Snow Skills

Moguls 103 is about how to control your speed. As in any skiing turn, speed control comes from rounding out the turn shape until your ski tips face more across the hill than down gravity. To turn the tips more across the hill, the key to controlling your speed in moguls is to be able to separate the upper and lower bodies at the waist.

Upper and lower body separation is present in practically every skiing turn; for moguls, it’s present to the point of exaggeration. One of the best exercises for developing separation are sideslip turns. On intermediate terrain, set yourself on your uphill edges with your upper body aligned downhill such that the zipper of your jacket is just downhill of the downhill ski tip. Release the edges enough to slide slowly, keeping the same alignment for 5 feet, then release the edges, turn to the other side and reset the edges, still sliding. The goals here are to:

• Let your body swing such that your jacket zipper only has a fan of motion from downhill of the right ski tip to downhill of the left ski tip.
• Let your legs swing more than your body does, such that they alternate facing directly across gravity.
• Let your neck swivel such that your nose is continuously almost pointing down gravity.
• Keep the hands aligned along the body in the same manner, regardless of which way you’re facing.

Now practice over several runs until you can make sideslip turns consistently and on demand.  Stay tuned for Moguls 104 on how to apply this skill in mogul terrain.