thanks for the kind words
@skier.
sometime stamps for the technique/tactics used
Drift to get to the place where the bump is useful and not harmful at :02
lateral rotary push off hop to clear a trough line. @:05 second, honestly I screw this up and end up back and inside but the edge set brings back into balance
rotary push off with out stemming at :08
nice round turns from :09 to :13
hop turns on the spine of the bumps to avoid really slick trough :16
nose wheelie hop turn, this is the only time the rotation point is not under my foot, and instead at the tips :24
:29 seconds to :33 second there is the Stem Steps hop turns to rotary push off back to down the hill offensive skiing. Making the wedge great again.
so the day before is irrelevant, All you need to know is this was filmed on thursday, on sunday it was 45 degree with rain, and has been much below freezing till when this was filmed, there was 6 inches of really wind blown cold snow that feel on tuesday. This snow was super kind to some parts of the hill, and in other parts basically non existent. This was a place where yes there was loose cold mid winter snow, but not enough to really improve the skiing, it does make it look less than icey.
Well I am going to toot my own horn here alittle. While I think alot of people think of me of this powerful balls to wall the skier, and if you watch me ski GS turns, or Crud that is what you would think, the reality is though I spend a ton of time skiing slow, skiing slow short turns, and working on skills, not to mention my time on snow gives me some crazy good touch. As for generating forces I think its possible even on uneven ice on the right ski to get some edge angle, as long as its progressive and built though out the turn. The right ski IMO is basically any metal laminate ski with 18-21 meter sidecut and sharp edges. I actually prefer in the bumps and a sharp 1/2 over a 1/3 as it lets me drift on a edge better. On really icey days I even do a down burr under my foot to get a spot on my skis that will not slip no matter what. The skis in the video are 185cm 93mm wide, and tuned to a sharp 1 and 2.
also in the bumps, I look at the bump as terrain enhancement. There is almost texture and/or a bank to get the ski to turn on. Finding those spots(tactics) can be more than half the battle while skiing in off piste conditions like shown. Yes you need to have reasonable skills to get the point that your feet are exactly where you want them, with balance on the outside ski all the time, but learning the tactic can be all a strong athletic L6-L7 needs to be able to navigate terrain like this.
yeah again it comes down to some of the comments I made above. One thing people tend to do in bumps that makes things worse for them, in all bumps and not just ice bumps is to do things to quickly and never get the ski to cut or bend into the snow. Also the quickness put them on the backside trough line of the bump which is slipperiest spot on the slope, and also the steepest, both are no good.
Even in the icest of bumps when hoping turning down the spines becomes the only really safe option there is still ski performance and that ski performance lets the ski cut. I will also say the equipment plays an extremely important role as well. I freeski in basically unbendable boot, which lets me dictate pressure control along the ski why quicker than a softer boot, and again ski matter, moderate sidecut, vertical side wall, metal laminate skis are my choice for skiing like this. My 3 favorite skis for bumps like this are 181cm Blizzard GSR master ski, 177cm Head Monster 83, and my 185cm Nordica E93, I also like my 180cm Brahma, but almost never ski them.... A ski I hate in bumps like this are my 179cm Salomon XDR 84ti, the sidecut is just to extreme and the tip even with my skills is basically impossible to control in hard bumps, it is a fun carver though.
a good example of the berm line aka using the bumps to enhance your turn by them constantly riding the berm is this video I made a couple year ago. I will come clean though, the line being skied here was made by more over literally 100s of runs. Once the line is set its hard for lesser skier to unset, people who heel push and edge set, will typically just hate round bumps. I wish I could clone myself and go make round turns everywhere so I never have to demo the skiing shown in the video in the OP again.
