The only foolproof way to protect your knees when skiing is to stay home. But there are some things you can do to mitigate your risk of knee injury, starting with…
- Learn to ski better. Knee injuries are positional in nature. Skiers who start with a balanced stance and solid technique are better protected from injury.
- Avoid skiing on wide skis on hard snow. Just trying to get them on edge can cause discomfort and not edging them results in a loss of control.
- If you’re not already an expert skier, using a ski that’s too wide for you will inhibit, if not prevent, your skills development.
- Wide skis cause skiers to stand more upright, which reduces the amount of force a skier can generate to help protect the knee.
- On hard snow, a wider ski will multiply the effects of Ground Reaction Force whenever the skier tries to engage the edge.
- The only ways to minimize the effects of GRF are to avoid edging or ski uncut powder roughly a foot or more deep.
- While there is no hard data on just how wide a ski is too wide, avoid groomed snow on skis that are wider than the head of your tibia.