Alright admit it......who sucks at moguls. I'll admit it, I suck.

[wicked_sick]

To me an excellent skier is someone who flows down the hill making everything look fun effortless, and almost in slow motion no matter the obstacle.

I can zipperline 4 or 5 bumps in a row before I lose control or have to speed check and lose my rhythm or stop to see if anyone is watching how rad I am

[warthog]

That was the beauty of the bump lines I used to ride-
Bear Trap at Mt Snow was a really fun one in the spring.
K-Mart has an equivalent. Can't remember it now.

Those runs had their own lift. Everyone was watching. You got heckled when, not if, you sucked. Music pumping through speakers, dogs being grilled down below, skiing bumps in t-shirts, sweating your ass off, smoking weed on the ride up, and heckling the absolute shit out of gapers. It was pure skiing awesome. Guys were pulling their best shit, like right out of a Juicy Fruit commercial. Daffy's, spreads, double daffy's, screamin' semen's, backscratchers so huge you knocked yourself out with the back's of the skis.

Man, that shit was fun.

[CarveMan]

To me an excellent skier is someone who flows down the hill making everything look fun effortless, and almost in slow motion no matter the obstacle.

This.

Ski technique seems to be the elephant in the room of TGR.

It's an excellent resource for everything else ski-related, but the stigma of PSIA and Epic seem to have suppressed the topic of technique almost entirely (and I totally understand). That said I'm sure there aren't many skiers on the board that wouldn't benefit from some relevant feedback. Many of the pro skiers that we admire come out of formal ski programs with a technical focus.

Given the freeride nature of this community I wonder what the collective could do to help each other's techniques but in a way that doesn't suck????

(I'm going to put my hand up & admit that finishing 5 years ago, I did 20 seasons as a full time instructor, and became a trainer/examiner in an instructing system that is not PSIA. I like TGR and what it stands for, and the style of skiing venerated here is what I aspire to, so I look back a little awkwardly at some of the instructing stuff, but there's a hell of a lot of concepts that somebody with a good eye (and a non-gaper brain) could adapt from traditional ski teaching to the skiers here)

Instructors don't all pose around on little skis in tight shiny suits - there's 3 competitors on the FWT that were former colleagues of mine in Australia & fully qualified instructors. I'm still pretty friendly with one of them - maybe I should ask her what concepts are the most important??

[Grape_Ape]

I used to suck...back in the late 80's. Then I took a lesson at Mount Snow. The instructor took my bro and I on a bunny slope with exaggerated speed humps and said to ski that. I was out of control. Then he did it...and used his knees as shock absorbers and was in complete control. Then he took us on the "north face" and said to use the mogul as a speed bump, absorb the impact and then turn on the back side (where the snow is the best). It was like a hallelujah moment for us.

Unfortunately, most bump runs in the east are totally fucked up because dooshnozzle snowboarders scrape snow off between the bumps. So...we have a bump, 20' of ice and then another bump. There is no nicely formed mogul field. At Mad River...this phenomenon doesn't happen.

There...I said it.

[Benny Profane]

That's the problem. Weirdly shaped bump fields made by snowboarders.

[JayPowHound]

I used to be a sloppy, uncontrolled bump skier until about 5 years ago when I made the decision to really put some time onto it and improve. I bought a pair of low 170s park skis, took some lessons (although I was teaching at the time so we called them clinics..) and practiced, practiced, practiced.

Although I'm no where close to competing I can now ski top to bottom zipper lines with confidence and control, and the techniques I learned in the bumps have definitely crossed over into other aspects of my skiing, especially tight trees. One drill I really like for this technique is finding a small ridge somewhere (dropoff at the edge of a groomer will do, the steeper the better) and making little, controlled turns across the top of it from one side to the other. Don't worry too much about speed at first, just get used to swinging the skis around when and where you want to on the uneven terrain.

My next goal in bumps is gs-style turns. I have a couple buddies who can carve through a mogul field like it was groomed, airing from the top of one bump to the bottom of the next one as smooth as buttah. That's my new goal. It's good to have goals.

[patrickski]

If ski resorts were never invented, would we all be much worse skiers for never having skied bumps?

Absolutely

[jahoney]

you really should be skiing the same way on moguls as you do on groomers, hands driving forward, shoulders level, and making the same size turns. but it's really important you look way down-line. have your next 3, 4 turns figured out. air over a mogul and land on the other one, that's always fun.

you'd think you want to go around or directly over the bumps, but I've always found it easier to just blast my way through soaking up as many bumps as possible, and getting thrown slightly off-balance and recovering and keep going. sounds haphazard but depending on your balance its doable.

-the knees as a shock absorber post is right on. upper body quiet, let your legs do the work. They'll burn but you get used to that, and you get more efficient with your legs as you get better, also.

[Shredhead]

I'm good at them and skied on the Pro Mogul Tour several years in the 80's. But I'm getting older now and pretty much seek out the smooth lines most of the time.


I've seen Mark Giradelli take his skis off and walk down, rather than ski a mogul run?

[userA]

how come no west coast mags are chiming in?

bumps are just the nuisance underfoot while travelling to the b/c gate.

just grind that shit sideways till you get to your next pow run.

east coast mags need not apply.
hope this helps
bobby

[ACHTUNG]

A pedestrian on Fifty-seventh Street, Manhattan, stopped Jascha Heifetz and inquired, "Could you tell me how to get to Carnegie Hall?" "Yes," said Heifetz. "Practice! Practice! Practice!"

[N1CK.]

I suck at bumps.
Last weekend I went out with two friends who are (IMO) exceptional bump skiers for a crash course morning of instruction. We skied Gold Spike, a fairly steep run at Mary Jane, and after 4-5 hours of beat down I started to get it. There is a shit ton of long bump runs at MJ so I have no reason to not learn.

Most helpful instruction by far was to keep my skis pointed downhill, I just wasn't committing. Also helpful was to keep upper body quiet, REACH for pole plants going into turns and PUSH off to help the turn.

My initial goal was to make 3 turns and stop, then repeat until I could make 4 or 5. Now, up on gold spike that was tough due to the grade and the waist deep moguls, but half way down the run opens up into a less steep field of moderate sized bumps all almost identical and perfectly spaced for trail speed. I managed to link a few nice turns there and it clicked. I'm not a great skier by any means so I'm always up for instruction in areas where I could use it. I still suck at bumps but I'll get better by the end of the season.

[Blurred]

All I cared about growing up was skiing bumps.

Now, you can't find a zipperline to save your life. Not sure if thats from knuckledraggers or fat skis.

Moguls are fun if you know how to ski.

[TheDon]

It's not that you can't ski moguls, you can't ski.

FACT

Good skiers ski lines with both good and bad conditions.

If you can ski it when the snow sucks, you'll kill it with good snow.

[Lindahl]

Grew up with parents who were both on the K2 Freestyle team in the 70s, so I love a good bump run. That said, they're far and few between these days, so the crappy layout of most mogul fields mixed with the big sticks I usually have under my feet means a rough ride.

My next goal in bumps is gs-style turns. I have a couple buddies who can carve through a mogul field like it was groomed, airing from the top of one bump to the bottom of the next one as smooth as buttah. That's my new goal. It's good to have goals.

This is super fun, and is a good way to deal with crappy mogul fields while using big sticks. Being a good traditional bump skier is pretty important in the ability to do this, as you'll screw up now and then and having good shock absorption and other bump skills makes it much easier/quicker to recover, and continue your flow downhill.

After about 11am on a powder day, most of the runs have turned to pretty big crud piles (on their way towards being bumps). Your ability to ski GS turns in mogul fields is directly transferrable to your ability to mash through crud piles. It's even more fun, since the soft snow gives you a greater margin of error, and you can blast through so much faster. Another upside is that you're making it less likely that those crud piles will turn into large moguls, by blasting through and over them.

[half-fast]

I suck at moguls the first run or two every year. Then it comes back. Gotta ski em to get good at em

[mikefut]

The Doug DiPiro book is pretty damn good if you want to ski the zipperline/shock absorber style. I'll admit I never put much effort into learning proper mogul technique until last season and his book helped tremendously. Before that, I had relied mostly on the "short radius turn around the mogul" PSIA-style technique, which is fine, but obviously not as cool.

[MJbumper1121]

Find your line, use your poles, ski on your tips, the more forward the better.

[bbense]

Do bumps help with a 1 inch thick breakable sun crust over soft snow?

Yes, bumps teach you to weight/unweight which is exactly what you need to in breakable crust. Sidecut is great, but rolling the knees only works in good conditions. Until you learn all the ways to start a turn, you will always suffer badly in less than ideal conditions.

And well, I can't imagine a worse ski for bumps than the skis that are currently popular for powder skiing...

[pappag]

Moguls: how to tell who grew up skiing the east coast.


Personally, I love them. If there's no new snow, moguls are about the only thing to really challenge your ability.

[Johnny Deep]

I don't suck as bad as some.

[rideit]

I suck at them so badly, I don't even know where they put them on the mountain anymore. Or where they store them in the summer.

[Kenny Satch]

I love moguls and do ok with the right ski but my knees hate them. sucking at moguls is the greatest source of laughter anyone can enjoy. whistler on an icy day is just a pissfest. people who have no business being on them make a shitty condition day so enjoyable.

[SterlingSpikeDancer]

To the OP. Take the lesson/clinic. It will help. All of the tips in the world can only help so much as you read them. If someone is telling them to you WHILE you are on the hill to apply them, you will get better.

I love to ski moguls, and I don't suck too bad. Grew up skiing MJ and following the US team around. After a while, you figure it out, or you get help, or you quit. I still enjoy 'em. But they are MUCH easier on 185, 85mm waisted skis than my 194 112 waisted skis. The big sticks see more GS style turning. I take the small ones out for dedicated bump days. BUT, they were my everything ski...once.

[Aldo]

Upper Exhibition @ Jiminy Peak - All day long in the spring
Cascade - downdraft @ Killington All day long til it was mud
MRG - anywhere

Love skiing bumps, but that time has come and gone. Knock on wood my knees have never been apart.
As my dad used to opine, " the human knees have a finite # of moguls they are able to ski".

I seem to be closer to the end than the beginning as evidenced by the way my knees click and pop when I bend down....

Fucking love bumps. Nothing better than flowing a line.