On 2004-12-21, VtSkier penned:
Monique Y. Mudama wrote:

Anyway. There are several ways to ski moguls. I can't help you with the
type you see on TV, where the skier's knees are just bouncing up and down
and there's no apparent lateral motion. Even if I had the guts and
reflexes to do that, I value my knees pretty highly.

Me too.

My instructor claimed that mogul courses used to be much steeper than the ones
they use for competition nowadays, and that because of the steepness you'd
actually see athletes turning a bit more. No idea whether or not that's true.

If the spaces between the bumps are icy, usually the bumps themselves are
not because the snow has been scraped up onto the tops. For this I slide
across the icy troughs with as flat a ski as possible and initiate the turn
on the up side of the mogul, using up-slope as (for) unweighting and come
down on the other side going in the opposite direction from the up side of
the bump. Lots of up-down here, but it feels pretty natural because you are
using the bump to initiate your turn, and it is a turn, not just a breaking
"kick" against the bump.

Yup, as I said, several ways to ski moguls. Going between them feels more
natural to me, and I haven't had to deal with ice. If I were back east I'm
sure I'd force myself to learn the other options.

Also, I don't think that turning between bumps requires a "breaking"
(braking?) kick. It can be done smoothly.

At Killington we have Outer Limits. A great run, but one on which lots of
wanna-be's test themselves. There are lots of bumps but they rarely have a
good line. To the really good bump skiers this doesn't seem to matter, but
for competitions, Killington uses a bump seeding groomer to set the course
so that there will be good bumps for the competitors.

I've seen that run, several years ago. IIRC there's a trail that traverses
it, so I had to ski across the damn trail with bumps so big that the people
skiing down couldn't see me, and I could only sometimes see them. I was
definitely a beginner at the time, and that was some scary stuff.

The Vertigo story above is really about psychological difficulties. The
thing LOOKS so bad that everyone thinks it's really hard. You can pick a
line pretty straight down it and miss everything or if you need to go slow,
there are lines which force pretty gentle traverses. It's never as bad as it
looks. However, I do respect the closed rope when it's in place.

Much of skiing is about the psychology. If you believe you can do something,
you often can. Not sure what that has to do with respecting boundaries,
though; you should do that because, well, it's the right thing to do. Ropes
don't mean "only ski this if you think you know better than the patrollers."

Okay, on to trick number one.

[snip]

This sound like it will work well but it also seems like a lot to think
about in bumps. Wouldn't it work better to learn this on something less
bumpy? Where you don't have to think so fast? This so that your body is
doing the remembering and not your head.

Just to be clear, I wasn't posting this stuff because I wanted advice; I'm
happy with the techniques mentioned. I posted it because someone asked me to
do so. I felt immediate results when I used this technique; not only did it
keep my skis in the snow, it gave me a much greater feeling of control.

I don't really think that "put your downhill ski forward as you start a turn"
is all that much to think about. Personally, practicing mogul techniques on
groomers is hard, because I like to ski groomers with extremely long turns.
Even if I mean to practice mogul techniques, I just get distracted. No,
better to just suck it up and deal with the moguls. Anyway, moguls don't have
to be skied quickly; I have plenty of time to think about the next turn,
especially when I practice this in conjunction with the other tip. Finally,
we tend to ski a lot of moguls, anyway, so I might as well be practicing this
stuff. It may help that I do play ice hockey, so the feeling of moving the
inside leg forward to initiate a turn is already familiar (this is one reason
the instructor chose this drill, I believe).

By allowing myself to gather speed when my skis point downhill, only
controlling speed during the transition where they point more to the
side, I get a cleaner turn, more control, and less burning in the
thighs. I also don't end up stuck on top of a mogul as often.

Sounds to me like you are fighting the hill or at least the bumps.
It's not good to let the mountain (bumps) rule you, but if you allow
them to set the pace and not fight, you will be less tired.

Again, not looking for advice =) I only mentioned my bad habits to shed light
on what my instructor was trying to fix. The tips he gave me will help me
manage the bumps at a speed that's comfortable for me.

It's obvious that I'm scared of building up speed in the moguls. Your
suggestion sounds a lot like "just suck it up and go faster." There's no
need. I can learn to do bumps slowly, then speed it up as I get better. I
agree that going way too slowly is tiring, but it's better to have a tiring
run than no run at all. And again, the instructor's advice addresses my
concerns.

I agree with both observations. You need to "lighten up" as the slope gets
less. Make the turns less abrupt with a smaller angle away from the fall
line and finish your turn sooner. Remember the big-toe steering (ankle
rolling) you sometimes do on groomed? You can do this on gentle bumps. Use
it to change direction without scrubbing off speed.

Sure, if the bumps are mild enough, you can ski them a lot like you would a
groomer. The trouble comes with the large bumps and deep troughs on shallow
blues. Maybe your top of the mogul approach would work better there; I prefer
to just avoid them =P

As with just about anything else, keeping your body mostly pointed down the
mountain while your skis are doing whatever they need to do is important.
This is where pole planting comes in; if you reach out with your pole and
"tag" the mogul around which you plan to turn, it gets your body up front
and facing forward.

Yes and has anyone suggested using shorter poles for bumps?

Maybe? I'm extremely not interested in having different gear for different
situations. My poles work just fine when I remember to use them.

--
monique
Longmont, CO