From: sergei@is.morgan.com (Sergei Poliakoff)
Subject: Re: Sunday River
Keywords: anyone know about it
Organization: Morgan Stanley - IS
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 17:27:13 GMT

In article <Btp608.JHu@world.std.com>, twm3@world.std.com (Thomas W Moore) writes:
|> They have some pleasant runs for good black diamond skiers.  Don't believe
|> the hype about White Heat (the steepest, widest, lift-serviced mogul skiing
|> in the East).  It does get some good bumps (some even with some good lines)
|> but I never really found it that interesting.  It was a little to wide for me
|> (gotta be close to the trees).  The last time I was there was in the
|> spring and they were grooming the whole mountain with the exception of
|> four or five runs.  So the bumps were never building up that much.  They
|> did have one run, 3-D, which is intermediate but they let the bumps 
|> build up on it.  Great play to go and play and not get very serious about
|> the bumps.  Also good for someone who is learning to ski bumps and is not
|> ready for the steeps but is ready for a close set of bumps.

This above paragraph started me thinking about moguls in general, 
mogul skiing instruction in particular, and here 
is the result:

Mogul fields in the East build up in a way that makes them more
menacing then even much steeper Western bump runs.
The most  important factor is the shape of the mogul. Basically,
one cannot ski around the Easterm mogul : troughs never continue around
the "hump" but  are really cul-de-sacs, narrowing corridors with no
exit.  The only way out is to use the "dead end" of this V-shaped monster
as a platform for a hop  to the next  one. Unfortunately, here lies
another monster (which Western  bumps have to, but to a much lesser 
extent) : a vertical wall, the down-slope side of the mogul which
is not sloping at all , but just drops vertically and can't be used
for skiing down, but can only be hopped over. I don't know why does this
happen, but the technique such mogul requires  makes it it even worse :
the dead-end becomes more and more abrupt as more skiers use it as
launching pad.

Western bumps, although quite steep (representative samples for me
are Ovation in Killington vs. some quite intimidating double blacks in
Aspen/A.Highlands) don't seem to build this way : you can definitely
hop through taking a more abrupt turn, but if you wish, you can follow 
the trough to the next bump.
Although "no-exit" troughs do present additional challenge to the expert,
the big looser is the learning bump skier : there is no continuity
in technique  between flat  and bump skiing.  You can not go to the
moderate mogul field  and say : "lets ski conservatively around the bumps
and build some confidence before we try radical lines" - there is just
no way to ski around moguls !
Of course, someone will definitely suggest to skim  tops instead 
of following the gulley : this is sometimes the only way indeed,
but since this posting deals with transition from flat skiing to mogul
skiing, it is unacceptable : try to ask a "no-bumps" expert to 
start learning to ski bumps by hopping from top to top !

In the related argument, most  mogul instruction  is flawed because
of this attempt to transplant "flat" carved turn technique to the bumps : 
their leitmotiv is " skiing moguls is not different from skiing
flats, same technique applies". This is the most irritating proposition
to me : it is  very obvious that bumps ARE NOT skied the same way 
as flats, instructors demonstrating bump technique    (including
Nelson Carmichael in his idiotic and, IMHO, fraudelent video) 
immediately switch technique as soon as  they hit the first mogul :
but continue to insist they we shouldn't. Not that I'm saying
that you don't need to ski flats well to do bumps :  what I'm saying
is that skiing moguls introduces many new elements into technique
that are not present in flat skiing : absorption (completely ignored
by each and every mogul clinic that I once tried ), narrow stance
(this is another  thing : when teaching to ski flats, all instructors 
emphasize independent leg action and relatively wide stance. Left to their 
own devices, they of course ski very narrow.), two-ski platform
(recently they have begun to teach to ski on two skis, although
themselves they stay squarely on one ski through the turn, but hide
this  by skiing in narrow stance), pivoting and "swivel" turns 
(nobody teaches how to pivot skis, the only acknowledged turn is a 
full-fledged official  carving turn ; try to carve your way down Outer 
Limits !).  In the Eastern condition, even these radical technique
changes are not adequate : one has to  jump from on soft spot to 
another !
Great Nelson in his video blob  shows "preparatoty" technique for
moguls : quick round turns with strong completion, skis ending up almost
across the  fall line  at the completion. Does he think
that any real-life mogul field can be skied this way  ? Of course he does 
not, since in the next cut he goes down with skis never deviating much off
the fall line and absorbing powerfully : great sight indeed, but
no relevance to his own explanations.


Having let some steam off, back to work,

Sergei