Top honors go to Mary Jane at Winter Park. Photo courtesy Winter Park Resort.
Last week, I posted a totally random, unofficial and completely non-scientific list of North America’s favorite groomed runs, as determined from responses on social media.
Today, I’m excited to unveil the Bumps portion of our poll.
If You’re Thinking Bumps, You’re Thinking Colorado
At first, I thought something must be wrong. Almost every response we got from queries on Facebook and Twitter named a run in Colorado. I wondered if we were only polling loyal residents of the Centennial State. Nope. It turns out then bumps and Colorado simply go well together.
Mary Jane, one of the seven territories at Winter Park, is undeniably the mogul capitol of North America. And while some qualified their nominations, “Mary Jane front side has the best bumps – until they turn into Volkswagens,” others were quite specific sharing that “Any of the runs off of Derailleur are good for heart-throbbing bumps.”
One person even suggested a warm-up run: Over ‘n Underwood in the Winter Park territory.
Mary Jane’s famous moguls. Photo courtesy Winter Park Resort.
Just a few mentions behind Mary Jane were three runs at Vail: Prima into Pronto, Highline and Look Ma and Pallavicini at Arapahoe Basin. An epic mogul run on the front side of A Basin, skiing Pali is a point of pride among Coloradans. It’s just something you have to do.
Riding Pallavicini at A Basin. Photo courtesy Arapahoe Basin.
Other Colorado faves? White Out, Storm Peak and Nelson’s at Steamboat, along with numerous runs on Beaver Creek’s Grouse Mountain.
Lake Tahoe: The Gunbarrel and More
If Pallavicini is one of Colorado’s de rigueur runs, Heavenly’s Gunbarrel is the California equivalent. The inspiration behind countless freestyle skiing careers (think Wayne Wong, John Clendendin, Glenn Plake and Jonny Moseley), Gunbarrel is also the home of the annual Gunbarrel 25 — 25 consecutive laps down this monster. Jelly legs, anyone?
My photo of Gunbarrel at Heavenly.
Other popular Lake Tahoe bump runs include Little Dipper, an intermediate option at Heavenly, Sierra-At-Tahoe’s Dynamite, Lookout Janek at Kirkwood, and the countless lines off of Squaw Valley’s famous KT 22.
Local Picks in the Northeast
Killington’s Outer Limits and Superstar runs received, by far, the most shouts in the East. Home of the annual Bear Mountain Mogul Challenge, Outer Limits is steep, tough and long. Superstar isn’t much easier, but is a bit less steep.
Superstar at Killington. Notice where everyone is NOT skiing! Photo courtesy Killington.
If slushy springtime bumps are more to your liking, check out Shock Wave at Sunday River.
The East is chock full of fun local mountains, and lots of respondents had lots of good things to say about their nearby hills.
For skiers and riders learning to ski bumps, Belleayre in New York’s Catskill Mountains is a “perfect place,” thanks to runs of “progressive difficulty right next to each other.”
Bumps at Belleayre: Yahoo. Photo courtesy Belleayre.
Other New York favorites include Northface at Plattekill and Annapurna at Hunter Mountain, while up in New Hampshire, True Grit at Waterville Valley made our list.
Bumps at Mt Norquay, Alberta during the Mountain Smoker competition on Lone Pine. The record is 24 laps.
Bilingual Bumps in Canada
Last week, Whistler Blackcomb’s Dave Murray run, was called out as one of the best groomers in North America. This week, we’re shouting out three bump runs: In Deep, Gear Jammer and Gnarly Knots.
Have you skied Mt. Norquay in Banff National Park? I haven’t, but I certainly want to after reading this comment: “Don’t forget anything off the North American lift. Bumps, bumps, bumps – and they get bigger all season. It is some of the steepest, bumpiest terrain out there.”
Yep, looks that way!
Mogul skiing, in French, is “ski de bosses” and there are plenty of bosses in Québec. At Mont-Sainte-Anne, near Québec City, the twin runs La S and La Super S were nominated, and while La Super S is usually groomed, La S is always moguls.
Photo courtesy Mont-Sainte-Anne.
Another bump run to look for when you’re skiing en français, is Sous Bois at Mont Sutton.
What’s Your Pleasure? Help Us Build the List!
As I said, there was nothing scientific about the way this list was compiled. So join in and share your favorite groomed runs — from anywhere in North America.
Thanks!
Portions of this post originally published at Liftopia.com on October 30, 2014. Also many thanks to the Ski Divas at theskidiva.com forum who are always happy and willing to share their opinions! Cheers.
Related Posts:
- The Biggest, Best Ski Lift Views in North America, April 4, 2014.
- An Unofficial, Totally Random List of the Best Groomed Ski Runs in North America, March 23, 2014.
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