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mister moose

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giphy.gif


There's a little matter of a 8 foot cliff and vertical separation between the red line and the blue line. As GIS stated, it was formed by herds of folks coming out onto the slope from the same point and carving in a well defined traverse track with a cliff cut into the slope above the track. Those who pull off the double and jump over without ejecting should certainly pass.

SuperstarMay17.jpg


If you pull off that jump without crashing, the rest of your line hardly matters.
 

crgildart

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There's a little matter of a 8 foot cliff and vertical separation between the red line and the blue line. As GIS stated, it was formed by herds of folks coming out onto the slope from the same point and carving in a well defined traverse track with a cliff cut into the slope above the track. Those who pull off the double and jump over without ejecting should certainly pass.

View attachment 33314

If you pull off that jump without crashing, the rest of your line hardly matters.


Looks like a job for an ollie.. You know, how skaters started using the tail of their boards to hop over picnic tables and clear 10 foot long grass islands? Kids have figured out how to do them on skis now. An ollie right on top of that 8 foot ledge would work if there is enough of a run up to it to build enough speed (skating?) to clear the gap with about 2-3 feet of ollie amplitude..

 

john petersen

working through minutia to find the big picture!
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I think Mr Moose hits it on the head, eh, Cousin Vinny?

An instructor in a lesson in their jacket, an instructor skiing alone in their jacket and and instructor skiing out of uniform will more than likely present 3 different impressions of bump skiing. What is important to someone is that they are having fun.

I am looking forward to getting on snow this season....gotta go put those new boots on for an hour or so!


JP
 

Viking9

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Approach from the right
Uphill 340*, land on downslope of the same bump
Bank off backside of sunny bump below
Work it over the crests the rest of the way down
Till I go switch & grab the hat off the cutie on the right while straightlining the rest of the slope...
View attachment 33274

Bonus points for milking the bump in question
Triple points if I can get the grab
 

Viking9

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Approach from the right
Uphill 340*, land on downslope of the same bump
Bank off backside of sunny bump below
Work it over the crests the rest of the way down
Till I go switch & grab the hat off the cutie on the right while straightlining the rest of the slope...
View attachment 33274

Bonus points for milking the bump in question
Triple points if I can get the grab
Do you think the cutie will “ thank you for that “
 
Thread Starter
TS
DavidSkis

DavidSkis

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L3 exam you say and you can't determine your line? Very easy solution here; just go straight.
The question wasn't what line I would take. But I appreciate hearing about the line you would take. ;) We've seen a bunch of different approaches, some of which surprised me! Lots of fun answers.

Visualizing good skiing is a helpful tool. Liu Shikun was a world-class pianist imprisoned in China in the 60s. After six years of no access to piano, Shikun was forced to perform with the Philadelphia orchestra. His brilliant performance that evening was made possible because he rehearsed in his mind for six years.

While we're all fortunate to not be in Shikun's situation, the moral remains: it's good to run through these kinds of scenarios as a rehearsal.
 

François Pugh

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Ha ha, 30 years ago I would of approached it
View attachment 33285
View attachment 33288
A bumper will ski a great zipper line even where one doesn't exist. The ideal is someone watching from the bottom will have no idea there isn't a perfect zipper line all the way down. Ski straight down the fall line and absorb any funky bumps and make turns where bumps don't exist trying to maintain a consistent rhythm. The better the skier, the more consistent the turns. It's okay if you need to switch lines, please just do so discreetly to avoid offending any dolphins. ogsmile

Sorry to intrude, but it's worth pointing out the style described below may be popular with some ski instructors it's not the way bump skiers do it.
LOL, thirty years ago I would have approached it like the pro bump skier with that blue line, only most likely on the left side of the peak of the monster bump:ogcool:, except without any absorption :( or speed control:rolleyes:, and with a prayer of thanks when I got to the bottom without spearing any of the bumps. Now I would more likely approach it at a much much slower speed, and with many options. The wall is only vertical if you approach it head on. Come at it sideways and you can climb up the wall. Depending on your approach speed and skis, you could get turned enough to approach it parallel to the wall and with just enough speed to reach the top, you could pivot on the top and go either way down the back side, or do a slow dog noodle from there. OR, you could do laps and slice a different bit of the bump off until you had it carved up just the way you wanted.
 

PTskier

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Exam aside...
I'm not a "line" skier. I go over a bump looking two or three ahead to pick the next one or two I want to ski over. I tip I got from an x-freestyle competitor is to be completely ready to make the next turn by the time the skis are in the fall line--body ready, pole ready--so that one can make that turn any time, any bump that looks good at the moment, plant & turn.

A buddy was free skiing with a Whistler instructor who gave him some great mogul pointers. He said to look for a green line, a blue line, and a black line in a bump field. Picture those and ski the line you like. That works for him. The part above works for me. We both have fun in the bumps.
 

KevinF

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Regarding the L3 exam portion of this hypothetical question... What are the PSIA L3 bump skiing requirements anyway? Candidates should be able to "send it" down any diabolical line specified by the examiner -- i.e., "if you go to the left of that thing in the original picture, you're failing" or is a little more relaxed then that? Do candidates need to be able to demonstrate the various green / blue / black lines with reasonable skill? @epic ?
 

Frankly

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I'm irrelevant to this discussion but the way I learned and briefly sort of mastered in the 80s was not to pick any sort of line and just ski directly down whatever came in my path, leaping into the air to straighten myself out whenever it got too hairy. I can't believe my body actually let me do this but I did, when I was young and in great shape.

Multiple knees later and it seems rather dream like.

Point is, you should be able to ski anything well and it's cheating to pick the easy way through.
 

markojp

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Regarding the L3 exam portion of this hypothetical question... What are the PSIA L3 bump skiing requirements anyway? Candidates should be able to "send it" down any diabolical line specified by the examiner -- i.e., "if you go to the left of that thing in the original picture, you're failing" or is a little more relaxed then that? Do candidates need to be able to demonstrate the various green / blue / black lines with reasonable skill? @epic ?

The outcome they're looking for is stated pretty clearly in T-ball's second video. No mystery, just good, solid skiing.
 

tball

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And, here's another great video we've seen in other threads demonstrating some different and varied bump skiing styles and line selection:


I'd guess each of those guys can ski bumps any way they choose.

Could they pass a Level 3 bump exam the way they are choosing to ski in that video? Should they?
 
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john petersen

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I guess its not about any exam at that point....unless we had freestyle exams....that would be cool.

could they pass?....apples and oranges. if they wanted to or had a desire to pass, they could dial it back and pass more than likely, succumbing to completely different criteria than they have a desire to perform.......

the hair is all wrong for an exam anyway.....and those glasses!

;)

JP
 
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DavidSkis

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I'm irrelevant to this discussion but the way I learned and briefly sort of mastered in the 80s was not to pick any sort of line and just ski directly down whatever came in my path, leaping into the air to straighten myself out whenever it got too hairy. I can't believe my body actually let me do this but I did, when I was young and in great shape.

Multiple knees later and it seems rather dream like.

Point is, you should be able to ski anything well and it's cheating to pick the easy way through.

To follow this idea of "you should be able to ski anything well and it's cheating to pick the easy way through", would you suggest dropping over a 20ft cornice rather than choosing the skiable terrain right beside it?

I would argue that there are certain bump shapes that don't present a very good approach. (e.g. Bumps with aggressive faces that lack a transition; diamond-shaped bumps) And the firmer the snow, the less accommodating the bump approach. So while it's nice to say "just turn wherever", I would suggest that tactical approaches are sometimes necessary in order to have a nice, flowing run (though I agree it's good to have that general capacity). The goal for me in this thread was to explore a somewhat nasty bump shape and find a few feasible approaches. So basically mission accomplished.
 

James

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IMG_4433.JPG

Roughly. It's a finger on a phone...
With the green we don't really know what's on the left.
This is May?
 

David Chaus

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To follow this idea of "you should be able to ski anything well and it's cheating to pick the easy way through", would you suggest dropping over a 20ft cornice rather than choosing the skiable terrain right beside it?

I would argue that there are certain bump shapes that don't present a very good approach. (e.g. Bumps with aggressive faces that lack a transition; diamond-shaped bumps) And the firmer the snow, the less accommodating the bump approach. So while it's nice to say "just turn wherever", I would suggest that tactical approaches are sometimes necessary in order to have a nice, flowing run (though I agree it's good to have that general capacity). The goal for me in this thread was to explore a somewhat nasty bump shape and find a few feasible approaches. So basically mission accomplished.

I’m thinking, just ski the line you want, the way you want to. If an examiner specifically asks you how you’d handle that particular bump, you can then describe a tactic you’d utilize. They may even say, left take the lift up and see a few turns doing just that.

And FWIW, they are not judging each and every turn you make, but rather if you are consistently demonstrating the skills sets they are testing for over the length of a run, so you can make a mistake or two, or even fall, and pass an exam. So I hear.
 

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