Watch out! Moving Ski Moguls.

By: Aaron Robbins

This article is part of Blog Tahoe’s Mogul Week 2008.

What’s a mogul?

Before we start talking about the migratory habits of moguls it’s probably a good idea to briefly explain what a mogul is.

A mogul, when referred to in the context of ski terrain, is firm mound snow generally caused by the repetitive descent patterns of skiers on un-groomed slopes. A bunch of moguls together is typically referred to as a mogul field or mogul run. Moguls are generally one of the tougher types of ski terrain to master. Mogul skiing has several competitive circuits and has been an official event of the Winter Olympics since 1988.

Moving Moguls

Moguls are hard to ski properly. Adding to the difficulty is the fact that ski moguls actually move. Okay, so the movement of moguls isn’t really fast enough to raise their difficulty level. In fact their movement is so slow it’s almost impossible to see with out a time lapse camera. Given that moguls do move over the course of a season, which direction would you say they move? Uphill or downhill? Think about it for a second. Although people tend to think moguls are pushed down the hill, over the course of a few months moguls actually migrate up a ski slope. How exactly?

How Moguls Move

Moguls move upwards because of gravity and force. It seems weird to say something moves uphill because of gravity (which is universally known to pull things down). In this case gravity is still functioning as you’d expect and it pulls both skier and snow down the hill, but heres what happens to the mound (or mogul). As the skier comes over the top of the mogul his or her skis carve snow off the backside of the mogul and gravity in addition to the force of the skis push some of the mogul’s backside down and into the uphill side of the mogul directly below. So, snow is removed from the back of one mogul and added to the front of the mogul below it. This removing from the back and adding to the front process is what actually causes the mogul to move uphill. Here’s an illustration to help clear up what I am sure was an overly simplified and confusing explanation.

Here is a movie documenting the moving moguls in more detail.

Stay updated by subscribing to the BlogTahoe.com RSS Feed.