callmijane
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Well, there was the time I plugged my tip into a mogul, flipped over it, and gave myself a concussion.....
The more you do it, the better you get.
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tell me stories about learning to ski bumps
- Thread starter greekpeakskier
- Start date
The more you do it, the better you get.
heather matthews
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Yesterday our little mogul run just didn't soften at all(not enough sun and too much cold wind) and I still went and skied it anyway. They have little bumps on the bumps and are completely hideous! They are like moguls with acne.Being tall and centred,keeping my upper body in the fall line helped,as did being progressive with my edging.I skied them under control and slowly and I can honestly say it felt horrible . It was like skiing over very lumpy gravel. Turning on the top seemed to work best as it was the least"catchy" option.
bounceswoosh
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I'm sorry it felt horrible. I remember having a realization in the back bowls of Vail one day, sounds similar. It was refrozen bumps and chop, just a mess. Teeth chattering the whole way. I suddenly realized that I could be *able* to ski something without actually *enjoying* the experience.
surfsnowgirl
Banned
Riding on the chair at my mountain one day we were going over the main bump run when this girl going down them had a bit of a mishap. I don't do bumps so I can't say what happened but all I know is it seems her tips got caught and she got pitched forward. My last visual of her was literally diving forward as she got launched. This is why I don't want to learn bumps on a run that goes directly under a chair ha ha.
Skisailor
Angel Diva
I'm not by any means a great bump skier, but I'm improving steadily. I no longer freak out, anyway.I took a bumps lesson last year - or maybe the year before? Anyway, in that lesson, which was great, we tried three different techniques on the same run which I thought was immeasurably helpful. The one thing that stuck with me after that class was that I wasn't using the flat of my ski enough... I was so used to concentrating on edges, but in the bumps it was a recipe for disaster for me and before you knew it I'd be traversing the slope or recklessly charging through the troughs. Once I really started using the flats of my skis to sort of slide up onto the banks/sides of the bumps, it got so much better. Suffice it to say that didn't work every time, with every style of bump or degrees of pitch, but it was a technique that really carried me through improving in the trees as well. I hope to take another bumps lesson on my next trip and really bust to the next level.
Love love love the bit about using a flat ski!
As @Ursula would say : "In the bumps, GET OFF YOUR FLIPPIN' EDGES!!!" (Only she doesn't always use the word "flippin"
). This from a woman who skied bumps in World Cup competition - so I tend to take her advice . . . .
Skier31
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I think we often do not realize how much edge we are using. It is easy to feel stable when our edges are gripping the snow.
Here is something you can do on the groomers. Ski the whole run with as little edge as possible during the whole turn. Leave no railroad tracks. Focus on turning your skis across the hill on a flat ski. This has helped me quite a bit in the bumps.
Here is something you can do on the groomers. Ski the whole run with as little edge as possible during the whole turn. Leave no railroad tracks. Focus on turning your skis across the hill on a flat ski. This has helped me quite a bit in the bumps.
bounceswoosh
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Been there, done that! It's not so bad. Just don't do it in uniform.
Years ago the base of the TGV at Tremblant was higher up the mountain. But the run to right was still narrow and would get bumped up as the traffic or spring conditions would happen. I remember standing against the snow fence waiting for others and watching the skiers coming down. One women took on a bump face first....I was standing with an ex Tremblant ski instructor who has a very dry sense of humour. Bob just said....well, she's no longer a DD!
Gloria
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
That's why I quit skiing for the season last year. I had a weird motor control issue with my arms ( nerves ) and I kept pole planting my right pole inside my ski. Finally I did it under the chairlift, in uniform, and hit another skier. Patrol on the lift, thought for sure I would be fired.
bounceswoosh
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Yikes!
deannatoby
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Love love love the bit about using a flat ski!
(Only she doesn't always use the word "flippin"
This from a woman who skied bumps in World Cup competition - so I tend to take her advice . . . .
OK, but clear this up. In my lessons we worked on a flat ski. BUT, if you have a FLAT ski on a sloped bump, don't you actually end up using some edge? That was what our teacher said after I questioned him. You keep a flat ski, but the slope of the bump actually uses the edge as opposed to you flexing and creating an edge. Confirmation? Bull crap?
Skisailor
Angel Diva
You're right. The idea of using a "flat ski" is tossed around as a kind of shorthand. What is really meant is that it is helpful to reduce edge angles whenever we want to have better speed control (like in bumps). Is the ski completely flat to the terrain surface at every moment on a bump run? Theoretically possible but probably not. What is essential is that we have the ability to use whatever edge angle we want no matter what the terrain or where we are on it.
A really great point you bring up is that bumps create all kinds of crazy little mini slopes in various directions!! So imagine we are traversing a groomed slope in our normal stance and we suddenly encounter the front side of a bump - whoa! That's a steeper slope! So our edge angle increases momentarily without us doing anything! Very important to understand. Those increased edge angles speed us up! Just the opposite of what we want when learning to master mogul skiing.
The takeaway is that learning (and fooling around with) pivot slips and falling leafs on groomed terrain teaches us more nuanced control of our edge angles. We need to learn what body movements to make to produce the desired edge angle on command, and exactly how that feels.
Edited to add: and flatter is better if we want to go slow in the bumps. As we get more comfortable, we can add more edge and speed up. But we should be able to ski the bumps at a crawl if we are controlling our edges the way we want to!
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forgot about this thread. See Post #26 for a video related to skiing bumps.
marzNC
Angel Diva
I've looked at the BumpsForBoomers videos. Make sense in general based on what I've learned from in-person lessons at Massanutten and destination resorts in recent years.
SallyCat
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Fwiw, Magic Mountain has a green mogul run (Enchanted Forest). It's short and the pitch is mild, but it extends across the whole trail, so there's no exit to the sides once you've committed. I'm looking forward to spending some time there this year and wish more mountains had "progression" bump areas.
nopoleskier
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
My few tips:
Always be looking way ahead
should be shopping for your 3rd +turn (not the next one)
Keep your upper body still but facing down the fall line,
Plant pole,
keep a flat ski -make the turn w/ a Smear- to cut speed
stay flexible-ankles/knees/hips
repeat
When on a chopped up slope with piles of snow make your own imaginary mogul run for practice.
Always be looking way ahead
should be shopping for your 3rd +turn (not the next one)
Keep your upper body still but facing down the fall line,
Plant pole,
keep a flat ski -make the turn w/ a Smear- to cut speed
stay flexible-ankles/knees/hips
repeat
When on a chopped up slope with piles of snow make your own imaginary mogul run for practice.
