How do I ski the bumps in tele??!!

[WorldMogul]

For your journey into the bumps...ski one mogul, then traverse a few until you get you your bearings back, then ski the next mogul. As you progress shorten your traverses.

[Montana St Alum]

Resort-orientated tele gear is evolving to not promote building this skill set. Although good for edge control...heavier, bulkier, stiffer is not conducive to being light on your feet. If one has the means, then perhaps drilling with 3-pins may be helpful in developing a "light-footed" skill set. Then use these skills with the more aggressive gear.

I can tele the moguls well (usually trying to do zippers) on k2 world piste skis, g3 targa bindings and garmont synergy boots. I love this set up because it feels very light. I have never tried NTN/ or stiffer burlier equipment. Would skiing zippers on the newer resort- oriented tele gear be easier or harder than my set up? Thanks!

IME, going from something like a G3/3 buckle to a Meidjo/4 buckle doesn't feel like much of an "upgrade", until you go back. Same with going from a 10+ year old ski to a new ski. As good as the World Pistes were, and they were very good, the fiberglass and wood fibers have long ago broken down so even if you went to a brand new pair of World Pistes - impossible, sadly, at this point! - it would be a huge difference! Plus you probably have severe boot rocker by this point. NTN effectively eliminates that.

In my case, mostly what I got were improvements in edge hold and an increase in endurance because the equipment requires less work, if only slightly. Plus, I really like step in and ski brakes!

I went from G3's and Syner-G's on World Pistes - your exact set up - after tearing cables on the G3's a couple of times. But I thought it was a good set up. If you went to an NTN set up, I'd definitely start out with as neutral a setting as possible, for sure. I'm definitely quicker, with more endurance now than I was on the World Pistes back in the day, even being 10 years older and creeping up on 70. And the improvement in the ability to carve turns on NTN is profound.

On a very neutral set up it's very easy to pull a foot back to get into position. That makes it easier to be "quick" so to speak. On a more active set up, it's much more necessary to push the front ski forward by pressuring the cuff on the rear foot. That's an adaptation that comes very quickly, though, as long as you understand what is needed and once you figure that out you can still pull the foot back to get into position so you don't lose that option, it just requires a bit more force.

Typically, what I see from people switching to a more active set up is that they get into the tele stance, but before the end of the turn the rear foot pops forward because they're not used to the necessity of pressuring the rear cuff.

I probably haven't described that adequately, but the bottom line is that I ski the bumps way better now, on NTN than I ever did on the set up you're using and can often non-stop runs that alpine skiers have to rest on. But, there is a transition period that I'm sure you would have no trouble overcoming if you were to switch.

Another advantage is that, because pressure starts immediately (no boot rocker, better initial pressure response) you don't need to get as much fore/aft distance. This reduction in distance saves a measurable amount of time going edge to edge and speeds up the turn transitions. Once you get used to that you can also adjust the boot forward lean to a slightly more upright stance. I've adjusted my Tx Pros upright one notch and it helps with a more upright stance, putting more weight through my skeleton Vs. muscles.
As a great fighter pilot once said, "If you're not cheating, you're not trying".

[Matthew C]

WOW! I am new to telemarktalk and am very appreciative of all the feedback. Thank you! Couple more things... what should my weight ratio be? I have been told everything from 70% on the front ski and 30% on the rear following ski, to 50%/50%. And, should I "focus" more on the lead ski than the rear ski? Remember, these questions are for bump skiing or steep terrain. I tele the blues well, just trying to get to next level. All of the feedback will help me I know!! Geer- I'm on K2 Back Up 162's with Targa T3 and some old Garmont Synergy boots. Starter set up.

[Montana St Alum]

WOW! I am new to telemarktalk and am very appreciative of all the feedback. Thank you! Couple more things... what should my weight ratio be? I have been told everything from 70% on the front ski and 30% on the rear following ski, to 50%/50%. And, should I "focus" more on the lead ski than the rear ski? Remember, these questions are for bump skiing or steep terrain. I tele the blues well, just trying to get to next level. All of the feedback will help me I know!! Geer- I'm on K2 Back Up 162's with Targa T3 and some old Garmont Synergy boots. Starter set up.

It's highly variable. Off the top of my head, it seems that I have more weight on the front foot skiing the bumps than on groomers. It could be one of those "it depends" answers, as skiing the bumps is so dynamic.

[WorldMogul]

My thoughts on ski weighting...after you are coming onto the front (or 'landing zone') of a mogul, you want to lighten the front ski so you can compress...after you come around that mogul and are starting for the next one, extend and get more weight on the front ski quickly (to turn and to get speed control) because speed control will be hard to achieve as you lightening and getting ready to compress for the following bump.

I have no idea on exact percentages, but if the back ski is squirrely, then you need more weight on it.

[mzimpfer]

This site is worth a visit if you are not familiar with it. It has lots of good tele instructional stuff including mogul technique.

https://shop.absolutetelemark.com/

There are so many factors in mogul skiing, that it is hard to know where to start, but a few things always count a lot

You must be competent with good, relatively quick short radius turns before you go into moguls
You have to keep your weight balanced fore/aft - not in back seat
Torso must remain relatively square to fall line.
You can't let your hands get dragged behind you after pole plant
You have to learn to edge your skis very gently
I helps to do big rounded, low edge turns wide of the trough - see "the blue line" video on bumps for boomers youtube
Practice, practice practice

[Woodserson]

This site is worth a visit if you are not familiar with it. It has lots of good tele instructional stuff including mogul technique.

https://shop.absolutetelemark.com/

There are so many factors in mogul skiing, that it is hard to know where to start, but a few things always count a lot

You must be competent with good, relatively quick short radius turns before you go into moguls
You have to keep your weight balanced fore/aft - not in back seat
Torso must remain relatively square to fall line.
You can't let your hands get dragged behind you after pole plant
You have to learn to edge your skis very gently
I helps to do big rounded, low edge turns wide of the trough - see "the blue line" video on bumps for boomers youtube
Practice, practice practice

All fantastic advice right here! Welcome to freeheel nerdom, mzimpfer!

[bauerb]

in my experience, the hardest part of skiing moguls is knowing how to ski moguls...the hardest part is not using Tele gear in moguls. if you don't know how to negotiate bumps properly, it doesn't matter what's strapped to your feet. I'm making this point because there are lots ox explainer vids for alpine skiing moguls. watch those first, learn how to pick your line and where to turn on or around each bump. once you have that part sorted, its all about fast feet and ( in my opinion) using less pronounced tele turns. sure you can ski moguls slowly with your rear foot trailing 3 feet behind you, but you can't ski moguls fast that way...you don't have time to transition the leg through that much motion

[lowangle al]

in my experience, the hardest part of skiing moguls is knowing how to ski moguls...the hardest part is not using Tele gear in moguls. if you don't know how to negotiate bumps properly, it doesn't matter what's strapped to your feet. I'm making this point because there are lots ox explainer vids for alpine skiing moguls. watch those first, learn how to pick your line and where to turn on or around each bump. once you have that part sorted, its all about fast feet and ( in my opinion) using less pronounced tele turns. sure you can ski moguls slowly with your rear foot trailing 3 feet behind you, but you can't ski moguls fast that way...you don't have time to transition the leg through that much motion

That's good advice all the way around, especially the tight stance for quick transitions.

[Montana St Alum]

in my experience, the hardest part of skiing moguls is knowing how to ski moguls...the hardest part is not using Tele gear in moguls. if you don't know how to negotiate bumps properly, it doesn't matter what's strapped to your feet. I'm making this point because there are lots ox explainer vids for alpine skiing moguls. watch those first, learn how to pick your line and where to turn on or around each bump. once you have that part sorted, its all about fast feet and ( in my opinion) using less pronounced tele turns. sure you can ski moguls slowly with your rear foot trailing 3 feet behind you, but you can't ski moguls fast that way...you don't have time to transition the leg through that much motion

Yep. Strategy is critical.
Some of the videos tend to concentrate on the techniques used by world cup skiers in mogul fields specifically designed, and manually constructed, for competition. This can be a bit of a disservice to the rest of humanity. In the last 3 weeks or so (and yearly) we at Deer Valley have been inundated with World Cup competitors who sometimes "slum it" among us mortals. It's really instructive to see that they do not ski organically created moguls that way.

That's a technique that really does involve dropping from trough to trough. Real world requires a more variable strategy of mixing that up with carved turns outside the troughs. That's what they end up doing in the real world.

On a bit of a side note, most all of my skiing is above 8000 feet. There's a technique used in mountaineering called "pressure breathing". It's something that we used flying fighters and I've re-incorporated it into mountain biking as well. Using it while skiing the bumps definitely increases my aerobic capacity and I can usually non-stop sections I used to have to stop on.

https://www.livestrong.com/article/3937 ... technique/

They mention it as a way of increasing the speed at which you shed CO2, but it also increases oxygen uptake across the membranes in the alveola.