Snow Skills

Skiing moguls in spring conditions is one of skiing’s great pleasures. The more forgiving snow, the warmer temps, and the softer feel underfoot combine to let skiing moguls be more successful and fun!

The heaviness of the wetter snow can be a challenge in the narrower confines of a mogul field, however. You can adjust your skiing to match soft mogul terrain by changing your line to avoid the troughs and stay higher on the moguls. You can maintain balance better by focusing on where your feet would go if you were running down the hill.

Stand at the top of a mogul run and study the moguls. If you were wearing a pair of running shoes instead of ski boots, imagine the line you’d run down while putting each foot in a place where you can find balance. Down deep inside the troughs and ruts isn’t where you’d want your feet to be; you’d place your feet to be move along the tops of successive moguls. You’d want to minimize the elevation change between each mogul by picking a line that goes through the saddle between each high point. This pattern has a broader S-shape to it that would encourage a fairly round C-shape to your turns. This isn’t a Zipper-line style pattern; your path is going to across gravity more than it goes down gravity and that’s the key to adjusting to the heavier snow: try not to get yourself in a situation where the trough of the mogul is dictating where you ski.

Good feedback to know you’re making this pattern is a feeling that your feet aren’t changing elevation much from turn to turn. If your legs are staying relatively long and only flexing as you move over the top of a mogul, you’ve picked a good line for spring conditions in the moguls.