In the 25+ page Percentage of skiers that can carve a turn thread there's a bunch of discussion of whether strong carving skills leads to being able to ski other terrain proficiently with some difference of opinion. This got me thinking about my own skiing, the tools and techniques I try to use in different terrain and what is most challenging to me. I hoping this thread can be more about what terrain you struggle with most, why and a sharing of ideas on how you're addressing those issues.
For me, like many others, it's the single or double black, moderately steep bump runs with big moguls that I find most difficult to ski well. The constantly changing demand on fore-aft balance is the challenge for me. Trying to be more proactive rather than reactive to the bumps seems to be helpful. What that means for me is starting tall and actively flexing my knees and ankles to absorb the mogul. If I relax my knees and let the mogul push on on my feet I find it frequently knocks me into the back seat. I think of it as more of an active process and trying to catch the mogul with my feet and legs much like catching a medicine ball thrown to you by actively bringing the weight of the ball into your body with your hands and arms. Then on the backside of the mogul I push my tips down on the snow to maintain ski-snow contact, try to keep my shoulders/chest moving forward to topple and get tall again. Focusing on raising my tails or heels to my butt to helps although too much of it results in more of a hopping movement. On flat terrain working on dolphin turns has been helpful, although my toenails don't like them. My bump skiing is definitely a work in progress and yes, more than any other terrain, the moguls prove it.
I'll tell you my mogul journey in hopes that it may help you in steep double black bumps. I approached learning to ski the moguls quite the opposite as most--that is from the steeps first.
A bit of background - I had been a XC and a XCD ( cross country downhill ) backcountry skier before my foray into alpine skiing, that was many moons ago now. I only got interested in alpine because of a series of snow drought years that left me jonesing for sliding on snow- I figure I'd go to where they made snow if I had to. Once I got into alpine lift served skiing I enjoyed the challenge of it, but also always had my eye on developing skills for steep backcounty lines. I had been deep into telemark skiing, and through several backcountry clinics you learn that you can ski steep terrain even with only a moderate level of skill. Backcountry touring is about the up as much as the down. You can learn techniques to get down anything. Obviously, an intermediate skier armed with those techniques doesn't necessarily look like a flowing expert skier, but you'll get down safely.
At the same time, I also got myself into alpine ski racing. The racers I was hanging with didn't really care to ski moguls, they only wanted to practice their race carves when not in the gates. I enjoyed racing, but also longed to ski the rest of the mountain, so unlike them I did both.
The more I got into lift served alpine skiing, the more I wanted to ski the biggest steepest lines I could, and
started traveling to ski the toughest stuff I could even as only an intermediate back then. You see, the steeps didn't scare me from my experience with skiing them in leather boots and free heel gear. But one thing you get on steep terrain at lift served areas that you may not experience in the backcountry is moguls. And if it hasn't snowed any significant amount in the past number of weeks, those bumps can be quite big and gnarly.
So I had to learn to negotiate big bumps on steep terrain before I learned to bump ski on lower angle bump runs. In fact, for many years, lower angle bump runs confounded me while I was perfectly at home on steep bump runs.
Big bumps on steep terrain ( think stuff off of Deep Termerity at Highlands, T3 and Alta chutes at JH, for example) present an opportunity that lower angle bumps don't-- by nature of the angle of the slope, the face of the bumps present a flat spot, a table, a stair step so to speak. On lower angle bumps, the face of the bump is often sticking up at you like a sideways shark fin. On the steep moguls, my approach was to stop or pause on each face ( stair steep ) of the mogul using a deep flex of ankles, knees. and hip, and at the same time a strong edge set, and angulated and countered and disciplined upper body over down hill edge--coupled with a strong down hill pole plant. Stopping or pausing on the face is critical, especially if it's icy. Then ski down through the trough extending as you do, and then up to the next mogul's face and flex and pause again. As I got better, the pause became shorter and shorter until I was linking turns in that terrain.
You have to be really good at short carved turns and being able to stop on a dime anywhere within the turn cycle, so I'd practice that everywhere I could outside of that steep mogully terrain. Hop and jump turns are good to practice also. Retraction turns are must. The old pedal turn for steeps is good to know too.
You mentioned "Focusing on raising my tails or heels to my butt to helps although too much of it results in more of a hopping movement. " that's fine in steep moguls. Sometimes a hop is fine as long as it's not throwing you off balance. These days, I often hop off the top of steep moguls, but again you need skills to do it so you remain in dynamic balance.
I think if you approach steep mogul skiing as a different discipline than lower angle bump skiing it helps. Don't think of zipper lining the steeps. If you already have lower angle bump skiing, you're ahead of the game, but you need a different mindset for the steeps. Take it slow, one turn at a time. Soon you'll be linking and flowing turns down the steep mogully terrain, but one needs to do the work of getting the new skill set first.
Hope that helps, if not, ignore it--it's free advice after all.
