Bumps for Boomers - My Experience at the Mogul Skiing Clinic

[Bluewing]

I am doing the “Bumps for Boomers” (https://www.bumpsforboomers.com/) moguls skiing clinic in Aspen, Colorado in mid-January 2017. They have a lot of great information on their website about skiing techniques that are key to learning to ski more slowly and in control, which they believe is a key to success in skiing moguls, especially for skiers without exception fast reflexes and unlimited stamina. The content regarding critical skiing skills and mogul tactics starts here: https://www.bumpsforboomers.com/mogu...-introduction/.

I am preparing for the course by learning these skiing techniques and concepts and practicing them prior to the start of the course. This will also help me achieve my goal of skiing slower this year and making mores turns and having more fun. My skiing speeds have been too high the past 2 seasons – I am always in control and always edging and making turns, but consistently skiing at high speeds. Guess that progression was maybe inevitable when I got back into skiing in March 2011.

I ski mostly in the Northeastern United States on hard snow conditions and I tend to ski at high(er) speeds with high(er) edge angles for a recreational skier often trying to carve every turn. This type of technique are not what are needed in the Bumps for Boomers approach so I will need to “un-learn” a few things in order to be successful.

I am going to share some of the key techniques in this thread and information on how I am practicing them and what I am learning along the way.

[Bluewing]

Bumps for Boomer Prep - First Day of Season Technique Practice

First day of the 2016/2017 season was at Elk Mountain in Union Dale, PA (northeastern PA) on 16-December-2016. A good amount of terrain was open, including some nice long steeper runs from the top. It was cold: 0 degrees F in the morning. Hard, man-made snow with a fair amount of frozen small chunks of snow loose on the slopes.

Key Concepts and Techniques (these are the aspects that are key to me to be practicing at this point):

A. Enter a Run with a Slow Entry Pace – at the top of a bump run the skier might feel a bit of anxiety or anxiousness thinking about dropping into the run. This often expresses itself as a quick entry speed due to being keyed up, which is the opposite of what the skier in this situation wants – the run is starting with a faster speed than intended and now right away the skier is faced with the challenge of reducing that speed.

B. Zero Momentum Turn – Bumps for Boomers states “The ability to initiate turns without a lot of forward momentum (a.k.a. the zero momentum turn) will make it much easier to ski moguls with more control. The idea is to make a patient turn and let the uphill ski come around more slowly to initiate the turn. The reduces the acceleration of the ski as it moves into the fall line. https://www.bumpsforboomers.com/mogu...momentum-turn/. Turn initiation is described as a technique center around the motion of making your uphill leg longer in order to initiate the turn - https://www.bumpsforboomers.com/mogu...-acceleration/.

C. Drift your turns instead of carve you turns – using lower edge angles during the turning sequence to help naturally scrub speed. The higher the edge angle of the ski the more the ski accelerates.

D. Use Your Eyes to Continuously Look for Your Next Turn – Bumps for Boomers advocates for a technique of “connecting the dots” to ski a mogul run. Not planning a mogul run from top to bottom, but rather skiing it one mogul at a time by using your eyes to continuously identify the next place you want to turn.

My experiences:

My first few runs I skied the way I normally ski just to get my legs back under me. I was not skiing fast intentionally, but I was basically using my usual techniques and tactics because they are familiar.

When I started to practice these techniques above I found:

--Skiing slower shows technique flaws that are masked by speed and momentum. A good thing so I am aware of small things I need to focus on correcting.

--The Zero Momentum Turn is a bit disconcerting at first. I am so used to turning quickly and getting transitioned to the new downhill ski that making patient turns was a bit counter-intuitive. It took focused concentration on my part to make these patient turns and let the uphill ski naturally come around and initiate the turn. I also realized when I got home and reflected on the outing that in the Zero Momentum Turn I was not getting my weight on the ball of the uphill foot enough as the turn was being initiated. I was not truly in the backseat but my weight was not fully forward enough. I also realized at times I was lifting the heel of the current downhill ski at the initiation of the turn as the uphill ski was transitioning to become the downhill ski. I think this was because I did not full trust that both skis would transition in sync during this slow movement.

--The beautiful part of this slower, more patient turning is that it does exactly what it is supposed to – it results in much less acceleration of the ski as it enters the fall line. I could also feel the skis during a few really nice things during the turning sequence: a) I could really feel the skis naturally arc into the turn and “belly out” smoothly which at the apex of the belly resulted in speed being reduced; and b) it made it very naturally easy to let the ski continue arcing in the turn and decelerate as the tips skied more and more to an uphill position relative to the fall line. In m usual technique of making powerful, fast turns I realize I would never truly finish the turn likely due to the continuing acceleration of the ski so when I initiated the next turn no speed was scrubbed just prior to that turn initiation resulting in a higher turn entry speed. By making a quick turn and really hammering the edges over quickly and at immediate high edge angles after the turn initiation that resulted in immediate acceleration. I envisioned my previous turning sequence to look more like straight line zig zags crossing the fall line back and forth. This new turning sequence I envision more like a “falling leaf” pattern.

--Skiing with this turning technique was far less tiring. I was expending a lot less energy in this scenario even though I was able to take smaller radius turns and was making more turns.

--Since the first part of the turn initiation sequence was much slower and much lower energy, the skis were less likely to lose grip on steeper terrain. There are times using my previous turning technique that the skis on very hard or pebbly snow conditions would lose grip as they came around at turn initiation resulting in the skis starting the turn in a fast down the fall line controlled slip. The edges would hook up then and carve, but the entry speed into that carve was high and I had now lost elevation (gaining momentum) down the hill before traversing across the fall line in the intended path of travel. No big deal most of the time on groomed terrain, but in chopped up snow or moguls where you want to move more precisely to the intended place of your next turn that situation is not what you want to have happen. The slower turn initiation technique resulted in very little loss of elevation at turn initiation as the uphill ski came around at turn initiation. Same thing during the turn – the ski bellied out early due to the slower acceleration and the tips came perpendicular with the fall line decelerating the skis naturally so each turn resulted in far less loss of elevation down the hill.

--Lower edge angles took a while for me to do consistently. I am so used to maintaining high edge angles to always be carving the skis. The speed and acceleration of a ski with low edge angle is very noticeable.

--Even though on groomed runs only I did make it a point to use my eyes to consciously focus on my next turn. I tried to pick up something I could focus on - a dip, lip, chunk of snow, whatever to ski toward and initiate my turn at. It is easy on groomers to just ski without really focusing on turning points because you don't need to really. That is not saying you are not looking at where you are going but you can pretty much turn anywhere you want and as long as you are "directionally correct" with your intended path it doesn't matter much.

I must have said for 5 or 6 trails that a particular time down using this slower turning technique was the most controlled, best skied run I had done on that trail in the 8 years I have ridden at Elk. Really a fun first day out and much less tiring, even given it was the first day on the slopes for the year.

So a good start with these techniques. Will continue this each time out until I go to Aspen.

[Bill]

C. Drift your turns instead of carve you turns – using lower edge angles during the turning sequence to help naturally scrub speed. The higher the edge angle of the ski the more the ski accelerates.

Bluewing, going through thee drills before taking the clinic is going to be a real plus, no doubt you'll get a lot out of it.

A good way to practice this drift/slip/zero momentum turn is to practice low-speed spins on a gentle grade. Spins use the exact same technique, only exaggerated, and it's fun (it's also easier on skiboards). "Stand tall!" You'll hear this a lot during the clinic.

We were in Aspen recently and found another economical (by Aspen standards) restauraunt: the Hickory House. The ribs are special.

[Bluewing]

A good way to practice this drift/slip/zero momentum turn is to practice low-speed spins on a gentle grade. Spins use the exact same technique, only exaggerated, and it's fun (it's also easier on skiboards). "Stand tall!" You'll hear this a lot during the clinic.

The only times I have done a spin were unintentional!

We were in Aspen recently and found another economical (by Aspen standards) restauraunt: the Hickory House. The ribs are special.

Thanks for the recommendation - I will have to check it out.

[Bad Wolf]

Drift your turns instead of carve you turns – using lower edge angles during the turning sequence to help naturally scrub speed. The higher the edge angle of the ski the more the ski accelerates.
.

Good stuff Bluewing.

I have suffered from this as well. I was so intent on carving my turns, that I was inadvertently letting the turn speed get away from me. I think this video from Warren Smith shows the problem well, and how to fix it.

[Bill]

Good stuff Bluewing. I have suffered from this as well. I was so intent on carving my turns, that I was inadvertently letting the turn speed get away from me. I think this video from Warren Smith shows the problem well, and how to fix it.

That's a good video, BW. Joe Nevin is not an advocate of pure carving except in special circumstances (such as setting speed records and/or trying to keep up with Sempai). Bluewing can look forward to his colorful lecture on this topic.

[Kocho]

Yup, carving is for speed and for the most traction if you need to make a tight turn. And it is extremely fun on slopes where carving alone can be used to control the speed (e.g., by extending the uphill portion of the turn to slow you down before initiating the next turn). Yes, comfort on edge at some speed is needed or else one is relegated to the easiest of easy bunny slopes for pure carving. I am just above that level myself, now being able to do pure carved turns on easy blue slopes too

But we have to have a full toolbox at our disposal: short turns, long turns, sliding/skidded turns, carving turns, etc. And be able to quickly transition from one to the other as needed.

[Bluewing]

Breakthrough Day

I went to Bear Creek, my small home mountain, today with 2 friends I ski with a lot. We are all committed to skiing slower and better this year. My goal for today was to practice: standing tall, skiing with feet closer together, quiet upper body, low edge angles and zero momentum turns. Beautiful morning - blue skies, 17 degrees Fahrenheit at 9am when lifts started running and very few people on the hill. Bear Creek had every run open except on short intermediate trail. They only opened a week ago and usually have maybe 5 trails open about this time. Snow condition was hard with usual Bear Creek crappy grooming - lots of rollers and pockets and frozen chunks. Corduroy was like a rock early due to cold temps overnight.

First few runs I was trying to practice the techniques above and was not feeling it. So, I skied normally for 2 runs until I got the feel for the snow, then went back to trying the techniques. Wow - breakthrough day. I skied with such a feeling of control and ease it was amazing. Even on the steepest runs I was able to absolutely control my speed, ski any shape turn at any time, ski very close to trail edge even in poor snow and basically just have a blast. Even on occasion when I was on a steeper pitch and would lose more elevation in a slide than intended and pick up a bit more speed than intended due to being on frozen marbles or a skied of patch of icier snow, I was able to use the techniques to slow the descent and make a low momentum turn to regain the slow speed and precision of the turns. In the past when that would happen I would generally just maintain that momentum then picking up speed for the rest of the run. In control but still faster than intended and generally with larger radius turns than planned.

So much more comfortable today with my feet closer together. Normally I do not like to ski with a narrow stance. Even when I opened the speed up on some runs but maintained the techniques it felt much more fluid and I was able to maintain a narrower stance. I expended way less energy as well and felt really great after 4 hours of non-stop runs - and it was only the second time out this season.

I always have fun when I ski but I have not had that much fun at Bear Creek in a few years. Skiing slow was so much more fun that trying to carve every turn at speed. My friends were really enjoying the slow(er) skiing as well.

So, Day 2 of using the Bumps for Boomers techniques and I am impressed with how well this works. Looking forward to getting in some more chopped up snow and maybe even early season mini-moguls to keep the learning going.

[Bad Wolf]

Nice Bluewing.

Could you explain a little more about these Zero Momentum Turns. I know he talks about being patient at the beginning of the turn and using lower edge angles, but how does this translate in real terms. Are you tipping or pivoting or even using two footred releases. Is there something different other than the timing of the turn?

[Bluewing]

Nice Bluewing.

Could you explain a little more about these Zero Momentum Turns. I know he talks about being patient at the beginning of the turn and using lower edge angles, but how does this translate in real terms. Are you tipping or pivoting or even using two footred releases. Is there something different other than the timing of the turn?

Bad Wolf - the video clip you posted above with the skidded turns shows it very well. I was doing that, including the light pole plant to initiate the turn, today without as much sideslipping once the turn was initiated so I was not losing quite as much elevation with each turn as some of those turns toward the latter part of the video. The instructor makes a good point about too much edge angle too soon creating acceleration. Previously I was making my turn initiation very quickly driving my knees over and forward and really pressuring the ski that was becoming the new downhill ski hard and early so right from the start of the turn the skis were building acceleration very quickly. It works and I can make very nice turns. Challenge is that on steep, narrow, icy or otherwise challenging terrain then I am traveling at a good pace and either need to put in a braking move or make another turn which was done in the same way never allowing to slow things down. It also means having a lot less time to make decisions since the skis are traveling at a good pace. I don't want it to sound like I was out of control because that is not the case. However, I would ski a run faster than intended.

[shortydude]

"Stand tall!" You'll hear this a lot during the clinic.

I find myself resorting to what I was taught years ago to keep my body perpendicular to the slope to have maximum contact and control, however by leaning forward that much I do tend to build unwanted speed sometimes and the continuous short turns take a lot of work. In that video he was keeping his body more vertical than perpendicular to the hill.

Is this keeping vertical what you're talking about "Standing Tall"? Does that increase the ankle canting a bunch?

[valmorel]

I have been doing this far too long to have any clue what I do really except to say that I actually like skiing bumps. Well, at least on skiboards anyway. Best board I ever used in bumps is def the 120. Sometimes the shorter boards are a bit too short and don't quite flow with the rhythm of the bumps. I like softer boards in bumps too. Less disruptive when I get it wrong.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[Bluewing]

Day 3 - Adjustments and Progress

I got out to Bear Creek again today with my friend I usually ski with who is giving this "slow skiing" experiment a try as well. Warm day today: temp at 9am was 35 degrees F and when we were done for the day at 1pm the temperature had risen to 50. Nice snow, good grooming. Soft snow though. First few runs we were both experiencing a bit of catching on the uphill ski as we started to transition it into the turn. It took us a few runs to figure it out. We were not transferring our weight to the uphill ski right before initiating the turn so the ski was "light" as the turn started and we still had the weight on the downhill ski so it was basically acting as a block to the first part of the turn. Interesting how small things at slow speed/low momentum and low edge angles become apparent. In the harder snow condition 2 days ago it was easier to skid the ski so even without the uphill ski properly weighted it transitioned into the turn fine.

Bumps for Boomers talks about rebalancing (weighting) the uphill ski right before you initiate the turn. For me when I made the correction it felt like I was stepping off of the downhill ski and onto the uphill ski. Problem solved - the uphill ski transitioned into the turn properly. It was a great day of zero/low momentum turns of all shapes. For a while we followed each other down the runs trying to stay perfectly within the tracks of the lead person. Great exercise to turn with precision. This technique has been a revelation. My friend describes it as "removing the pitch" from the run. We we practicing these slow turns on the steepest pitches available and it all seemed very relaxed and calm. We intentionally skied close to the trail edge, in fairly narrow area on one steep run between a lift tower and trail's edge making turns in this space, and skied through crappy snow back and forth just to practice turning in junk. All without any issues and perfectly in control and at ease. I was skiing with my skis very close together with no issues.

A light pole plant or pole tap often helped with turn initiation today. My friend was rotating his upper body on pole planted turns and was not sure why. I suggested he might be putting the pole plant too far in front. I told him to aim the pole plant in the space from his ankle to 6 or so inches in front of his ankle. He did that and the upper body rotation was removed. Even skiing is a game of inches I guess.

When I opened up the speed today my carving was much more fluid and my skis while carving were much closer together than before I started practicing this technique so I have benefited there as well. Skied with far less effort today again as well - another benefit of this approach.

I think I am sold on this now. 2 weeks to Aspen so hopefully I can get out 3 or 4 more times before doing the course.

[Bluewing]

Weird Snow and Skiing Slow

Last two times at Bear Creek in the past week I have experienced maybe the weirdest snow conditions I have skied in. It has been tough weather-wise in my area - lots of freeze/thaw cycles and periods of heavy rain. The cover is getting thin at Bear Creek. The first day of the two it was very much like spring conditions with lots of areas of deep corn snow that seemed to have no bottom. Those areas were interspersed with areas of groomed hard pack and skied off areas of frozen chunks. We had to be very mindful of the areas of deep corn snow - very easy to get tips and tails hung up and it felt like there was no support under the skis. The slow skiing technique was very well suited to this condition - keeping the skis close together and re-balancing on the uphill ski before initiating the turn worked well. I was really sore the next day though from my upper hamstrings to my lower back. It felt like I was "soft pedaling" the skis the entire time I was out, which must have put a lot of strain on these muscles.

The second time out the snow was firmer, but also a mixture of various conditions, including interspersed areas of ungroomed man-made snow the resort blew after grooming. Some of these areas had snow 6-8 inches deep that was unconsolidated and was developing large holes or crevices as it got skied on. Lots of areas of yellowish, frozen snow some of it down to the cat tracks. Some areas of glazed, frozen snow right from the start. The snow was mainly getting skied off in small chunks. We had a great time skiing on this junk using the new techniques. It didn't matter what the condition was - it was easy to ski it and control was maintained regardless of the snow changing under the skis. In the past I would have still been in control but would have ended up skiing faster than intended due to the skis basically being in controlled slides on the steeper pitches. With this new approach speed was perfectly controlled and any sliding on icier areas or on areas of frozen chunks was much shorter in duration with much less elevation loss. I was also able to keep my skis very close together regardless of how poor the snow conditions were, which helps a lot since both skis are experiencing the same thing at the same time. In the past I would not feel comfortable skiing in this type of condition with my skis close together. Instead, I would ski with more aggression with my skis farther apart as a safety margin even though I intuitively knew that was not the best way to approach it. That would work but it required more effort, was a much rougher ride and often required me to make very quick decisions and movements. One of the black runs was skied off quickly into mini-moguls - we did this run multiple times skiing in the worst of it and had a blast. Very good control and everything seemed to happen in slow motion - lots of time to make decisions and adjustments.

My ski partner's observation that this technique "removes the pitch" is dead on. Basically any run we are on now does not seem steep. Very cool and still a slightly surreal experience.

[Bluewing]

Final time on the slopes before heading out to Aspen was 8-January at Elk Mountain. It was colder than the 9 degrees F the thermometer reading in the morning. Quite a bit of wind from late morning on. Snow condition was variable - all variations of hard snow with some sizable areas skied off to ice, blowing man-made snow that was not groomed, growing piles of skied off dry powder, ruts in hard snow from ski racers laying down hard carves while warming up. The zero/low momentum turn technique continued to work well. Really a lot of fun experimenting with varying speed, turn radius, etc on the steepest pitches. A much different experience than I would have normally had carving at speed down everything - more immersive this way since I really have time to take note of the variations in conditions and playing around on the descent. I was purposely skiing in the worst of the icy areas just to test how my skis would do with this new technique. Works fine on icier conditions as long as you keep the skis center weighted and you keep your weight facing down the pitch. Lean into the hill and/or get back a bit and the loss of grip lets you know to adjust. The cool thing is that you have time to realize it is happening and to make the adjustment and feel the adjustment make a difference.

Practiced very small radius, fluid turns along the trail edges on the less steep parts just to keep things interesting and to get a nice long period of these turns to try and burn things into muscle memory.

I have done all the prep I think I could so now it is up to Joe Nevins...