Talking in the Steep: Utah’s Own Ted Ligety Joins Carv

And I definitely appreciate Ted, I mean, Carv.

Carv is a mobile app and device built by and for skiers. It uses a thin footbed containing 36 sensors that is placed into each ski boot. Each footbed is connected to a small rechargeable device that attaches to the bootstrap. Because the footbed fits under the liner, it can be used with custom and heated insoles and even popped into rental boots.

But it’s much more than a digital tool. It’s a personal ski coach, providing an initial assessment, on-mountain audio feedback and detailed apres ski analytics. Designed for intermediate to advanced skiers, Carv is not intended to replace ski school but to take the comfortable cruiser to Olympic glory. Well, maybe just some edge ecstasy. 

But glory is far from aspirational. Carv welcomed two-time Olympic Gold Medalist, five-time World Champion skier and Park City’s hometown hero, Ted Ligety, to its team this season. Together, they’ve developed and integrated a new Train with an Olympian program enhancing Carv’s already-popular app. More than a new set of videos, Ted and Carv have broken down the elements of carved turns and identified four hard bumps that often keep skiers from reaching their low-leaning, high-edging potential. 

The Train with an Olympian concept takes skiers through a progressive series focusing on four fundamental concepts called Stages: Edge Similarity, Outside Ski Pressure, Early Edging and Edge Angle. Each Stage allows users to advance in a game-style approach that makes learning fun and rewards progress. If you get stuck along the way (the thing that often keeps good skiers from becoming great skiers), Carv will coach you through. The Train with an Olympian program is an expert-tuning of the existing, easy-to-use Carv platform creating a multi-dimensional master’s course for a broad audience of skiers. 

Ted is the perfect collaborator and coach for this. He has worked and trained with the best in the world and has generously shared his knowledge and experience with those coming up, from world-ranked competitors to young shredders, including his own kids. He can translate concepts you vaguely remember from high school physics to step-by-step tips and relatable analogies that anyone can understand and implement immediately.

Importantly for Utah skiers, he is not only ‘Mr. Giant Slalom,’ going for gold on rock-hard groomed runs. He grew up a Park City powderhound and understands that The Greatest Snow on Earth® draws people here and keeps them coming back. That’s one of the most significant ways his collaboration with Carv can yield big results. 

Great skiing is about great turns. Gravity, in large part, takes care of the rest. However, rolling those ankles, initiating turns earlier (much earlier than you likely are) and keeping those edges smooth, essential in carving down groomers, is equally important surfing through the trees in thigh-deep powder. 

This is accomplished in various ways through the Carv app. Carv allows users to select different modes when heading out on the mountain. Think of modes like selecting musical playlists to suit your mood. If you’re skiing with friends and family, you might choose Free Ski (your Top 40 playlist), whereby all of those footbed sensors record fore-aft balance, edge similarly, angle and a host of other data during each run. When you get on the lift, Carv, having already analyzed this information, provides audio feedback, including an overall Ski:IQ with 100 as average (Ted’s Ski:IQ is an astounding 160) and a specific focus for the next run and the next and the next.

“Thank you, Ted. I’ll try that next time.”

Skiers that want to work on a specific skill in the new program’s sequence, such as Stage 2: Outside Ski Pressure, can opt for Training mode (crank up your Electric Dance playlist). This mode introduces specific drills tailored for that Stage, providing instant audio scoring for every turn down the mountain. For those who ski alone or find themselves skiing greens with the grommets, Carv’s Training mode is a great accompaniment.

In any mode, afterward, users can review a plethora of detailed data, graphs and analytics about their ski day. Instructional videos with Ted and other Carv athletes provide users with more in-depth tutorials of the concepts to master each Stage. Carv’s goal is to quantitatively and qualitatively improve users’ skiing in “minutes, not months.” However, over a season, the results are pretty astounding, with 95% of users reporting significant improvement and the app calculating an average increase of 18 points in Ski:IQ using Carv.

You don’t have to be a competitive athlete to train like one…or just learn a few transformative tips from one. The Train with an Olympian program developed by Ted Ligety and Carv allows intermediate to advanced skiers to understand the fundamentals and, more importantly, the barriers to achieving edged and angled turns in order to unlock the power and excitement of well-executed and crazy-fun carving. From there, the entire mountain is open and awaits you, your partner and your friends. 

Yes, Ted can come along, too.

The Carv device and annual membership may be purchased here. Not only do users receive an entire season’s worth of instruction and analytical information, but they can also access additional skiing-specific strength, balance and yoga workouts and exclusive webinars from Ted and other professional athletes and coaches. 

Yes, Carv makes an excellent holiday gift, and Black Friday buyers can receive a 40% discount on the device with the code DOUBLEBLACK. My Ski:IQ improved by 22 points last year and my partner said I could talk to Ted this season as often as I want. 

Content sponsored by Carv