Mechanics of side-slipping in alpine skiing: theory of machining snow and ice

Abstract

Side-slipping (or skidding) is a feature of several manoeuvres in alpine skiing, including a few types of skiing turns. On hard snow, side-slipping involves removal of a thin top layer of snow, that makes it similar to machining of materials in manufacturing. In this paper, we briefly review the theory of machining and then propose an approximate model that can be used to describe side-slipping in skiing. We test this model against published results of laboratory experiments in machining of ice and snow and find agreement.