skiffie wrote:skijim13 wrote:We get very little bump practice at our mountain because I know if I ski these I will not be using the PMTS movements I learned in the camp and will resort to my old movements. This weekend it will be warm and they should soften up to make them better.
I've always wondered if you can ski the zipper line with PMTS movements. My impression from reading some old posts including by Jay is that the answer is no?
Of course you can use PMTS in the bumps! What specifically do you think is not compatible? In fact PMTS is in many ways more compatible with zipper line bump skiing then any other method out there, because of the simple fact that you flex to release and
transition your CoM across while flexed. This is a key aspect of skiing the bumps well, especially in the zipper and directly opposite of what you will hear at your local PSIA ski school.
Do you tip your skis in the zipper line? Of course! You can't make a ski turn unless you're on your edges! Most likely you're not edge locked carving, but brushed carving. Of course it works!
Do you use counteraction and counter balance in the bumps? absolutely...
I'm not seeing any incompatibilities, nor do I experience in my own skiing any.
The backside vertical drop of bumps is of no consequence whatsoever if you engage your edges and brush carve the top and sides/shoulders of the bumps.
I will say this. For any skier...PMTS or not...skiing deep and treacherous bumps as have been described, is not easy. It requires a lot of things to be happening correctly and the timing to be perfect in order to be in sync with the snow surface that is changing radically underneath you. Its hard enough to master brush carving and the bullet proof short radius turn, much less to have the size and timing of everything exactly matched up to the 3 dimensional terrain passing underneath you, and it becomes even harder if that 3D terrain is irregular with the zipper line non-existant or changing all over the place with closeouts. The simple truth is that sometimes you're going to miss the bump shoulder or whatever and you will probably need to do the dreaded pivot to stay on the zipper. Mind you, I feel a great many skiers out there OVER-use the dreaded pivot, and many bump skiers in particular are missing huge opportunities to brush carve their way through even some very deep trenches with much more control, finesse, balance and grace then hopping and pivoting your way down. The dreaded pivot should be reserved for as a correction device only, most of the time, BPST brushed turns are possible in even the deepest and knurliest bumps. The key is getting the timing right. If you miss the timing, well then...do what you must.
Me personally I find that after I hit a couple bump runs, my PMTS-style groomer performance improves simply because I was forced to flex-release every single turn and eliminate any and all of the dreaded POP.
I will also say that in bumps with poor zipper lines, you have even less of an excuse not to use PMTS or to resort to the dreaded pivot, because you basically can't follow a zipper so its of no consequence, just choose a larger rounder turn shape, and find place to execute smooth BPST brushed turns, they are all over the place in there.