Mogul Research: How Do Moguls Form?
Our mogul runs are the best in the world, and we take pride in our long, perfect rows of bumps. The Jane has such awesome runs that a group of scientists asked if they could come up and study our moguls. Say what? Yup. They're that good, and the scientists unlocked some pretty cool secrets from Mary Jane.
Secret number 1?
Smoothest and nicest bumps in the world, period. That's the Jane, consistently rated the best bumps anywhere. Oh wait! That's not really a secret at all. You knew that already, but it turns out those scientists have to prove everything, so they were more than happy to confirm all that awesomeness for us. They tell us that there is a real scientific reason why all the good mogul skiers at the Jane make our bumps the smoothest in the world. Keep reading below for the details.
Real secret number 2?
Ok, you ready for this? Moguls move uphill. Umm, COME AGAIN? You heard us, uphill. And those scientists proved it right here at Mary Jane. Those awesome bumps are in a perpetual migration moving up the mountain like an escalator. You ski down, the bumps move up, and we've got the video to prove it.
Extra-special secret number 3?
Beer makes the moguls go uphill. Sweeeet, now you're talking! Ok, we're half kidding, but only half. You'll have to read the rest to find out why.
Way cool, show me!
This video comes from pictures taken at the same time every day from December through April on Riflesight Notch, one of our marquee bump runs right underneath the Super Gauge Express 6-pack. We get a lot of awesome powder days, so our scientists had to weed out a lot of pictures obscured by snowstorms, but once they picked the blue-bird days, they had enough frames to build this movie. Stand back just a bit, and you'll quickly see that the bumps are moving from the bottom right to the top left – that's uphill.
YouTube video of moguls moving uphill from David Bahr, Institute of Arctic
and Alpine Research, University of Colorado.
Explain the uphill movement please.
It's simple. Skiers push snow down the mountain by scraping it off the downhill side of a bump, but simultaneously they pile the snow onto the uphill side of the following bump. Each mogul, therefore, loses snow on the downhill side but gains new snow on the uphill side. The sweet, wild and crazy result is that the bumps migrate uphill.
Nice, I want more details.
Ok, we also wanted more details, so we asked our scientists, and here's what they said. Everyone knows that snow moves downward like rainwater – flakes fall from the sky, avalanches move down mountains, glaciers flow downhill, and with every turn, skiers push snow down the runs at the Jane. But bumps are different because they move backwards and uphill to organize themselves into neatly-placed, easily visible rows. Take another look at Riflesight Notch. Notice the cool rows shown by the dashed lines?
Ok, we also wanted more details, so we asked our scientists, and here's what they said. Everyone knows that snow moves downward like rainwater – flakes fall from the sky, avalanches move down mountains, glaciers flow downhill, and with every turn, skiers push snow down the runs at the Jane. But bumps are different because they move backwards and uphill to organize themselves into neatly-placed, easily visible rows. Take another look at Riflesight Notch. Notice the cool rows shown by the dashed lines?
The neatly lined-up rows look as if someone placed them there on purpose. Well, some folks say that a whole bunch of Volkswagens were buried under there by the Jane's devoted bump skiers. Nice idea, and you made our scientists laugh. Ok, so maybe hay bales or plastic domes under there? Ummm, much more laughter from the scientists. Nope, the bumps just spontaneously organize with no "traffic directions" or feedback from the Jane's groomers or from the skiers. When the bumps move uphill they get in line like a marching band. If any bump tries to move out of line, our expert skiers scrape the bump until it gets back into perfect position. Our scientists tell us that's why our bump runs really are the smoothest and best in the world. Our dedicated and great skiers keep them lined up beautifully.
Now stop making our scientists laugh. They have beards, and they are wicked-good bump skiers. When they laugh it scares us, and it detracts from their tidy lab coat and nerd image. We can't have that.
Remember secret number 3? Beer!
Mmmmm, beer, finally, as promised. Turns out our scientists are humans (who knew?) and hang out in The Club Car for a beer after skiing all day. Well ok, maybe they hang after just a run or two. Depends on the day, you know? Anyway, they wondered just how much energy it takes to move all those moguls uphill. And energy is just calories, and calories are just beer, so the next thing you know they had calculated the number of beers it takes to move those moguls uphill.
Answer? Takes about half a beer to move a mogul one yard, and they can move up to 10 yards in a season. That's five beers per mogul. There are a LOT of moguls out there, so you might want to claim a seat at The Club Car and help do your part to move them uphill.
With all those moguls to move, we asked our scientists to buckle down and crunch the numbers. Turns out, it takes a thousand beers just to move Riflesight Notch. Whoa, that's just one of our many, many awesome runs. Skiing just got a whole lot more refreshing.
Check out the original science: Like we said, we've helped support scientists that visit and do research from the University of Colorado, Colorado State University, and Regis University in Denver to name just a few. A lot of their work is serious stuff and involves cutting-edge research on water resources and exercise science. If you want to see their official scientific publication complete with the equations and all the cool details about their study at the Jane, it's available in the November 2009 issue ofPhysics Today. THANKS to David Bahr for providing the information above.