How to Ski Moguls
Do not fear these skier-made bumps in the snow; they are a challenge to be enjoyed ... sort of ...
Spring skiing is always more tricky than skiing in mid-winter, especially when trying to plan routes. In mid-winter, the snow remains consistent from top to bottom, thanks to consistently cold temperatures throughout.
However, come spring, the warmth of the sun causes the snow quality to deteriorate quickly, especially on sun drenched slopes. This has been the case over the past couple of days here in Flaine - the north-facing Flaine bowl has stayed relatively fresh, but down near the resort where the angle changes and the sun hits it early, the beginner slopes have been slushy first thing.
Slush is fine though. It's what often accompanies slush that causes skiers and snowboarders problems - moguls.
What are Moguls?
Moguls - sometimes, especially in North America, simply referred to (unimaginatively) as just "bumps", are mounds in the snow that form naturally as skiers and snowboarders progress down a hill.
Every time you turn as you ski, the back of your skis scrapes some snow off the surface and pushes them into small piles. Over time, as more and more skiers come along, they build up and build up, eventually becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy as they mounds force skiers to follow the gaps between bumps.
As an aside, you can do your fellow skiers a huge favour by skiing through these piles of snow ad displacing them.
Moguls tend to form more quickly in the spring, as softer snow means more of it is scraped away when your ski past, but are found all year round. This is especially true when resorts don't reguarly piste certain runs, and a run's unpisted nature can sometimes be the reason they define something as a black run rather than a red run.
A cool fact about moguls? They move uphill! As you ski over fully formed moguls, you scrape snow off the lower part of the bump, and shower it down onto the bump below, allowing the bump to increase in volume up high but decrease down below.
You won't find many slopes in Europe that are left to form mogul fields; the main ones are already difficuly black runs, such as Sache in Tignes. Many resorts, especially Austrian ones, take pride in grooming as much terrain as possible every night.
North America is a different story; expect them to take pride in the opposite, having dedicated moguls runs and giving over a large part of their double-black diamond terrain to the bumps. A great example is Winter Park, Colorado, which takes pride in their mogul runs and boasts of being the bump capital of the USA, with moguls the size of small cars!
How to Ski Moguls?
It's really tempting to try and ski moguls by staying in the troughs and following them. But by doing this you will find yourself trapped and "railling" your skis, unable to turn independently.
Instead, aim to chart a course where you turn on the mogul, ideally wrapping around just shy of the top. You'll find it's much easier to turn and pivot your skis here, partly because they're not railed into the trough but also because there's simply less ski touching the snow.
Good technique is key here. Balance and body position is everything for starters, as this enables you to turn your skis beneath you. You need to work hard to pivot your skis, too - old school, French-style body swinging skiing has no place here.
Finally, don't forget your pole plant. Moguls change direction quickly, and as a result it's really easy to be thrown off balance; a good pole plant is a really easy win to pull you forward and keep your legs and body separate.
The constant angle changes forward and back are going to be the real killer. Use your pole plant to fight to stay forward throughout your mogul run, and don't forget you can run out to the side to reset - there's no obligation to stay in a lane, just like there isn't anywhere else on the mountain!
Final Thoughts
With a little practice, its possible to make mogul skiing fun, rather than something to be feared. However, I do not blame you if you do everything in your power to avoid them completely, as that is what I do!
Good riddance.
I hate the things.
