First Try at Skiing Moguls

I practiced moguls on Nanshan Mountain for the first time yesterday and had a pretty good experience, so I’d like to share my thoughts with fellow skiers. As for my background, I’ve been skiing for over ten years now. My first time skiing was at Beidahu, back when there were no ski resorts in Beijing — the first one only opened in Beijing two or three years later. In the past couple of years, I haven’t skied much, just occasionally tried snowboarding. This season, I skied a few times in Chongli. Recently, after seeing online that Nanshan has specially built a run for mogul practice, I decided to give it a try. But enough chit-chat — let me talk about my results first. On the first two runs, I basically fell all the way down. On the third run, I didn’t fall much. The fourth run was a bit bumpy but I managed to get down. By the eighth run, I was skiing down fairly smoothly. I reckon by the twelfth run, I’ll be able to ski down quite fluidly.
In the afternoon, I mostly focused on practicing the basic movements and didn’t push myself too hard on the slopes, so I didn’t see much improvement. Personally, I feel moguls aren’t as difficult as people imagine. If you’ve already mastered the skills of skiing and can handle advanced runs, then practicing ten runs on the intermediate mogul run at Nanshan should allow you to ski moguls quite smoothly. The most crucial aspect of skiing, really, boils down to two words: “control.” Control your direction — keep the skis moving in the direction you want. Control your speed — slow down when it’s too fast, and be able to stop when needed. The same principles apply to moguls.
Here are some of my personal takeaways: 1. Skiing Line (Direction): The final skiing line for moguls is between two moguls, as shown by the red arrow in the image below. If you have good control, you don’t even need to go around the moguls.

2. Controlling Speed (Slowing Down or Stopping): So how do you control your speed? Simply put, it’s through turning, edging, and usingthe tops of the moguls to slow down or stop. You start descending from the top of a mogul, turn while edging, and use the back part of the ski to grip the snow and slow down. In the diagram below: Position 1 is our starting point, angled 45 degrees to the downhill direction, and we begin turning as we start descending.
At Position 2, apply pressure downward while starting to edge and grip the snow. The result of edging is that the snow gives us a reactive force, turning us while also slowing us down.
At Position 3, continue edging, changing direction while also reducing speed. If you’re just starting to practice, you can follow the outer black line to take a wider turn to help control your speed. This way, you can come to a stop at the top of the next mogul. At Position 4, continue edging to slow down. If you want to keep descending, reduce the pressure. If you continue adding pressure and turn the ski sideways, you can come to a stop.
At Position 5, you’ve turned around and your speed has decreased, so you can prepare for another run. When you’re just starting out, you can stop at Position 5, review your movements, and then proceed with the next practice.