these varied between the arrow-like dive of the kannonen , the stars , who took the terrific schuss dead straight in a low crouch with their sticks jauntily tucked under their arm-pits , the average amateur who braked perhaps three or four times on his way down , and the terrified novice who , with stuck-out behind , stemmed his way down , his skis angled and edged like a snow-plough , with occasional straight runs diagonally across the polished slope - dashing little sprints that usually ended in a mild crash as he ran off the flattened surface into the thick powder snow that edged the wide , beaten piste .