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- Dec 21, 2015
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upside down snow is ok on reverse sidecut skis.
That's where it is soft or fluffy underneath and crunchy/frozen or heavy/wet on top. Best case, hard to turn in, worst case, dangerous.
Ah, I only found this rarely and it sucks. But there is one thing that I find less desirable, and I really, would rather not be skiing. That would be completely frozen natural Snow. Not sure how people call it. It's really regular offpiste, but completely frozen to the point where you can't really tip on edge because it's rock solid. But it's so irregular that all you can do is bounce around that slippery thing. Luckily, the couple times this happened to me I could opt out and go back to a groomer. Pheeww. I guess I'm luck to live in the West !
upside down snow is ok on reverse sidecut skis.
I think it's better when you're a heavy tank with an aggressively "skis down the mountain" approach. At 230ish, Eric would just break through and ski below the surface. He didn't ski it fast, but a consistent turn with minimal sideways ski action. I'm getting better at "face down the mountain," but put your skis too far sideways, and it's trouble. And despite having been 200, I still didn't break through.
I realize you're not talking about that - just adding a bit.
I tend to agree with @LiquidFeet that natural bumps are perhaps better for learning. Seeded bumps seem great for competition style mogul skiing, perfectly timed zipper line. Which is not really what we are aiming at, in this thread. Of course, low pitched, moderate seeded bumps can be good. But I think natural ones are just fine and more likely to offer easier lines.
If that curvy sheet of ice ha some texture, then slip them and if you can do that then add A&E on the next run. That's a good way to add feathering the edges and A&E into muscle memory while skiing 3D terrain.
There have been times after a ra!n event where if the steeper pitches has true ice (the grayish type), I will spend my day on the lower angle bumps.
I foolishly kept trying that over and over lastspring at Solitude. I would look at the bumps, or the ungroomed, and it looked so nice, and not like ice. Just a few tracks and little bits of tumbled snow.I hit that once at the bottom of Beaver Creek, which is pretty low altitude for Colorado. But it looked just like powder, so I approached it as such. Bad times!
I foolishly kept trying that over and over lastspring at Solitude. I would look at the bumps, or the ungroomed, and it looked so nice, and not like ice. Just a few tracks and little bits of tumbled snow.
Then I hit it and it was rock hard! Ice cubes, rock hard railroad trachks, horrible!
But it looked so good that every few hours or the next day, I would try again
What do you mean with A&E?
I tend to agree with @LiquidFeet that natural bumps are perhaps better for learning. Seeded bumps seem great for competition style mogul skiing, perfectly timed zipper line. Which is not really what we are aiming at, in this thread. Of course, low pitched, moderate seeded bumps can be good. But I think natural ones are just fine and more likely to offer easier lines.
I'm not sure what a seeded bump run looks like, but does it allow you to learn the technique of going wide up the sides of the bumps? Instructor Dirk (RIP) called this the "cereal bowl" line - picture skiing the inside of a bowl. It's not always there - but when it's there, it's a nice gentle line. I avoid the bottoms of troughs like the plague - that's where the gravel lives.
@Monique seeded bumps don't apply to us recreational skiers here in Colorado. The only time they seed bumps is for mogul competition courses, then those are roped off and only competitors allowed. After the competition, they generally knock them down.
There's a course set up at Copper Mountain right now at the bottom of Rosie's Run. It's usually a steep groomed run and it's the last pitch on the US Ski Team's Speed Center downhill training course. They blew whales of snow then built a bump course with a cat for a competition.
View attachment 64409
You'll be able to see it better when the sun hits it in a few minutes.
You can also watch the competition on live video on the Super Bee webcam:
https://www.coppercolorado.com/the-mountain/webcams/mountain/super-bee-hd-cam
I'm headed over that way shortly and will take some pictures.
Seeded bumps are just very regular, since a machine puts them down to start with all the same height and spacing. But I've seen seeded bumps I'd call steep or deep, and some that are much gentler. And it still matters how much they get skied too. Here's an example :
Where is that?