The fall line is the most direct, steepest path straight down a slope — the line a ball would roll if released. It's the central reference for skiing and riding: turns are made across and around it to control speed, the body faces down it in good technique, and reading the fall line is key to choosing lines and managing terrain.
Switch means riding or skiing backward — leading with what is normally your trailing end. For snowboarders it means riding with the non-dominant foot forward; for skiers it means skiing backward, enabled by twin-tip skis. Switch riding is fundamental to freestyle, where tricks involve taking off, spinning, and landing both regular and switch.
Climbing skins are strips of directional-pile fabric (originally seal skin, now nylon, mohair, or blends) that attach to the bases of touring skis or splitboards. The pile glides forward but grips backward against the snow, letting you climb uphill without sliding back. Removed for the descent, skins are the essential traction tool for skinning in ski touring.
Skinning is the technique of ascending snow-covered slopes on skis (or a splitboard) using climbing skins attached to the ski bases for grip, sliding the skis forward rather than lifting them. With the heel free in touring mode, you glide uphill efficiently, using kick turns at switchbacks. Skinning is how ski tourers and splitboarders climb to earn their descents.
A kick turn is a stationary maneuver for reversing your direction 180 degrees on skis, done by lifting and swinging one ski around to point the opposite way, then bringing the other to match. It's an essential ski-touring skill for changing direction at switchbacks while climbing on a steep skin track, and for turning around in tight spots.
A pole plant is the act of briefly touching or tapping the ski pole tip into the snow to trigger and time a turn, providing rhythm, balance, and a stable reference point as you transition between turns. Well-timed pole plants are especially important in bumps, steeps, and short-radius turns, helping keep the upper body stable and facing downhill.
The snowplow (also called the wedge or 'pizza') is the fundamental beginner ski technique in which the ski tips are brought together and the tails pushed apart into a wedge, with the inside edges engaged, to control speed, turn, and stop at slow speeds. It's the first thing most skiers learn, before progressing to parallel turns.
A parallel turn is a ski turn in which both skis stay parallel to each other throughout the turn, rather than being wedged like a snowplow. Achieving consistent parallel turns is the classic milestone from beginner to intermediate skiing, giving smoother, faster, more efficient descents and forming the basis for advanced techniques like carving.
Carving is a skiing (and snowboarding) technique in which you turn by tipping the ski or board onto its edge so the sidecut bends it into an arc and it tracks cleanly through the turn, leaving a thin, railroad-track line with little or no skidding. It's efficient, fast, and stable on firm groomed snow and is a hallmark of advanced edge control.
Sidecountry is off-piste backcountry terrain accessed through gates or boundaries at a ski resort, so you reach it via lifts rather than a long climb. Despite the easy access, it is true backcountry — unpatrolled, uncontrolled for avalanches, and without rescue — which makes it deceptively dangerous. Avalanche professionals now stress it is simply 'backcountry' requiring full preparation.