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

"Monique Y. Mudama" wrote in message
.. .

almost everything that I learned came from those last few hours. I
now have two great, concrete techniques to use in the moguls; one
will keep me from lifting my inner ski; the other will help me keep
the speed I want in the moguls without going too fast or exhausting
my thighs as much as I have been.

What were those hints?

Stephen NYC


Oh, you think it's that easy, do ya? Just ask and I'll give up these secrets?

Okay, maybe I will. But please bear in mind that:

[disclaimer]

I'm trying to describe in pure text what was shown to me repeatedly with
words, gestures, and examples

The advice given to me may not apply to you, as your bad habits may not be the
same as mine

As always, if I report something that's completely wrong, it's my error and
not the instructor's

This advice is worth exactly as much as you've paid me for it, and is
guaranteed for the same amount

[/disclaimer]

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.

No, I go for more of a weaving approach. Ideally, I'd thread my way around
moguls and make steady downward progress. Right now, there's a good deal of
horizontal movement, and I typically make 3-5 turns, then have to stop and
evaluate. Both of my mogul instructors have pegged me as a "shopper,"
traversing half the slope looking for that perfect line for each turn, then
failing to commit enough when I do find something.

Several things for variation here, it has to do with snow conditions. A
line which tries to maintain the least amount of bobbing up an down is
most often the most comfortable. It may be one turn per bump or it may
be one turn for every two or three bumps, but the snow between the bumps
must be pretty good, not icy like it gets here in the east. I had a
blast skiing bumps at Heavenly like this last week. The local dude I was
skiing with had a hard time keeping up with my 62 year old knees.

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.

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 generally avoid OL because there are lots of out of the way trails
with bumps which are generally skied by better skiers and have great lines.

I often wind up as the "local guy" here at K-mart. Often for better
skiers that are looking for "interesting" places to ski. If they are a
little cocky, I have a favorite place for them. It's called Vertigo and
it's a series of short but very steep (approaching 45 degrees) drops
with flats in between. The conditions are "wild thing", no snow making
no grooming (well sometimes if it's bad enough) with bumps and rocks.

I will zip down the first face and stop on the flat and look up to
watch. When they all get down that I tell them there are two more drops
but that the one they just came down is the hardest. Yes, I do have a
sadistic side now and then.

There's also a psychological element to my difficulty with moguls. The
ex-boyfriend who introduced me to skiing believed that anything other than the
above-mentioned knee-bouncing approach to moguls was sinful, as it would
scrape snow off the moguls (nevermind that that's how moguls are formed in the
first place). No, his advice to me, then a beginner/low intermediate skier,
was to go straight down the mogul run and just learn to move my legs fast
enough for the speed I accumulated. I wonder why I had such a hard time
learning mogul skiing from him?

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.

Okay, on to trick number one. This addresses several bad habits: back-seat
skiing and lifting the inside ski are the two obvious ones. When you're in
the transition, skis somewhat horizontal across the mountain, take your
downhill ski (the one that's about to become the inside ski), slide it forward
just a hair, and put pressure on the outside edge. In other words, make sure
that you're actively using that inside ski rather than just bringing it along
for the ride. If you ice skate, this is a lot like what iirc are called power
turns. Obviously, your outside ski still needs to do its normal thing, but
the important point is that your inside ski is no longer just dead weight.

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.

Trick two may be harder for me to explain. Maybe I can start by describing my
bad habits. Apparently, I try to scrub speed as soon as I start going
downhill by skidding my skis, then abruptly forcing my skis into a turn across
the front of the mogul. (Front? Back? The side closer to the bottom of the
slope.) Problem number one: I'm trying to dump speed during the part of the
turn that most wants to go fast. Problem number two: I dump so much speed
during the downhill part that I don't have enough momentum to get around the
next bump, and I often have to pole around the next turn. In order to get a
smoother, more controlled run, the idea is to go ahead and let speed
accumulate as my skis point down the mountain. Rather than forcing an abrupt
turn too soon, allow my skis to turn on the back of the next mogul, not on the
front of the current one. (Again, assuming front to be the side closest to
the bottom of the slope, which may be the opposite of the proper definition.)
During this transitional part of the turn, where my skis are more horizontal,
I can scrub speed, even allowing the skis to go uphill a bit if I need to. 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.

The instructor also claimed that the best line is often a turn for every two
moguls, rather than one. We both observed that double black moguls seem
easier than blues, but we had different reasons. My instructor believes that
double black moguls are shaped by better skiers and are therefore more
regular; I believe that the extra steepness helps even a slowpoke like me get
around the turn, whereas on a blue it's easier to get stuck.

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.

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?

I hope all of that made some sense, is somewhat accurate, and is somewhat
useful.

I'm a survivor from the days when bumps often used to get to be the size
of Volkswagens. The nearest I've seen these days are the large
snowmaking whales that if you want to ski them, you must do so under the
guns. These sometimes require two or three turns per bump, but the
feeling you get skiing up, down and around these things is wonderful.

VtSkier