Skiing bumps (this really is a thread about skiing bumps!!)

[shrimpchip]

Okay, I have a few questions,

1. turning when you are on top a a bump, do you steer or carve?
2. when you are on top on a bump (that's right after you absorb the bump), your knees are still bend and you should immediatley point your tips down to stay contact with the snow (bump), is that the right moment to turn?
3. I've seen good bump skiers really put their knees and feet together, but to have a more solid foudation, can you have a wider stance instead?
4. Does the length of your skis and the turn radius matter in skiing bumps?

Thanks

 

[mountainxtc]

Okay, I have a few questions,

1. turning when you are on top a a bump, do you steer or carve?
2. when you are on top on a bump (that's right after you absorb the bump), your knees are still bend and you should immediatley point your tips down to stay contact with the snow (bump), is that the right moment to turn?
3. I've seen good bump skiers really put their knees and feet together, but to have a more solid foudation, can you have a wider stance instead?
4. Does the length of your skis and the turn radius matter in skiing bumps?

Thanks

1. you carve, no reason it should be any different than what you do on the groomers. except of course that it's harder to do in the bumps. but you should, in theory, be able to make the type of turn you can make on the groomed in the bumps.

2. you should continue the turn in the exact same way you would on the groomed, with the added pressure control (pressuring the tips to maintain ski-snow contact. so initiate on top, and go from there, the pressure controls movement should blend with the turning effort, not be separate. i.e. you control your pressure throughout the turn, not just as you go down the backside of the bump.

3. definitely. although if your stance is too wide you risk getting a bump between the feet, making skiing them very difficult. narrowing your stance slightly is definitely a tactic for making bump skiing easier, but you must balance that with stability, and if you're not racing in a rut line, your optimal stance is definitely not with your knees and feet glued together.

4. only in so much as it matters on the groomed. if you are making short turns, which is more common in bump skiing, the turn radius is what you make it, and less sidecut = less chance of the ski hooking up at inopportune moments. hence, bump skis tend to be straighter. a shorter ski will be more maneuverable for this turn shape. If you are making GS turns in the bumps you will want something longer and stiffer, with a little sidecut (15-18m or so).

ladies. bump skiing is technically the same as groomer skiing, powder skiing, crud skiing, ice skiing, etc. exactly the same. we make some tactical changes, for example narrowing our stance in the bumps as described above, but don't change your technique! skis still work the same!!

 

[Kano]

So what about "picking a line" down these bump fields? I read about "zipper line" so often but there just no way I can see me ever managing that.

PLUS, if this insane zipper thing was the thing, wouldn't bump fields be bump lines instead? I mean, most of them wouldn't continue to grow, would they?

Karen in Boise

 

[mountainxtc]

So what about "picking a line" down these bump fields? I read about "zipper line" so often but there just no way I can see me ever managing that.
Karen in Boise

As a start, try the beginner line I mentioned earlier in the thread. As you become more competent, there are other lines you can try but they require more speed. Most of your bump runs will become a combination of some of these lines, depending on what comes up in front of you. As many have mentioned, it is very rare to get a run of perfect round, evenly spaced bumps!

Skiing the zipper line has it's place, but it's place is generally in competition, not in freeskiing. It is about generating speed, and the goal for most of us is to maintain a consistent speed with good ski performance. And yes, if everyone skis the zipper line the bumps will start to look different. They will still get bigger the more they are skied though!

 

[dloveski]

Thanks for all of the information in this thread. I'm reading it with great interest, esp. this year of little snow out here. The bumps are growing every day!

I don't know how to explain, but what I did yesterday seemed to work for me. I would ski to the top of a bump, do a quick pivot turn and come down in the trough, ski up to the top of another bump, do a pivot and down the trough etc one bump at a time, slow, and it seemed to work for me, if I got the weight off my uphill ski fast enough. Still working on the transition phase.

I had a hard time trying to ski on the tops, but the mix of top turn and riding the trough up to the next top seemed to work. Is this a good tactic?

 

[mountainxtc]

I had a hard time trying to ski on the tops, but the mix of top turn and riding the trough up to the next top seemed to work. Is this a good tactic?

It will work if the troughs aren't too deep. But it will throw you more off balance than you need to be, and what about when there's a super ugly, deep, V shaped trough? I could do without a compression like that.....

 

[Gloria]

It will work if the troughs aren't too deep. But it will throw you more off balance than you need to be, and what about when there's a super ugly, deep, V shaped trough? I could do without a compression like that.....

Stay lower on the bump, look at the bump like a diamond, aim for the side point nearest you and compress as you rise up the backside turning at the point. Extend into the troughs instead of compress and keep your skis more falline through it. Use downward pressure and your edges to slow you down instead of turning the skis more sideways, the deep v troughs will not seem so deep especially if you can keep good tip to tail contact with the snow. If you go to high on the bump though you will lose contact with your tip and tail and it will be huge when you drop into those deep troughs and throw your balance off like you describe, especially if you have to skid to slow down.

 

[mountainxtc]

Extend into the troughs instead of compress and keep your skis more falline through it. Use downward pressure and your edges to slow you down instead of turning the skis more sideways, the deep v troughs will not seem so deep especially if you can keep good tip to tail contact with the snow. If you go to high on the bump though you will lose contact with your tip and tail and it will be huge when you drop into those deep troughs and throw your balance off like you describe, especially if you have to skid to slow down.

That was sort of a rhetorical question to get you guys thinking... and by compression I meant the force that is exerted on your body when you go quickly from a steep pitch to a flat pitch, not flexing the legs. You definitely don't want to be flexing into the troughs, ouch!!

As for your advice, yes, good ski-snow contact is very important although we're venturing into the realms of pressure control here which is more advanced than the beginner line we've been discussing so far.

Use downward pressure and your edges to slow you down instead of turning the skis more sideways

I'm not sure what you mean here. Pressure definitely can't slow you down, and neither can a clean edge unless you park and ride it until the sidecut turns you far enough. No time for that in the bumps. Speed control comes from turning the skis and/or feathering the edge and/or using the terrain. As far as I can think right now, those are your only options for speed control....

It sounds like we need to make a distinction between beginner and advanced bump skiing. The steps as I see them are:

1. make round, rhythmical turns in small, well spaced bumps, making use of the top of the bump as the point of least resistance to turn.

2. practice dealing with pressure - traverse through bumps maintaining ski-snow contact using the lower joints (allow the pressure that builds up as you go up a bump to bend your lower joints, pushing your knees up towards your chest, and maintain pressure as you go down by pushing your tips down as you crest the bump and continuing to extend) whilst maintaining a stable upper body.

3. practice #1 blended with #2 as you make round turns in easy bumps, then progress to larger/steeper bump runs.

4. once you have confidence and consistency skiing this line, learn new lines which will enable you to use the terrain as a speed control tool. practice.

5. ski steep/large/ugly shaped bumps, adapting your line on the fly according to your speed and what is in front of you.

maybe if you have questions you can let me know roughly what stage you are at using these steps as a guide....

 

[shrimpchip]

I am thinking about attending the Mogul Logic mogul camp at Winter Park the end of this month. Does anyone know anything about it? Did it really make you a better bump skier?

 

[Gloria]

I'm not sure what you mean here. Pressure definitely can't slow you down, and neither can a clean edge unless you park and ride it until the sidecut turns you far enough. No time for that in the bumps. Speed control comes from turning the skis and/or feathering the edge and/or using the terrain. As far as I can think right now, those are your only options for speed control....

...[/QUOTE]

I think downward pressure in my head because that works for me, but normal people probably would think or say weight the center of the ski. Although you can use terrain, or stomp speed in the troughs with such pressure it is more of a competition technique maybe not pertinent for what you are trying to accomplish here.(?) The important part of this is that center weight does as we like it keeps the tip and tail in contact through the trough, as well as keeps you off the tails. Which is the last place you want to be in the moguls. And I will let you explain why that is :D

 

[vickie]

I avoid bumps like the plague. But what if I end up there ... what are the survival skills for bumps? (By comparison, sideslipping would be a survival skill for a regular slope.)

 

[snowski/swimmouse]

I avoid bumps like the plague. But what if I end up there ... what are the survival skills for bumps? (By comparison, sideslipping would be a survival skill for a regular slope.)

I avoid hardpacked/ice ones, but I'd like to learn the skill... Meanwhile, the answer to the above question might help many!

 

[Ski Tripper]

Mogul Mayhem

In the span of two years, I’ve moved from the bunny hill to moguls–albeit, inadvertently.

I was riding the Grandview Express at Sierra-at-Tahoe on Monday when my boyfriend suggested going down Castle, a black diamond that I’d tried before and liked. This time as we crested the hill, we saw a run covered in moguls that looked like large marshmallows fenced in by trees on both sides. Sierra-at-Tahoe calls it an unending mogul field for truly hardcore skiers! I took off my skis and walked down the hill, passing the worst of it, while my boyfriend carried my skis and repeatedly apologized. Surprisingly, I wasn’t mad at him; instead, I felt disappointed in myself for not dipping my skis into the marshmallow mess.

Halfway down, I clicked back into my skis and tackled the smaller moguls with my boyfriend’s guidance, traversing through the worst of it and turning with the help of pole plants. At the bottom, I exclaimed “I love pole plants.” Suddenly, skills such as pole plants and side slips had a purpose, and I was bubbling with new questions to ask my ski instructor during the lesson I’d scheduled in the afternoon.

Paired with Kimmie, I skied over jumps in the terrain park (something I’d never before dared to do) and then learned skills, such as:

1. Side slipping forward and backward with a transition

2. Edging or carving by leaning my knees toward the hill

3. Pressuring the front of my boot and flexing the heel; she said to learn forward and pretend like I am trying to spread peanut butter evenly across the top of the boot

4. Facing down the mountain; she had me hold my ski poles shoulder width apart and keep them facing down the mountain

5. Stepping into the turn with the inside ski

6. On moguls, turning on the top of the mogul with a pole plant and a hop

7. Leaning forward on jumps and moguls (on jumps, she said to go into it with knees bent, straighten up at the top, pull my legs up and keep my arms in front of me)

Kimmie led me to the sides of the groomed trails over small jumps and up walls. At the end of the lesson, she took me to Lower Dynamite, a bumpy black run underneath the Grandview lift. This time, I felt much more equipped to tackle the moguls that awaited.

I'd love any other suggestions for how to ski moguls better, and visit my blog to see more of my skiing adventures.

 

[shrimpchip]

I have never ski at A Basin before; so, does anyone know if A Basin have any good bump runs for beginner bump skiers? Thanks