I Want to Ski Bumps Like the Pros - Page 4
By Todd Murchison, January 15, 2001

Alpine Racers are nonchalant as they look down a mogul field. They are not usually looking for a route between the bumps, in fact they are not usually looking for a route at all! They will simply skim over any bump they happen to run across, like a stone skipped over water. Totally comfortable with speed they make high speed turns, absorbing or jumping over several moguls with each turn. Looking relaxed and sometimes almost even bored, they eat up huge moguls fields as if they were on a groomed run.

Because they can stop in an instant if need be, accomplished racers are indifferent to the obstacles presented on a run and simply go where they want and at whatever speed their whim dictates. To pull this off successfully you need super balance, supreme technique and unwavering confidence. Pulling three Gs at seventy miles per hour on a fall-away turn on solid ice, with rocks and trees to the side, tends to make a simple mogul slope look pretty tame to these athletes!

Who is the best? Good question. To see any of these professionals skiing their best is awesome. They all ski with the grace, power and courage that can only come with years of getting in 150+ days a year on their skis. Yet they all employ quite different tactics. Which style should an aspiring mogul skier strive to employ? How about all of them? Truly versatile skiers mimic each style to some degree, adapting their technique to their mood, the conditions, and their bodies demands. Try not to let yourself get caught up in thinking that one of these images is the best image, play with every style and youll find there are rewards in each!

Todd Murchison is a professional skier, computer techie, and writer. One of his primary mogul skiing tricks is the Automatically Deployed Speed Reduction Maneuver, in which he firmly plants his face into the crown of a mogul in order to affect a velocity change.

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