Fluffy Kitty
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I've said many times here that I avoid moguls like the plague, but my goal for this season is to be able to get down anything. I've been picking my way down some moderate moguls, and practicing short-radius turns with diligent pole plants and with the planks closer together, even on cat tracks and on trails I would have GS'ed down.
Then came the knee-high moguls. (Felt like waist-high at times, but that's probably an exaggeration.)
I would have said I got "stuck" in them, except that I made myself go down this mogul field TWICE! Man, did I look and feel like a beginner on the steeps! The mogul section was on a blue trail, maybe 20 degrees steep, and was long, at least half a mile, maybe a mile, in four batches, with the first one being the most difficult (not helpful). The trail was covered with two or three inches of medium-light fresh snow, which slowed things down and cushioned the fall, but also made things unpredictable and made really quick turns difficult. It was snowing, leading to low visibility.
I'm proud to say I made my way down with just one fall and several close calls, but I could definitely use some tips. Here are some obvious answers I know.
1) Shorter skis. I'm 170cm tall, and my skis are 170cm long. 150cm would have been perfect, and allowed shorter turns I needed. Tips digging in was a huge problem, and responsible for the fall, and even a few cm would have made a big difference. Unfortunately, this is not a good option for me; it would be hard to justify getting shorter skis just for that one trail of moguls, especially since they would make me unhappy on the rest of the mountain. I did think about borrowing my daughter's 142cm skis, though...
2) Zip-lining down. This is the obvious expert-mogul solution, and I only saw one person doing it. I will need to practice super-short turns, and build a lot of confidence, before I can slither my way down at speed. Nowhere near there, yet. The troughs were also so steep, deep, and narrow that I'm not sure I could keep my skis together without overlapping, so I still need to be able to maneuver around and up and down those cartoon-whale-shaped things. Long skis are a problem, too; there were many places where I would have gotten wedged sideways.
3) Better line choice. Half-way down the first round, I realized that all the people who were flying down the moguls were avoiding the super-high ones I was struggling with. Duh. With visibility low, this was challenging, and I kept misjudging the bumps, but I was able to stop and side-step and such to pick a better line. I suspect I will get better at this with experience.
What ended up helping a lot was to give myself instructions, and encouragements, out loud. "Up that one", "into the trough," "take your time," "traverse", "oops, bad choice; never mind; keep going", "turn on that", "oh, this one's easy", and, most importantly, "good job!" I probably sounded insane, but it did boost my confidence. I would have gone down one more time if I had the time. The Bob Barnes video and an Elate Media video were constantly on my mind, of course.
(I should have taken photos, but it just doesn't occur to me when I'm struggling down something.)
Any thoughts would be appreciated!
Then came the knee-high moguls. (Felt like waist-high at times, but that's probably an exaggeration.)
I would have said I got "stuck" in them, except that I made myself go down this mogul field TWICE! Man, did I look and feel like a beginner on the steeps! The mogul section was on a blue trail, maybe 20 degrees steep, and was long, at least half a mile, maybe a mile, in four batches, with the first one being the most difficult (not helpful). The trail was covered with two or three inches of medium-light fresh snow, which slowed things down and cushioned the fall, but also made things unpredictable and made really quick turns difficult. It was snowing, leading to low visibility.
I'm proud to say I made my way down with just one fall and several close calls, but I could definitely use some tips. Here are some obvious answers I know.
1) Shorter skis. I'm 170cm tall, and my skis are 170cm long. 150cm would have been perfect, and allowed shorter turns I needed. Tips digging in was a huge problem, and responsible for the fall, and even a few cm would have made a big difference. Unfortunately, this is not a good option for me; it would be hard to justify getting shorter skis just for that one trail of moguls, especially since they would make me unhappy on the rest of the mountain. I did think about borrowing my daughter's 142cm skis, though...
2) Zip-lining down. This is the obvious expert-mogul solution, and I only saw one person doing it. I will need to practice super-short turns, and build a lot of confidence, before I can slither my way down at speed. Nowhere near there, yet. The troughs were also so steep, deep, and narrow that I'm not sure I could keep my skis together without overlapping, so I still need to be able to maneuver around and up and down those cartoon-whale-shaped things. Long skis are a problem, too; there were many places where I would have gotten wedged sideways.
3) Better line choice. Half-way down the first round, I realized that all the people who were flying down the moguls were avoiding the super-high ones I was struggling with. Duh. With visibility low, this was challenging, and I kept misjudging the bumps, but I was able to stop and side-step and such to pick a better line. I suspect I will get better at this with experience.
What ended up helping a lot was to give myself instructions, and encouragements, out loud. "Up that one", "into the trough," "take your time," "traverse", "oops, bad choice; never mind; keep going", "turn on that", "oh, this one's easy", and, most importantly, "good job!" I probably sounded insane, but it did boost my confidence. I would have gone down one more time if I had the time. The Bob Barnes video and an Elate Media video were constantly on my mind, of course.
(I should have taken photos, but it just doesn't occur to me when I'm struggling down something.)
Any thoughts would be appreciated!