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PETER HALEY | The NEWS
TRIBUNE

-- As his knees rise to absorb the shock,
instructor Dino Haak keeps his weight over his 'outside'
or downhill ski while going over a mogul at Alpental ski
area. While his thighs and knees work furiously to keep
skis in contact with the snow, the expert skier's torso
traces a smoother path through space.

Mogul zen

SKIP CARD; The News Tribune

Ski instructor Dino Haak watches me bumble down a field of bumpy
moguls, then speaks with the patience of a zen master advising a
novice.

"You want to be in harmony with your run," Haak tells me. "Moguls
are narrowing the whole thing down to the moment - the 'I am' and 'I
do.'"

I have come to the mountain seeking enlightenment. It has
appeared in the form of Haak, a 6-foot-1 German-born feng shui
practitioner who speaks five languages, holds a master's degree in
geography and sings in a band called Father.

When he's not designing harmonious spaces or composing bilingual
ballads, the 33-year-old Haak teaches intermediate skiers like me
how to ski better. He specializes in helping people through moguls,
the rounded humps that form as skiers carve swerving troughs down
snow-covered slopes.

More than anything else at a ski resort, moguls (a term coined by
combining the first letters of the words mountains and gullies)
reveal which skiers are experts and which ones are just pretending.
Good skiers like Haak race through moguls gracefully. Average skiers
like me don't.

In a daylong lesson, Haak schools me on what I must do to ski the
bumps. My problems are typical of most intermediate skiers, he said.
I just need to remember a few basic rules and take a holistic view -
and maybe stop sticking out my hips like some street hussy.

Lesson One: Prepare the body

Few aspects of skiing are more physically punishing than moguls,
Haak said.

"When you do mogul skiing, you're going to

experience all sorts of strains on your body - more than regular
skiing," he warns. Skiers who spent last summer on the couch
watching the Mariners will soon curse their weak legs and inflexible
joints.

At the least, skiers should stretch their quadriceps and calves,
as Haak always does before skiing. Haak also suggests warming up
with one or two easy runs before hitting the bumps.

Lesson Two: Use the right tool

Most skis sold now have an hourglass shape, and the latest design
craze is for fatter skis with more surface area. Neither is
particularly helpful in mogul skiing.

Long, fat skis can be cumbersome in the valleys between moguls,
Haak said. Shaped skis with too much of an hourglass figure
sometimes resist tight turns.

Haak likes skis that are "not too long, not too shaped." Haak's
mogul skis reach only to his nose when he stands them on end, and he
said Europe's top mogul skiers favor straight skis with hardly any
shape. I look at my new skis, a pair of fashionably fat K2 Escapes
that rise just over my head. I begin to worry.

Lesson Three: Basic truths

At the top of the chairlift, Haak motions me to follow him to a
slope that has been groomed free of bumps, his standard start to any
mogul lesson.

"Everything we learn in the even terrain applies in the moguls,"
he said.

We reach the groomed slope, I perform a few turns, and Haak
immediately spots what's wrong. I've forgotten the basics.

Haak patiently reminds me of all the things my first-year ski
instructors drilled into my head: Lean forward, never backward.
Plant a ski pole to begin your turn. Keep the knees flexible. Pivot
at the hips and try to move the hips across the hill. Try to keep
the upper body facing downhill - and if you can't, at least look
downhill.

"If I look downhill, I can only get my body so far in the wrong
direction," he said.

Of the basic truths, the most profound is to lean forward, Haak
said. While turning through steep terrain, leaning forward while
facing downhill, the skier's weight automatically is positioned
directly over what instructors call the "outside" ski - the one on
the downhill side during a sweeping turn.

"You always want to have the most pressure on the inside edge of
your outside or downhill ski," Haak said. I heed his advice, forcing
myself uncomfortably forward, and am rewarded with a greater sense
of control.

A few more practice runs, more reminders and some drills, and
we're ready to try some moguls.

Lesson Four: Seek tranquility

Haak skis through some moguls to demonstrate proper form. His
legs rise and fall like shock absorbers over the uneven terrain, but
his torso remains nearly motionless.

"When I do my legwork, my upper body should not be affected,"
Haak said. A mogul skier's legs and knees may work like crazy, he
said, "but the upper body should stay calm."

Haak urges skiers to visualize balancing full glasses of water
atop their shoulders as they ski through the bumps. Ideally, if the
legs are doing all the up-and-down movements, neither glass should
spill a drop.

I try it. Several good bumps later, my imaginary glasses are
empty. I have a long way to go.

Lesson Five: Turn, turn turn

Skiers don't have to always go up and over moguls. Often, they
follow a curving path that snakes amid the bumps like a drop of
water rolling downhill.

To accomplish that, Haak tells me, I must learn to turn quickly
on my skis - quicker than anyone can turn if carving on a ski's
metal edge. He tells me to make neutral "base turns," flat-footed
pivots in which no edge grips the snow.

I try, but the base turns don't come easy. Up to now, carving
turns using an edge was the whole idea behind my skiing. I vow to
practice. My path to enlightenment grows longer.

Lesson Six: In tune with Earth

Haak and I try some more moguls, but my performance is
inconsistent. I find my rhythm for a moment but soon lose it in the
uneven terrain. The rules sometimes seem in conflict with the
mountain - theoretical prescriptions that sometimes don't mesh with
reality.

Haak understands.

"Mogul skiing is continually adjusting," he said. "All these
rules get blurred in some sense when you're fully in the
moguls."

I watch Haak snake rapidly down the mogul field. At times he
follows the troughs between the moguls, other times he pivots atop
their crests. He mixes sweeping arcs with a series of rapid, tight
turns. At the bottom of the hill, he's not even breathing hard.

"It's really about being in harmony with the environment," he
said. "Go with the mountain. A good skier knows how to adjust to the
terrain. Too much attacking, you expend too much energy.

"Use as little muscle as necessary, as little movement as
necessary," he said. "The smoother the movement, the more stylish
will be your run."

Lesson Seven: Find the zone

Haak is profoundly encouraging. By the end of my lesson he tells
me I am learning fast and making rapid progress.

With more time or more lessons, Haak would urge me to tap into
the flow of the ski slope. He said he tries to achieve a mogul
mind-set "where nothing else counts but this moment, where I'm at
one with what I'm doing right now."

At such moments, a skier like Haak can virtually be at one with
the moguls, his body rapidly yet gracefully reacting to every high
and low. Poles punch the snow with precision. Knees rise and fall
like pistons. Skis hug the contoured slope.

"Ultimately what happens is you don't have time to think. It's
all reaction," Haak said. "You do it intuitively. Forget about what
you're doing. Just do it."

The master has spoken.

Skip Card: 253-597-8655
[email-masked]

Seeking a master?

Skiers who want to improve their mogul technique can schedule
private lessons.

The Summit at Snoqualmie's Summit Learning Center charges $55 for
one hour and $95 for two hours of private instruction. For each
additional person, add $25 per hour. Private lessons must be
scheduled at least 48 hours in advance. For reservations, call
425-434-6700.

Crystal Mountain's Ski & Snowboard School charges $65 for one
hour, $120 for two hours, $175 for three hours and $330 for a full
day of private instruction. Rates are for one or two people; for
each additional person add $10 per hour. To arrange lessons, call
360-663-3030 or send an e-mail to lessons@
skicrystal.com.

(Published 12:30AM,
February 20th, 2003)

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