I hate moguls

An advanced skiier is advanced because they have less limitations on their skiing than an intermediate.

I'm not a deranged mogul lover but I can handle them. I avoid them a lot of times because I ski in the east and don't really enjoy ice bumps. I'm a lot more enthusiastic about them if the snow is good. Mogul skiing is one area I want to improve in. I guess that means I'll have to stop avoiding them when the snow is less than stellar :

I absolutly loved skiing moguls from about age 9-12, and used to seek them out often. These days I really preffer to carve longer & faster turns through everything, and I almost can't fathom how I ever loved making so many short turns.

moguls of memory

I loved skiing moguls...in the 1970's! The longer skis just made beautiful long sloping moguls. The old straight skis didn't turn on a dime like the new skis, so when you swung your skis on top of a mogul and either end of your boards was suddenly free so that you could whip your skis around fast, it was a blast! Nowadays the bump runs don't appeal to me so much because the moguls are so short and choppy, not to mention cut up by snowboards, which absolutely destroy moguls. In the old days the ski resorts didn't groom much and they would cultivate a good mogul field because people knew how to ski them and build them up collectively. It's just different now. If anyone knows where I can find a good old fashioned mogul field in the Lake Tahoe area, I'd love to hear it! Anyway, it's ok if you don't like moguls, if you did you'd probably be bemoaning the rarity of a truly good bump run.

>Can I ever call myself an advanced skier without mastering the moguls?

NO!

Remember, skiing is done with your poles. Are you focusing on making nice pole plants, ALL great skiers make the right pole plants, without that you will be sunk in the bumps.

I have tried and tried but everytime i hit them fear takes control....I have had a group of instructors try and egg me on"quite a few times" but fear is stopping me...And what makes it worse is i can visualize the run..i know waht to do but in my mind i freeze...i just cant make it past that wall...will try again as soon as the runs bump up again....As far as powder goes once you get the balance part its as close to heaven you will ever get.

^^^^^^^^
What he said!
I really want to be accomplished in the moguls.

We will just have to ski together some time. My tag line says it all.

If you want to be a good all around skier , moguls, powder, crud, ice etc. are all part of the equation. If you just want to go fast on groomed go to Okemo, Stratton and those type of resorts. If you do want to move to different terrain I'd suggest slowing down, make round turns and build up to speed thru moguls, just wanting to go fast thru them without the required skills to handle uneven terrain is just begging for crashing and getting hurt.

First off, it was brave of you to admit this.

To answer your question: No.


I think you may find that your lack of mogul mastery and powder prowess are stemming from the same technical issues.

I have a blast in nautral moguls- the kind you find the day after a dump on the most traveled runs. In the crazy 6' tall pyramid shaped manmade ones that most midwestern resorts create, I fear for my life. It seems like you'd have to be 7' tall to even have a prayer at absorbing those suckers with any success.

You let me know when you're coming up and we'll see if we can find some of those limited Michigan bumps!
Boyne, Crystal......you let me know where.
Have to get Kneale in on it!

XJ Guy,

Part of the problem is that, according to your profile, you ski primarily at Hunter and Killington. I don't know about Killington, but Hunter has no intermediate bump runs. You need to find some small bumps on a nice gentle pitch (at Belleayre, perhaps) on a warm spring day when the snow is soft and slow. It's kind of hard to become comfortable in the bumps when your options are Outer Limits or Upper Crossover.

Or Eisenhower or Claires Way or....


Gimme a good bump run and I am happy as a Pug in slop.

The first bump technique I felt really comfortable with was slipping the bumps, which worked great on icy bumps, but not so well on very soft bumps, hence I got much more comfortable on icy bumps first. I still get shaky when the bumps are covered with powder and I can't really see their features well. I suspect that some skiers from out west would have just the opposite experience. I think you get good at what you experience. There is an old joke about a guy who asks a cab driver in NYC how to get to Carnegie Hall. "Practice" is the cabbie's response.

No No No and No.

Can't ski moguls? You just cut almost every mountain down in size by 25% or more, on a powder day - you cut it down much more than that. Throw in that you hated skiing powder - you cannot ever expect to be considered an advanced skier.

Be happy with being less than an advanced skier, or if being considered advanced really matters to you - get some help. Serious lessons WILL help considerably. Forget 2 hour group lessons at run of the mill Eastern resorts.
Take a ski camp somewhere out west. You'll be a much better and happier skier. Nobody really likes crusty frozen eastern bumps, but everybody likes em big and fluffy. Go west and learn on those.

If you want get better at skiing moguls, ski more moguls.

If you are afraid of moguls and don't want to be, ski more moguls.

If you think moguls are too much work, ski more moguls.

It's not surprising to me to see folks say "I ski on groomers 99.9% of the time and can't buy a turn when it gets bumpy..."

Moguls are great. Devote some time to them this season. Take a lesson, get some ideas or things to work on and try to apply those lessons. You won't regret it.

While I do go out west and practice on those fluffy moguls when I can, I get to ski icy ones almost every time I ski. I actually like the icy ones better, especially if they are hard enough not to get scooped out by snowboarders.

What are some good western resorts to learn to ski bumps at?

I have a major crush on moguls, but haven't been able to get past first base with any yet.

K.

And momentum. you don't need to ski them fast at first, you just need momentum.

Winter Park/Mary Jane

i used to say that.

listen to Lonnie.

My two cents worth.

After skiing for over 45 years, including more mogals than I can begin to imagine, I have found what I believe are the two keys.

Technique: Keep your hands out in front and down the fall line at ALL TIMES. You must keep the weight on the front of your skis or you are not carving, just swivleing and accelerating. If your hand goes back so does your shoulder, hip, etc. Do not let the bumps force the pace. Watch from the chair, the person whose tips are constantly off the snow, or whose hands are drifting back is either about to lose it, or just slamming the bumps. Unless you are Johnny Mosely, you are not going to be able to ski the mogals well from the back seat.

Equipment: Softer skis, particularly in the tails! The more higher performance skis you have the more likely they are stiff, especially in the tails. If the fronts are stiff they push you in the back seat whey you hit a bump, which you constantly have to fight. If the tails are stiff they accelerate you out of the turn, and at higher speeds this results in a pop off the snow. I have skied hundereds of thousands of enjoyable verts on my 208 cm Volant G-max skis because they had a soft even tip to tail flex. They actually slowed me down whey the tips hit the troughs, and they again if I pressed the tails. I used to call them my "rubber snakes." It is extremely hard to ski bumps on stiff skis. Contrary to popular belief, it isn't the length that causes problems. Instead of fighting your eqiupment you can let your skis do the work for you in the bumps.

The only "secret" is that you need to keep your skis on the snow in order to maintain control, all of your ski. If you concentrate on the tips the rest will take care of themselves. Once you have that you can start jumping around on your terms and not the mountains. You'd be suprised how much fun the bumps can be when you can go wherever you want in them.

Think of a mogul as an opportunity and not an obstacle!!

Terry

was that a plug?

http://www.momentumcamps.com/

Sign up for a group lession. Tell the Instructor you want to learn to ski bumps. Your group lession is now a very small group. Maybe a group of just you and the instructor. Everyone else signed up for a lession will look at you as if you are crazy! I'm well past my prime, yet I still enjoy, yes I said I enjoy skiing moguls.

While somewhat limited in variety, I think Loveland has some great bumps for learning. If you want really small "pre-moguls", hit Fire Cut (under Chair 2) -- often they're nothing more than little undulations. Then you can move onto Upper Richard's Run (off Chair 1) -- decent-sized moguls on a not very steep pitch, but for a short stretch -- it's great to learn moguls when you know they don't go on forever. For the next level, Scrub (under Chair 4) is a good one -- longish run with bumps of every variety. From there on, you can head over to Cat's Meow (off Chair 1) for a steeper, bigger bump run.

Winter Park/Mary Jane is a great place, as Coach mentioned above, although a lot of the bump runs there can be pretty big, long, steep, and intimidating if you're trying to learn. The last section of Roundhouse is a good easy one. The blacks off Pioneer Express are actually very fun moguls that aren't too hard.

At Copper, Little Burn is one of my favorites. The bump runs off Excelerator are super fun too. Almost all of Reso Bowl and the A lift terrain has long bump runs. Not too hard, but they do seem to go on forever if you're tired! Copper has a great Bump Busters class that I took -- as long as you have a good short turn dialed in, it is a great experience.

It is an awesome feeling when you just get in the rhythm and lay down nice flowing turns through the bumps.

Even though you hate them, you need to ski them so that they get bigger for the rest of us. Take one for the team.

Actually, with a willingness to flatten your skis, let the tips drop down the hill, and do an easy gravity-induced schmear (yes, it's possible, even if the bumps are soft!), you don't even really need much momentum. Gotta stand over your feet, though, not behind them.

There are some good technical discussions regarding bump skiing going on in the Technique forum right now. If you're sufficiently bored, XJ, you might want to check them out. Warning! They're pretty verbose.

YES!

Your point is well taken; i.e., pole usage can be a major contributor to skiing in many different conditions, including bumps. However, last time I went skiing, I skied with my feet...