by John Mason » Mon Apr 12, 2004 8:58 pm
My understanding of the term "railing" is:
When a ski edges when your not meaning to. Thus the ski goes the direction it is now edging like it has a mind of it's own which may not be the way you were going.
For instance, if you engage with your big toe edge first rather than tipping to the LTE and the ski starts to carve before your CM has crossed over the skis into the new turn, the ski may "rail" or catch an edge and do the direction it is going to go well before your body is in position to balance that new direction. Rather than the ski turning in this case it will "rail" straight ahead.
The other term that has similar causes is to "catch an edge". Of course, we like to catch edges. But in this case, it's when you have a ski edge or rail when you were not ready. A common illustration of this is using a wide stance in bumps. Since both skis are not hitting similar terrain at the same time because they are wide, one ski may rail or catch an edge that is a different direction than your other ski. This type of unintentional edging can be avoided by having your skis closer together so they behave and engage at the same time and/or simply keep most of your weight on one ski. In this way, the skis won't "have a mind of their own" and edge apart.
Another instance that is less a factor of bad skiing like the above two examples, is you may be skiing in highly variable snow conditions. (like spring skiing) You may be brushing a carve but because the snow surface changes abruptly what may have been sufficient edging for a brushed carve all of a sudden engages the edge fully and the ski "rails" away or accelerates in the direction it is pointing rather than it's prior mixed carve and sliding direction. This may be the most common way people use the term "rail". Often, this type of problem is greater on skis that are more torsionally stiff since their angle to edge vs the angle to brush is quite narrow. A less torsionally stiff ski has a broad range of edging to non-edging in a much less abrupt fashion. Thus the idea of a ski that's good for an expert verses a beginner.
This is how I have come to understand these terms based on the contexts I have heard them in.
The "Enclyclopeida of Skiing" (which I highly recommend for people new to the terms of skiing) describes that a ski that is railed out, meaning it is sufficiently edged by tipping, that it can only go the direction it is pointing and carving. (a loose paraphrase from the enclyclopedic reference) But, a ski that is railed in this fashion can still be adjusted in it's radius by adjusting the tipping which can easily be done by using the free foot. That's an interesting definition of railed because it almost assumes that leg steering must be used to shape a turn. In this thinking if the ski is in a pure carve steering is not possible so it's "railed" and a dangerous thing. While this is traditional thinking, my own experience shows you can continue to shape the turn by adjusting the tipping or pressure on the carving ski. (which is also what PMTS teaches and Witheral's book the Athletic Skier teaches among others) (Ok the "Athletic Skier" book says that at this level perhaps 1% is leg steering so they still latch on to that concept even though the other 99% is tipping and pressure) It's interesting that all three points of view actually converge and state that you can't steer a ski that is in a pure carve. But who needs to.