Manmade Mogul Fields

AlpineZone

AlpineZone

New member
I posted this already on Epic, but I figured I'd helped jump start things on the new board. Anyways, a number of Northeast resorts are going to be setting up manmade mogul fields this season. Loon created them on a number of blue runs last year and I thoroughly enjoyed them. Often times, bumps on interemediate terrain are erratically spaced, if they even form at all. This new approach results in evenly spaced bumps and I feel it's great approach to let aspiring bumpers practice on blue runs. The intermediate pitch, coupled with evenly spaced bumps will help intermediate bumpers improve and be less intimidated when they find themselves in a natural mogul field.

However, some folks feel it's too "synthetic" and detracts a bit from the natural terrain. What are your thoughts?
 
I'm assuming you mean "seeded" bump fields and I think it is a great idea and wish more resorts would recognize the immediate impact such improvements make to the skiing experience for all involved. Not only do these seeded bump runs give the aspiring bumper or advanced skier a place to learn how to ski bumps, it clears the steeper bump runs out for those who like to turn up the volume and crank down those "natural" runs.
Let's face it, skiers who want to learn how to ski bumps will gravitate to bumps whether they feel comfortable skiing them or not.
 
finally :D some posts with some support for the idea... it's a no brainer... and it's been the height of hipocrisy for far too many on this site to dismiss the idea :evil: ... in the last 5 years of the new school revolution, everyone has been catered to except mogul skiers and aspiring mogul skiers who want to learn the " right way " to ski bumps :? .... no one takes a first time skier and throws them down liftline at stowe to learn... no one takes an aspiring snowboarder and throws them into the superpipe at stratton to learn... no one takes a novice racer and tosses them down an icy black with gates set up.... no one takes an aspiring glade skier and drops into canyon land or beaver pond glades at jay... but moguls.... you get garbage like paulies folly at cannon and ( 75% of the time) lower flume at loon. :roll: even the mighty K last year seemed to throw out all reasonableness and just let the outer limits go au natural even though they proudly sold a post in the K base lodge shop of OL meticulously seeded from top to bottom on the skiers left half side :evil: ....it just makes sense.... in the last 10 years or see we have seen novice glades, recreational nastar race courses, mini pipes, mini booters,.... everything :roll: .. but somehow, people just seem to think the way to learn to ski bumps is to " just go for it baby" :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: while peering over the edge of some ridiculous trail , with scraped off hardpack in between large uneven mounds of rock hard packed in snow every 12 feet or so :roll: ... good for you guys, jimg and alpine zone... hope to see u at loon this year "getting something done" on lower rumrunner....
 
and AZ, no it does not at all detract from the nautural aspect at all.... it preserves it!!!! what it does is make it better on those steep runs for the upper level bumper becasue the lines do not get trashed by aspiring learners... the good mogul skiers can ski the line the way it is supposed to be skied ( vertically not horizontally ) and make it last longer... anyone who claims it is " impure " to seed bump runs, i would assume would also say the same thing about grooming out or salting a race trail, right :? ...the idea/objection is the same.. improving the surface conditions to mazimize the enjoyment of the type of skiing that is being done :wink: if it's ok to groom the big race trail or groom the pipe, then it sure as hell is ok to " groom " the bumps too!!!! and the thing is, it works... there were more people skiing the blue line bump run at loon last year then i have ever seen trying bumps before at loon...and if theere is any place that it " terrain challenged " as far as skier to skiable acreage ratio's , it's loon.. if they found a way to give up some trails for maintained bumps , then there is no reason every ski area can't find one blue run for it also 8)
 
When I shop for a mountian to take a trip to, either day tripping or longer, one of my requirements is a decent variety of bump and natural terrain. If a mountain doesn't have a moderate bump trail to practice on, it doesn't go on my list. Same with glades and parks as well. 60 foot booters are cool and important to have, as are trails like the Tramline, but no one is going to hit that 60'er without working up to it. Ditto the Tramline - you can't ski it until you have learned the skills. You won't learn anything by throwing yourself down carelessly. Hopefully, mountians will realize that the reason so many people go to larger mountains is for the variety of challenges - not for miles of generic blue ballrooms.
 
I agree that intermediate mogul fields are important. But that said, I can understand why resorts are reluctant to provide much in this way -- based on my experience, there doesn't seem to be a huge amount of demand.

Why is this? Well, there's a huge demand for groomed intermediate terrain because lots of skiers get to this level and have no desire to advance further and thus ski intermediate terrain forever. Hence, lots of demand. But almost everyone who wants to learn to ski bumps doesn't want to just learn how to ski intermediate bumps. They're aspiring experts, or at least they're the type of people who have the desire to keep learning and improving and will not be intermediate bump skiers for long. So while there's a need for some easy bump runs for these people to learn the ropes on, very few people will want to ski them for long.

My experience is pretty typical of my friends -- I learned to ski bumps at mad river and appreciated relatively "easy" bump trails like catamount bowl, etc, for maybe 10-15 ski days while I was learning the ropes. But nowadays I feel absolutely no need for them. I'm not objecting to the occasional change of pace, but if there were x number of bump runs I'd prefer as many as possible to be "expert" and not intermediate.
 
joegm":3m5g97ey said:
hope to see u at loon this year "getting something done" on lower rumrunner....
Click to expand...
Likewise. I'll be at Loon for a week in March. The bumps they set up on Sunset are sweet too! I agree with much of your posts, especially the point about seeded inmediate bump runs preserving the advanced bump runs. Jiminy Peak is going to have some seeded runs as well as Windham in New York. I hope more mountains adopt this approach!
 
Windham has had a seeded bump line for years, since the early to mid 90's. Problem at that hill is that there is a general lack of steeper terrain and "expert" bump trails are hard to come by there.
 
Sunapee just responded to the challenge on my site and indicated they've been seeding bumps for 6 years. I think I recall reading somewhere that Waschusett also seeds bump runs. Let's list all areas that we know of that does this. I believe Catamount does it on their Catamount trail down by the base. I skied there a few seasons ago and they were very evenly spaced. Any others?
 
there are 2 keys to doing this and unless both are in effect , it makes it a waste of time...
1) having a cat operator that knows how to cut them in properly and knows how do make them super tight in the begining
2) having the ski area commit to knocking them down every 3 to 4 weeks and resetting them again... otherwise they just get trashed and rutted out.
 
seeded bumps would definitely be a terrific addition to almost any ski area. especially in conjunction with the whole nu-skool stuff going on in the park. a seeded bump run with a few hits like they have in competitions would seem a logical extension of the park.

i surely would have loved a few intermediate seeded bump runs a few years back when i first started getting off the groomers. i probably would have progressed quicker and with a little less pain. as pointed out before, those learning how to ski bumps generally have to throw themselves down steep black diamonds and either sink or swimming. a lot more people would swim in the bumps if they started out on intermediate pitches with seeded bumps.

what i would not want to see happen is natural bumps be sacrificed to create seeded bump runs. i think the two can occur in conjuction. especially with a grooming style that allows wider trails to go half bumps/half groomed. this allows a ski area to retain the groomer while also catoring to the bumper.

bravo to the areas going in this direction and here's hoping more areas will follow suit.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top