It's very rare that you see a skier's face break into a smile when you watch them
looking down on a mogul field. There is always a handful of skiers who do enjoy the
extra exertion that the vicious bumps demand of the body as they twist and wind their way
through the seemingly endless maze, but most skiers just find moguls hard work.
The key to skiing moguls is to follow an imaginary route through the maze.
Before you push off into the bumps, imagine that you are water in a mountain river. The
river is just like the ones that you see the whitewater canoes racing down, with white
water building up around the boulders and rocks strewn across it. Those boulders and
rocks are similar to the bumps of a mogul field. The water always finds the most direct -
and therefore the smoothest - path around the rocks.
This is what you have to do. Think of the water flowing between the bumps in
front of you, and focus your attention on the path the water would take. This should be
your route down the slope, Turning in the troughs between the bumps, and trying to
complete the turn before you hit the next one. The secret to this is not to think about
finishing your turn in time - forget that part of the maneuver and just concentrate on
making the next turn as soon as possible. Naturally, if you worry about making another
turn, you will automatically finish the turn in time.
If you think of yourself as the water, you will find that you turn more quickly
down the fall-line, which is the way the water would flow, and then it is much easier to
find a rhythm through the imaginary boulders. Practice this where the moguls are spaced
out a bit, for instance on a more gentle slope, and you will find that you can literally
"flow" like a river.
To overcome the bumps smoothly, you must always approach moguls slowly.
Similarly, if you find yourself going too fast, then the best way to slow down is to turn
quickly, or to point your skis across the hill. If you find yourself losing rhythm, then you
might have to absorb one bump, your knees going right up to your chest to catch a trough
again.
If you watch a good skier go through moguls, their head and chest will be almost
stationary, while the movement is coming from the waist down, the legs extending and
compressing to absorb the size of the mounds of snow.
When you tackle a mogul field, think of water flowing down through a mountain river. You should follow the route the water would take around the large rocks.
