the outside ski.

Downhill ski is now referred to as the inside ski.

Uphill and Downhill were confusing, as after completion of the turn the uphill ski will now be downhill!

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.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Uses material from the article Stem Christie.