California/Nevada Little Dipper bumps at Heavenly

[SSSdave]

I'll offer this unusual thread with images about a single run at a single resort given my SV hi tech and photography background with more information than you will likely want to know haha. Oh I know so many of you just love bumps slopes haha.

This is what I've been skiing lately given the Epic Tahoe Local Pass this year. Had not skied Heavenly in maybe 15 years and since that time many lifts have been replaced with detachables, runs have been changed, trees thinned. Since January 23 have skied the resort 8 times with the majority of my runs looping the Comet Express lift down these Little Dipper moguls. The bottom of the lift is about 8.6k and top 9.5k with a northern exposure so one of the highest elevation bump runs in the Tahoe region. As a bump skier, much prefer loose packed powder versus firm. And that is why I also found numbers of other local HV bump skiers here too that is important because it takes numbers of bump skiers regularly skiing such slopes to keep snow on bumps loose. Otherwise a mogul slope with lots of moguls but few bump skiers is only enjoyable mid winter when surfaces are dry powdery packed powder without any crusts from temperatures that stay below freezing.

This first image above is a Google Earth 3D satellite image of Comet Express lift ( CE ) and Jacks and Little Dipper mogul runs. The wide forest between the two is Aries Woods. Off to the lookers right of Little Dipper is a narrower section of forest and beyond that the groomed Comet run. There is a no name road cutting across the lift between tower 13 and tower 14 just below the top that is the start of actual bumps at 9470 feet. One can reach that traverse road from the Dipper Express lift. The bottom of the mogul field is at 8900 feet thus a total vertical of about 570 feet that is adjacent to towers 8 through 13. Of course mogul skiers like bumps beneath lifts because well there is some show off in most of us haha. Unlike most mogul slopes, the pitch gradient varies due to a general convex shape, less steep at top to most steep at bottom with terracing between. The first terrace with small bumps at an easy gradient is between towers 13 and tower 12 at which point is a short steeper drop. A very nice slopes for intermediates to practice mogul skiing on but one needs to vector off skiers left and over to the groomed Comet run no lower else will be blocked by a sharp ravine in the forest.

The top of the run at tower 12 and 13 looking up from the chairlift:

A bit lower below tower 12 looking up the slope:

Looking down the slope from lift a bit below tower 12:

Quite a few locals have much better consistent technique than mr dave haha who is in it for the fun. Usually ski into the bumps blindly from the road at speed versus waiting at the top looking down for whatever line because I just react to whatever. Last week when the snow was still more packed powdered easier for a kat wimp, bounced non-stop from the top a smooth fall line down below tower 11 over a dozen times, about 250 feet vertical. And view from lift looking up the slope from below tower 11:

If one does go below tower 12, one can vector off skiers right through the wider Aries Woods, however less than advanced skiers are likely to find such rather tedious bouncing over wind ridges between pines haha. The next drop is at tower 11 with the slope below steeper on skiers right below the lift. A short terrace is at tower 10 and then a larger terrace just above tower 9 after which is the steepest section of the run. Currently it also has the most tree tops and rocks poking through that I use as an excuse to avoid. View up the slope from lift above tower 9 towards tower 10 and 11:

Most of the time I ski only down to tower 11 or 10 and then eject out through Aries Woods over to the Orion groomed run and then to the Jacks bumps that are lower gradient. Have always enjoyed going through trees because on powder days am likely to be in such places so good to be familiar. Also often stop to eat some untracked snow that my recent thread showed I'm rather alone in that creaturely habit among pugskists. Heck my mouth gets dry out in them woods.

 

[SSSdave]

Four images taken during my 5 days skiing this midweek after our March Miracle storms, showing what the slopes look like with a deeper base at near season's end.

Up slope view of Little Dipper from just above tower 10 on chairlift.

Up slope view of Little Dipper from just below tower 9 on chairlift.

Downward view of Little Dipper from tower 11 on chairlift.

Little Dipper from flats below:

 

[CalG]

I could enjoy such bumps,

Here we get "boat tails", The troughs drop two feet and are only three feet wide.

I'm going to blame it on the telemarkers! ;-)

 

[textrovert]

I enjoy reading this type of detailed analysis of areas. Thanks @SSSdave !
I am no "bump-skier" - have a lot to work on my technique - but I do like them and try to seek them out to improve whenever conditions permit.

 

[SSSdave]

Some Little Dipper images from January 29/30, 2020.

Note from this perspective, cannot see bumps between tower 12 and 13.



View down slope from chairlift at tower 12.

 

[SSSdave]

Adding some recreational mogul skiing bump structure and recreational mogul skiing tactical information to this thread. Not information one is likely to find much of anywhere else. Obviously the structure of recreational bumps in mogul fields is poorly understood because few ever bother to try to analyze such beyond simple ways of bump hills and sinuous trough spaces between them. I will be interested in hearing if the below actually helps anyone and if so how, so please comment if so even weeks later. And of course I have not figured out anything close to everything worth understanding as who has haha, so invite others to make inputs and opinions. Please refrain from vectoring into discussing competition style mogul skiing as there are plenty of older threads on that. Another site with useful information to learn bump skiing is on this popular site link. My own style does not much fit into any of his 4 techniques.

4 Primary Techniques To Ski Moguls | Bumps for Boomers

If you want to learn how to ski moguls well then you need to understand the 4 primary techniques to ski moguls. This page explains each of the 4 techniques.

www.bumpsforboomers.com

First some terminology to refer to per these 3 annotated images of a single group of diamond pattern bumps:

bb4575


bb4578


bb4583


And then this mogul field image discussed below:



ay4137 is an image of Little Dipper at Heavenly just below tower 11 on 1/28/2020 during hazy high clouds. Moguls are moderate size and modestly mature given a few small snowfalls in previous weeks. The primary shapes and positions of bumps formed early December. Bumps within the mogul field have been labeled near their mound tops. Note the diamond pattern typical of mogul fields while understanding most such fields are not so geometrically regular.

As mogul fields are increasingly skied over days, snow in some locations is dug out by ski edges and moved loosely into others. Thus over weeks without new storms may evolve to more 3 dimensional forms that become increasingly difficult to ski, especially for those skiers that do not efficient flow through the bumps. At all stages there are inconsistencies even in such regular patterns such that the diamond pattern features will vary in position and size with some bump features not even present as skis erode them away. Refer to annotations on images bb4475, bb4578, and bb4583 that show mature 3-dimensional forms. Left and right terms are skiers orientations, not lookers.

With Photoshop have drawn possible turning lines on the base ay4137 image. For standard trough turning paths, right turns are orange with green dots and left turns orange with yellow dots. The dots are at slope knees where initiation of turns are preferred. In some cases the transitions are subtle or non-existent. On some bumps a normal fall line below them ends and a bump skier would need to use another tactic. Note the paths are crudely drawn and become less accurate further away from the image lower left corner. Generally my ski paths in troughs does not swing around against the top of bumps but rather is a more direct line lower down against the side that actually fits a flexed ski shape better. In other words I don't aim my momentum at the mound top.

An example of a diamond pattern is the set of 4 bumps, D4 D3 E3 E4. Notice how the mound tops of bumps D3 and E4 are just above the base of the D4 nose. Likewise the mound tops of D2 and E3 are just above the base of the D3 nose. As bumps mature, the relative distance between the yellow and green dots beside the noses will become closer and the trough width between the faces of adjacent bumps will narrow mid way towards the drop to the lower bump with an hourglass trough shape. Skiers that don't know how to ski the trough line will have increasing problems as that trough narrows, as it becomes awkward with increasingly speed to simply side slip down from mound tops.

Bump D4 at top has a relatively flat spine, gradual nose, with broad flat left and right faces. Bump E3 has a steeper nose with its left shadowed left face steeper than its right face due to skiers preferring that path digging it out more. Eventually that will cause the yellow dot knee to be lower than the green dot knee to the right of the E3 nose. At the same time the left and right faces will narrow, steepening below the center spine increasingly towards the nose.

Notice how the trough below the nose of D3 down to E3's mound top is a relatively flat slope while the same below the nose of E3's nose down to E2's mound top is a flat slope at the top narrowing as a V with a pronounced center gully. Such bumps due to greater forces, are more likely to have a dug out hollow in front of the lower bump, ie F2. Also note the bases of the two opposing faces of E2 and E3 formed an inverted V shape within that hollow towards the F2 mound top. Such features are more prominent in competition bump lines because they don't smear their skis up against the mound tops that otherwise tends to flatten out that feature. The upper part of that hourglass feature is what I term the crotch.

The magenta path from C5 down to F2 uses a different slower turn location tactic I often use as bumps become steeper with gravity forces more difficult to control. Instead of skiing in the troughs, I'll mix up turns by slowly turning from the back of mound tops down along the spine to the spine knee above the nose where I'll make a shorter vertical jump turn right onto the crotch at the base of the nose with skis continuing into the adjacent mound top that helps slow speed, whereupon will crank another short turn in turn down that spine. At times I can descend using that tactic down steep sections of mogul fields that always have largest most 3-dimensional moguls, ridiculously slow. That is of course where most skiers tend to pick up most speed so it is not surprising I am seeing numbers of other skiers trying that same tactic now since the whole 600 foot vertical Little Dipper slope is in full view of chairlift riders.

As such moguls mature, the flatness of the spine decreases such that one needs to make a sort of half moon turn just below the spine rib that ends up at the spine knee. All is of course occurring in moments with fast independent lower body leg swiveling so better to have it ingrained into neuromusculoskelectal memory with repetition instead of having to have to think about what to do.

Note the right face of F3 is a smooth slab. With freeze thaw cycles, such faces become more difficult to slow down with edging. Generally with greater forces, one needs to absorb more that requires use of abdominal muscles while flexing legs up in front, a well described general mogul skiing technique. Until moguls are more mature, I can ski troughs more upright without much flexion simply by upper torso countering that uses the opposite chest muscles versus the edged ski leg.

 

[Seldomski]

Instead of skiing in the troughs, I'll mix up turns by slowly turning from the back of mound tops down along the spine to the spine knee above the nose where I'll make a shorter vertical jump turn right onto the crotch at the base of the nose with skis continuing into the adjacent mound top that helps slow speed, whereupon will crank another short turn in turn down that spine. At times I can descend using that tactic down steep sections of mogul fields that always have largest most 3-dimensional moguls, ridiculously slow.

Yes I find that the 'weirder' the bumps get, the need to make more than 1 turn on a bump becomes essential. When the nose/spine knee become very pronounced for example. I usually refer to those types of bumps as snaggletooth bumps.

I think I've heard of them also referred to as shark tooth, triangular, pointy, etc. Basically the one and done bump run...

 

[SSSdave]

(mouse select to enlarge)

After the big snows recently, Little Dipper is now in prime condition for this 2021 season. Very nice skier cold dry packed powder snow above 9000 feet. A few more images of Little Dipper shot Wednesday February 10, 2021. The above was shot from the Peppies road coming from Stagecoach showing the wide expanse of Aries Woods looker's left that one can always escape out of the moguls traversing through to reach groomed Orion. This next more telephoto image below was shot from the same spot on Peppies road. Spent the last 3 days continually looping long lines on these bumps and am just now coming in prime mid season form.



Shot from Comet Express lift near tower 9 showing the steepest section of bumps that is just below a short level bench.


Looking up from skier's left across from tower 10 showing how these bumps look a lot larger down at the surface haha. This was shot from a bit above where the two skiers were on the third photo.

 

[SSSdave]

Instead of traveling in the troughs, I'm looking up here at large steep but easy to edge on left or right face bump on either side of its spine. If seated upper body countering force applies leverage more perpendicular to the plain of that surface that requires an upper body out in front over at an off gravity angle towards the boot, then a little ski bent arcing turn of a scallop edged across the face. Sometimes will allow slowing hesitation at the nose if there is a drop for my upper body to move even more forward that then can allow a more easy hopping around in opposite direction jump turn to the crotch directly below without gaining much momentum reducing speed.



Little Dipper from Comet Express chair with tower 11 at left, tower 12 further up the field and tower 13 beyond at the starting road cut through small extremely fun moguls, difficult to see from this perspective.



View from lift just below tower 10 with previous photo's tower 11 a ways up the bump field.



And what these beautifully shaped bumps near tower 10 really look at down below looking up
: