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Mendieta

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"Moguls are opportunities. Not obstacles." --Weems Westfeldt

(Spring 2017) Bumps are scary, huh? If you are like me, ever since you started skiing, you have been trying to stay away from bad snow. Carefully choosing smooth, groomed runs, the closer to manicured, the better. Frankly, that's a safe way to start your skiing journey. Staying away from ice and chopped up, irregular snow will allow you to learn the basics in a favorable environment.

Bumps are also known as moguls. According to Wikipedia, the term "mogul" is derived from the Bavarian word "mugel," which means mound. Moguls can happen naturally or be produced artificially. They also provide different levels of difficulty: the steeper the run and the larger the bumps, the harder it is to ski them. Bumps in soft snow are typically less intimidating because they slow the skier naturally.

I started to ski as an adult. At the beginning of my third season, while I was taking a private lesson on carving, instructor @Mark Downing suggested that my next lesson focus on bumps. I had probably skied 45 days in my life by then, and I was comfortable on well-groomed intermediate runs, but I was terrified by bumps. Knowing that I am a bit of a ski theory geek, Mark quickly explained that bumps demand short turns, and short turns lead to better separation.

See? Separation is major for an intermediate skier. Keeping the upper body steady, downhill, while the legs rotate in the hip sockets is key to everything expert skiers do. Separation enables turning while staying balanced, in the most efficient way. The converse is also true. As noted by @Josh Matta, another instructor here on Pugski, difficulty when skiing bumps is normally a sign that we need to further develop several aspects of our skiing technique.

But there are other reasons to learn bumps. Sooner or later, you will encounter them. Bumps happen naturally. As skiers go on and on over the same run, they start to follow each other's tracks, making the line they ski deeper, and pushing snow into piles. Depending on the weather and snow conditions, a groomed run can develop deep bumps over the course of a few hours. Learning bumps will allow you to take that unexpectedly bumpy run gracefully and safely.

Fast forward toward the end of ski season, when I decided to take a bumps lesson. The instructor, yet another Pugski member (@lswedish), first had me practice short turns and then took me to a bump run for intermediates (we started at the easiest spot, toward the end of the run):

View attachment 30775
Intermediate bump run at Deer Valley.
From there, he took me to a place with completely natural snow, and big, soft bumps. I was in heaven. I knew right then and there that more of the mountain was opening up to me.

Why? One of the biggest impediments to skiing bumps is psychological. Bumps are initially scary because they present physical constraints. But they can be a lot of fun: once you make friends with the terrain and realize that proper tactics and technique turn a bump run into your own little amusement park, you will have flipped the tables.

Fast forward even further, to late spring. I am now choosing, sometimes, natural terrain and ungroomed runs. Not all the time, but it is one more fun thing to do. A steep, advanced run that I had never taken, at a new mountain for me, was frozen in the morning. When I came back three hours later, it had developed soft bumps, typical in late spring. Before my bump lesson, this would have completely terrified me. Instead, I took the run, taking my time on the way down, and had a ton of fun. Sure enough, I feel much more confident as groomed runs soften up and start developing bumps.


full

Advanced run at Sugar Bowl.

So, am I a bump skier? No. I don't even think I am a skier. But ... was the lesson worth it?


:yeah:


Credits: many thanks go to the Pugski team for quite a bit of help with the article. Notably, @SBrown . The work she does behind the scenes is inconmensurable.
 

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Tactical Speed

On the Moguls
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Great post, thanks for sharing your experience with moguls. Can you tell us the name of that Deer Valley trail? It looks like a great moderate-pitch opportunity to practice technique.
 

Monique

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are initially scary because they present physical constraints

Later, they become less scary when you realize that they give you more options! A groomed run only has one slope. Bumps have many slopes from which to choose.
 

mdf

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It's been way too many years to remember the run name, but back when my son was in middle school we spent a day at Deer Valley. There was a broad open area off the top of one of the lifts that had the perfect "learning moguls" on it. Not too steep, not the least bit narrow, big round well-spaced bumps.
 
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Mendieta

Mendieta

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Great post, thanks for sharing your experience with moguls. Can you tell us the name of that Deer Valley trail? It looks like a great moderate-pitch opportunity to practice technique.

Yes! This is Lost Boulder, on Flagstaff Mt. Towards the end of the run, the bumps are on the skier left side. The run also continues, groomed, slightly to the right. The biggest difficulty is the size of the bumps: many kids ski them and the bumps are sharp and of small radii towards the top. But there are a couple access points mid-way down :)
 

Core2

Making fresh tracks
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Why? One of the biggest impediments to skiing bumps is psychological. Bumps are initially scary because they present physical constraints. But they can be a lot of fun: once you make friends with the terrain and realize that proper tactics and technique turn a bump run into your own little amusement park, you will have flipped the tables.

This is so true. Once bumps become your friend, the mountain provides a whole new level of fun. Some of my favorite runs are when mogul fields get filled in with enough powder to top off the trenches. You can ski them like moguls or ski them like a powder field and have your choice of thousands of little jumps to catch air off of. So much fun.

Some tasty pillows at Monarch:
IMG_1892.JPG
 
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KingGrump

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So you're saying you can't tell the difference? That explains the "groomer warm up run" you led at Snowmass.

You mean that wasn't a groomer? Certainly felt like one. :cool:
That pales in comparison to when the W/B Gathermeister threw everyone down Jersey Cream Face on the first run of the gathering. Just so she can precipitate the skiers into different group. Come to think of it, have think of something to top that one for the Utah gathering. I tell ya, you guys are in for a treat. :eek:
 

mdf

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Come to think of it, have think of something to top that one for the Utah gathering. I tell ya, you guys are in for a treat. :eek:

Been there, done that. In fact, I think that was the day I met you.
 

markojp

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You mean that wasn't a groomer? Certainly felt like one. :cool:
That pales in comparison to when the W/B Gathermeister threw everyone down Jersey Cream Face on the first run of the gathering. Just so she can precipitate the skiers into different group.

A 'shake out', eh? ogsmile
 

KevinF

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I was skiing with @Bob Barnes at Copper Mountain one fine Spring day a couple years back.

He leads me into some bump run that hasn't softened up yet in the sun. Bob drops in first, makes two turns and it's immediately audibly apparent that these bumps are completely frozen up crap.

Bob stops and I'm thinking "ok, this is insane... even he's going to hike back out of this", looks back at me and yells "THIS IS GONNA BE SO INCREDIBLY GOOD FOR YOU!!!!!" and skis to the bottom.

:eek:
 

Crank

Making fresh tracks
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My creaky old knees are nearing their mogul limit.

Warren Miller:
Warren's Classic Quotes

"I've long maintained that "bumps on the mountain are like heartbeats. You only have so many of them in your knees and when they are gone they are gone." My knees wore out many years ago and I avoid moguls the same way I avoid political discussions.
 

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