tell me stories about learning to ski bumps

[greekpeakskier]

i am so bad at them. i took a lesson, i ski the edges of them, i hit about one bump out of three. i want to hear stories of other divas who learned how to ski bumps as well as any suggestions as i sit at the edge of the field going, "three bumps, go for three good turns and then figure out the next step. yeah, three bumps... three bumps."

 

[MaineSkiLady]

I will let you know as soon as I learn!!
My nemesis, my Achilles' heel!
I could say but I'll just laugh instead.
If I ever learn, you all will be the first to know!

 

[Native Vail Gal]

Well, my father says, "Find a line and turn and plant and turn and plant and turn and plant and turn and plant..."

That will get you at least 4 turns! That's progress....right? :cheer:

 

[MaineSkiLady]

I'll let you know when I make it to 4.
I'm up to 3, after 30+ years on skis.
Maybe by the time I'm pushing 80???
Total mental block, I realize this. And now knees to match...they aren't happy in bumps, either.

 

[SueNJ]

I will let you know as soon as I learn!!
My nemesis, my Achilles' heel!
I could say but I'll just laugh instead.
If I ever learn, you all will be the first to know!

What she said ^^^
Definitely my weakness as well. In my mind, I know exactly how to ski bumps, but my mind just doesn't seem to connect with my legs when I'm at the top of a bumpy run. I haven't given up yet, though... I've got a long way to go before I get to that point.

 

[abc]

Depending on the size of the bumps and how icy it is. Sometimes I ski them, 3 or more bumps. Other times I survive them, one bump a time.

Keep taking the lessons, and keep going at them. You'll get better.

Only the bumps get bigger (I mean the ones you want to do next)... :( So it's an endless challenge!

 

[ski now work later]

I have been so far unsuccessful learning how to ski bumps in the Northeast. Too icy. With good coaching, I made amazing progress picking down a black LOOOONG bump run in Montana however. Finding a blue bump run with soft powder in between the bumps and getting a little coaching made all the difference for me. Since that experience earlier this month, I have not yet ventured into any New England bumps BTW . . . but at least I feel that I could manage down a bump run without killing myself (as long as it wasn't sheer ice) if I needed to!

 

[geargrrl]

look down the fall line.
Pick a line though the bumps. I was taught to go over the top and down the face ( kinda)
Keep your upper body facing down the hill. Keep reaching down the hill.

Soft bumps are lots of fun!!

I took a two hour private with "Hugh" a bona fide Austrian ski instructor, at Kicking Horse one time, that was fun too.


gg

 

[Jilly]

First learn to do short radius turns. Then bumps are short turns with a terrain variation. I'll go into more details after my level 3 next month. I can ski the ba*(t*rds but can't teach them. Thats the goal this time.

 

[mollmeister]

For me, it was (and is) a mental thing. I am still not gorgeous and/or perfectly upright all the time, but I have been getting better and better.

My mantra is, "If you can ski the bumps, you can ski anything."

Really, skiing the bumps well is translatable to good skiing overall-- quick direction changes, being able to ski both on the edges and on the flats of your skis, keeping your eyes up and upper body quiet-- bumps teach such important things that are SO applicable elsewhere. So I have told myself that over and over and made a point of skiing at least some bumps every ski day, and gradually gotten much better. . . and I have seen the impact (big time) elsewhere on the hill.

The drill that helped me most was skiing close behind an AWESOME bump skier on a a low angle, small-bump run. He kept holding up fingers, and I had to tell him how many he was holding up. Which meant that I had to keep my eyes up (and me out of the backseat) and use my peripheral vision and memory to find my line. I find the thing that hurts my bump skiing most is looking down at the tips of my skis. It all goes to pieces at that point. It did, just a week ago, on a short, pretty steep pitch, with Volkswagen-sized bumps. (Bumps that size are still my nemesis. Small-to-medium, I know how to ski them. That big, and troughed out, I am never quite sure I have the best plan.)

And the bumps of my youth-- rock hard ice on the hills of Michigan and Vermont-- they might kick my sorry butt, I am afraid. Soft to firm = OK. Diamond hard = I could get down them. . . but I can guarantee it would NOT be pretty.

 

[Gloria]

I originally learned the old school method of going over the top and pivoting the ski when the tip and tail are off the snow. Since I have learned to maintain tip and tail contact with the snow throughout the turn by keeping a narrower stance, skirting the edges of the bumps and the big key is to get away from pulling the knee to the chest, ( raises the tip off the snow ) instead pull the heel up to your rear, this drives the tip down into the trough and maintains contact.

 

[Daria]

I found that learning to ski the bumps was about speed control, learning to relax and then looking down the mountain to pick a line - two to three turns ahead. My first real breakthrough came with a lesson where I learned that I could turn really anywhere on the bump and could come out of the "zipper" and up on top if I needed to slow down. That really helped get rid of the fear factor and then lead to the relaxation bit. Practice helps you spot the good line - confident that I can bug out of the line whenever I need to if I need to slow down or just rest for a few easier turns. There is a rhythm to it and when I am really feeling in the groove, it is sort of like line dancing. And a great pair of bump skis helps alot! I LOVE the bumps!!

 

[pb&jane]

I LOVE the bumps, too. But I didn't turn the corner on them until I skiied Mad River Glen (practically all bumps, when it isn't ice or grass) a few weekends last year. The key for me was being forced to ski them -- I had no choice! Now a good bump run is like skiing to music; when it's good it's a beautiful thing.
Here are my tips.
- always be facing DOWN the hill -- shoulder and hands - ready for the next turn
- FEEL the bump; I keep my skis on the snow throughout the turn and let my legs move up on top of the bump and then extend coming down into the trough and then up again on the next one; once you get this it feels right, not jarring
- get that pole basket pointing down the hill; the steeper it is, the further out you're reaching
- and this from my Alta instructor last week: you should be starting your turn when your ski TIPS cross the half-way mark of the bump (at top of it), NOT when your boots reach it (too late); that helped me a LOT.
- look for 'bimps' (smallish bumps) to practice on and move up from there. I love bimps.
I could probably go on and on, but I'll stop there. I fully believe that bumps make you a better all-over-the-mt skiier. Which = more fun!
p.s. I'm not an instructor so take this all w/ a flake of snow. It's worked for me, though!

 

[skiwishes]

Start learning bumps by activating your joints; first the legs(ankle, knee, hip) then move up to the spine and arms (shoulder, elbow, wrist). Play with no-mogul terrain. When you have edges of trails or rolls, get used to letting them help you change direction.

Go in a kids' park and ski as straight a line as possible down a set of rolls, letting your leg joints flex as you go up and extend on the way down. (Don't worry if you need to turn on the top to control your speed.) If your park has a spine, ski over it flexing and extending from side to side.

Bumps require a narrower stance and using both feet the same way, so they are almost like one leg.

Get really used to feeling what is going on under your feet, and reacting to the changes you feel.

With the soft bumps that happen at the end of the day just because snow has been shoved into a pile, just ski through it making your regular turns that you like to do. Try skiing across a group of them in a looonnnggg turn, going up and down the bumps. Work towards keeping both skis on the ground all the time. To do that you will have to be balanced over your skis and your upper body, especially arms, will have to be forward. This is what you feel going through the rolls.

Harder, larger bumps need more specific moves. The first one we usually learn is to go to the top from the side. When your skis are balanced, you pivot and skid down the back to control speed. When you can pivot and skid, try adjusting the pivot to an 'easy' edge and gently carving down the side and back.

Don't worry about picking a line until you are able to control your speed throughout an intermediate run of bumps. Establish a rhythm. It is usually easiest to make a wider turn, going over one or more bumps before turning. It is not necessary to run the zipper to do bumps properly. Control is the main objective.

As with everything skiing: there is more!

 

[CMCM]

I won't pretend that I even remotely know how to ski bumps, and I don't like them in the least! I had a lesson the other day where the instructor took me down a dreaded run that I knew had bumps, and I was not happy about it. That said, I made it down....keeping low definitely helped, quick turn, stop, plan the next move and how to maneuver around that next bump, stop, plan the next one, and so on. It was tiring, I didn't particularly enjoy that hill, but I was pleased with myself when it was over. However, I won't voluntarily do this run again for awhile! :D

 

[liquidfeet]

I was working on bumps this weekend. I am new to bump skiing, but I'll tell my story anyway. We had 10" fall Friday night/Saturday, so everything was all bumped up from the start of Saturday, and it was all bumped up again by after lunch on Sunday. This is good snow to learn on, much better than the bulletproof icy bump fields full of volkswagons that are all we usually have.

Several things worked for me. One was choosing a "spine" of bumps within the bump field, by that I mean a straight-down-the-hill line of bumps, and skiing back and forth over that spine with an even rhythm. I ignored pretty much each bump's shape; I just went over it in whatever way I needed to, in order to maintain my rhythm. That worked! Also I tried skiing back and forth between two "spines" of bumps, again maintaining a steady rhythm, and aiming my turns up on the sides of the bumps on those spines. That worked too. Mind you, these were small fresh bumps ("bimps"), they were soft, and what lies in between was not bulletproof sheet ice, thank goodness. I worked my way up to larger bumps as the day progressed.

Oh, and I "sucked up" the bumps with my legs, trying to maintain a quiet torso that was pointed down the hill at all times, a torso that was not popping up and down. This required some assertive footwork, but I can do very short quick turns on the groomed hard pack, so that was the skill I brought to this bump task. It worked.

However, I think that if someone had videotaped me, I'd look like I was holding onto a walker the whole way down.:( I'd like to be able to do bumps with more body verticality. I'll need to work on that next time.

 

[Randi]

One thing that helps a lot is doing drills on groomers as a start. Get your turns quick and snappy on the flat stuff; you'll have an easier time transitioning to the bumps.

 

[skigrl27]

Step 1: Practice on little bumps that aren't steep & preferably soft. (Good luck finding them.) That makes practicing much easier.

2: Keep your skis pointing down hill - always. If you lose your line...don't stop!! Just cut across & pick a new line. Force yourself into the next turn...it's strangely easier than stopping. Don't think you have to stay in that same line. Ideally, that's what you want to get to...but while learning, it's more important to keep your pace turning & headed downhill.

3: Pole plant, pole plant, pole plant. Plant your pole & pivot your shoulder around that. The pole plant is the first part of your next turn. Without it - your body & skis will not "want" to follow. The pole plant is essential.

4: Nobody says you have to ski the perfect line. Get that out of your head. Just keep turning & going down. Allowing your skis to point down the hill is scary because you think you're going to lose control & fall. Get over the fear. The next bump will slow you down...and the next one...then the one after that. Speed control is built into the bumps.

Bumps are mind-over-matter. If you think they are scary, you'll question yourself & your skiing will show the hesitation. Just keep in your head....KEEP TURNING. It helps to ski with someone else who CAN ski bumps also.

 

[skigrl27]

Oh...and soften the body. Loosen up those knees! Relax. Absorb the terrain with your knees & dance with the bumps. They're your lead...you need to follow them. Cuz they ain't movin - but you ARE!

Loosey goosey is key. Pole plant, turn, absorb....lather, rinse, repeat.

Took me years to look just "ok" on bumps. If you can ski the bumps, you can ski anything...so mastery of the bumps is no small feat.

 

[cyn]

I had my first "bump breakthrough" last weekend.

I usually avoid them because my knees are so arthritic, but Sunday we were at Mt. Snow and there was so much fresh powder on the mountain that they had left most of it ungroomed. We were on the mountain at first chair, so we got to ski some nice untracked snow - unusual here in the east, but that also meant bumps as soon as the mountain had some skier traffic.

So I had two choices: stop for the day, or try to ski them. They were soft, but they were everywhere, and totally unavoidable. I had the right skis for the day (Head Monster iM82s) and I just started slowly, picking a line, planting my poles deliberately, and skiing through them. By the end of the day, I couldn't believe how much more confident I was. I also couldn't believe how TIRED my legs were!!!

I'm not saying I can now charge down any bump run, but after yesterday, I can ski them confidently without having a meltdown.