Arlberg technique

The Arlberg technique is a structured teaching system for skiing that guides beginners from the basic snowplough turn—where skis form a wedge to control speed and direction—to the parallel stem christie, a turn blending a slight wedge with parallel skiing, through a series of progressive steps. Developed by Hannes Schneider in the Arlberg mountains of Austria, it emphasizes control and stability using deliberate body movements like stemming (pushing one ski outward).

Introduced in the early 20th century, the system, or its adapted versions, is still taught in some ski schools today, though its focus on stemming and the stem christie reflects techniques prominent before the 1960s. By contrast, modern ski equipment supports carving, where skiers tilt edged skis to arc smoothly without skidding, relying on design rather than stemming. Some schools now bypass stemming entirely, moving students from snowplough to carving to avoid difficult to unlearn habits tied to older methods.

Schneider’s approach gained fame in Europe through films in the 1920s and 30s and spread to the United States after he emigrated there in 1939, following imprisonment during the Anschluss.