My husband, at 55 yoa and and overweight was skiing the zipper line on steepest bump run on Sugarloaf, yesterday. We were picking the deepest, fattest line and skiing one section at a time with my 11 year old daughter. Of course they had an excellent instructor...me. At 47 and in good shape I was doing okay too.
My husband can stay in the line and ski it quite slowly and in control to demonstrate for my daughter. You can ski the zipper line slow, fast, or in between when you have the technique. Yes, WC fast is hard on the bod as are other WC events. But just like making giant slalom or slalom turns, you can make them fast or slow to suit your aggression.
Bump skiing is a different type of skiing and needs to be approached differently and certainly you don't start off on the double black diamond trail.
I recommend buying the book "Skiing, and Art, A Technique" written by Georges Joubert, the famous French ski coach. You can buy it for $ .89 used on Amazon. Much of the material is dated as shaped skis were not yet invented in '71, but is still one of the best written how to ski books ever. The section on skiing moguls taught me better than any instructor. Mogul specialists still ski on straight skis and with their feet together so the this book still applies.
Georges Jobert explains the term he coined called avalement flexation. You don't just let the mogul push your knees up, you actively pull your knees up with your abdominal muscles as you feel the ski tips go into the bump, then you extend your legs as you angulate and edge into the back of the bump keeping your skis in contact with the snow full time.
This is best practiced on an easy slope with one mogul. Approach the mogul in a high slightly flexed stance with your hands out in front waist high and slightly spread. As skis contact the bump pull your knees up in front of you as they ride up one side of the bump, then push down on the back side. Anyone viewing you from the waist up only would not know you went over a mogul. Practice this then start turning on the back side of the mogul, then add more moguls. Then add a bit more steepness. Practice on every bump on every trail. Start thinking of the bumps on traverses as chance to practice mogul skills. Suck up bumps by pulling your feet up and then pressure down on the backs of the bumps.
For 89 cents plus $4 shipping, read the section called "The Symphony of the Moguls". The diagrams and explanation are much better than I could every paraphrase here.
Some tips I will give are:
- Keep your hands in front.
- One mogul is a training tool, a field of steep moguls is intimidating.
- Keep your upper body and hands quiet.
- Use your wrists for pole plants to keep your hands in front and quiet
- Start fairly high so you can pull your knees up as you ski into the mogul and absorb.
- Extend your legs to edge into the back of the mogul.
- Think of brushing the backs of the moguls with your edges.
- Look three bumps ahead.
- Control your speed by absorbing and by edging into the backs of the moguls.