HOW TO SKI ON ICE | 4 tips with Kili Weibel

Skiing on ice is challenging, it’s scary and unfortunately, it’s almost impossible to avoid. In this video, Kili Weibel shares some of his top tips to help you next time you face those icy conditions.

Disclaimer: We spent days hunting down the iciest conditions we could find to make this vid for you, but whenever we had a shoot day, we were blessed with perfect piste (ironically, the conditions we normally dream of filming in). With covid cutting short our skiing window we are still proud to bring you our best ice tips - executed on perfect piste ;)
Enjoy!

Want to read more about skiing on ice and gain some additional expert tips?

SUBSCRIBE today to get access to more ski lessons, more real-time feedback and never before seen alpine skiing data from Carv!

Follow us on:

For more how to ski content make sure to check out our other ski improvement videos:
- How to ski in tough terrain:

- How to ski with flow:

- Carving with early edge angles:

- 4 Advanced skiing mistakes and how to fix them:

- How to increase your edge angle:

Jump to a section:
0:00 - Awesome skiing with Kili
0:30 - Introduction to skiing on ice
1:11 - The Key: Skiing stance
1:38 - Tip 1: Early edge engagement
3:29 - Tip 2: Be patient and apply pressure smoothly
4:09 - Tip 3: Separation of lower and upper body
5:40 - Tip 4: More flow, less force
6:28 - Lesson recap
7:00 - Want more learn to ski content?

⛷️⛷️⛷️

Skier: Kili Weibel - Swiss snow demo team instructor
Follow Kili on Instagram at @kiliweibel
Ski resort: Zermatt, Switzerland
Music Licensed by Music Bed: MB01IQEFRVPJC87

[fatamorgana]

Skiing on ice looks so easy...when you're not skiing on ice!

[SnowCampsEurope]

Yet another how to ski on ice video that shows a great skier not skiing on ice!

[lkvt]

Speaking as an ice coast ski instructor, on legitimate bulletproof ice, even with tuned equipment, maintaining a carve is near impossible. The most helpful tip, at least in my experience, is to not move your upper body too far into the turn. If you’re significantly angulated and your skis slip on the ice, you’ll hit the ground.

Maintaining lateral balance through equilibrium of forces in a turn, especially a carved turn, requires that the force be translated from and to the snow (ice) through the skis. When it’s really pure ice, this is impossible as the edges will just slide out, and more than minor abduction can be dangerous.

In general I agree with the “more edging, less skidding”, but when it’s really bulletproof and rotary action combined with light edging barely changes your direction of travel, it’s better to just pivot slip your way down the side of the trail than risk an ACL injury.

[mopik]

I see too many negative comments. That's not cool guys. Kili Weibel is awesome. We should all learn from him. One of the best videos on this channel.

[orravaneppilihp]

Great skier and great carving tips, but that surface is superb hard groom natural snow. I'd like to see his turns on the yellow arena grade artificial ice we have here in Quebec !!

[andreamosconi]

i think showing the instructor skiing a section of a steep icy slope would have helped, great video anyhow!

[rmsmith]

Like beauty, ice is in the eye of the beholder. In 1990 I made my first trip west (Steamboat). In the morning my son and I were just saying how nice it was when a local (I guess) came down the hill screaming at her husband about how icy it was and "I'm going in". My son, who was about 12 yrs old looked at me and said "wow, are these people spoiled". Now he lives out west and only likes to ride "pow". I still ski boilerplate back east.

[leopp]

Moving from edge to edge, instead of trying to rotate the skis rotating your body, in order to change direction (as bad skier like me do, instinctively): this is a game changer tip!

[bryanharrison]

Great tips! Also ski the edges of the trail to avoid ice . Alot of skiers aren't aware of this . Its common sense 101!

[miked.]

As a PSIA Level III (the highest level) I can say this is NOT ice. This is hardpack, or boiler plate, but not true ice. I grew up skiing on hard pack and true ice. Like the ice on a lake but tipped on an angle. For skiing on hard pack his tips are valid. For ice you can't lay them as out as far or they will come out from under you. One important thing (like he said) is sharp edges, for ice razor sharp edges, and a base edge angle of .5 degrees on the base and 4 degrees on the side. For hard pack/ boiler plate .5 on the base and 3 degrees on the side. In the Western US they think hard pack is ice, it ain't, it's just not soft. Ask any East Coast or Midwest US instructor or racer and they will tell you the same.

[scollyutube]

Would be more useful actually showing this on ice. The demo conditions here are a good day in NZ. On hard snow there is little wash from the skis, most of this video looks like it was produced on a standard groomer softened up by a couple of hours skier usage.
The slow transition recommended as described, suggests some degree of slide or skid is guaranteed with the accompanying horrible noise until edging starts. Like to see you demonstrate that on actual frozen groomers please slowed down so we can see effectiveness.

[carlzurhorst]

This may just be my favorite tutorial so far. These are all the pointers I had and used when competing on the US east coast

[jayconway]

Skied since 1956 not counting 2 years in the backyard, vertical -4 ft. High school team, primarily Nordic but a little alpine. Skied well with REALLY good skiers (Cannon Mtn - NH) late teens. Little slow now… bumps and ice spook me now - will slink my way through it… this video is the most coherent review of skiing ice… not that I’ll kill it now but watching it carefully brings back what I learned from trial and long sliding falls (no injury- just fun and ridicule). Very well done. Will review for my 2 ski/year outings. Thanks! Jay - Maine

[Marius_Quast]

Wow - that set's a great new level of english ski tutorials! Nice work, CARV-Team and Kili (great guy!)

[TAH]

Well, i enjoyed the good tips - clearly a very high level of skiing ability. There's skiing on ice ( more like hardpack, which wasn't in the video) and skating on boiler plate which is some crazy adventure and nothing like skiing for fun at all.

[tomjong]

I’m talking about the east coast ice, the transparent ice where you can see through the grass and rock type. What you show there is heaven for me.

[florianredecsy]

Rule Nr1. (he mentioned it): SHARP EDGES, SHARP EDGES!!! otherwise it is normal skiing. Nice video of general skiing technique! Looking forward to see more.

[CYT]

The bad example was easy to understand.
I will try it next time. Thank you

[Suewang]

wow thanks for that. I leaned a lot I also passed the ski club test

[scottvukovich]

Thanks so much for your super concise explanations and demos- very well done! The beauty here is that for me, there was nothing new...in a good way. As an certified instructor and race coach in Wisconsin, ice is the norm and the techniques/tips that you offer are exactly what I have been doing for years. Thanks again for verifying that I'm still doing the right stuff!