Meet the Challenge: Bumps
Instruction
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What Holds You Back
The unevenness of it all. Jarring and sometimes jagged surfaces that never permit settled balance. Skiing moguls can feel like biking down a cobblestone street.
The Challenge
To work with an ever-altering surface. To choose a line and commit to it, linking 30 controlled turns at a time.
Meeting The Challenge
Tension and excess speed are the enemy-not the bumps. Seek balance through awareness of the soles of your feet. Return to short-turn fundamentals: Change the edges of both skis simultaneously. Flow continuously from one turn to the next. Keep your hands and poles always reaching for the next turn. Flex your legs at the bump’s crest and extend them into the troughs.
Work With the Terrain
Never venture into a mogul field without a planned line-it’s there if you look. Avoid traverses. When in doubt, point the tips downhill.
Clinics
Nelson Carmichael Bump Camps, Steamboat, Colo.: Intermediates and up can learn from the ultimate bump instructor when they sign up with 1992 Olympic medalist Carmichael; (970) 879-6111, ext. 543. Vail Mogul Camps in Vail, Colo.: Two-day clinics for advanced mogul skiers; (800) 475-4543.
