Bumps (or "moguls") on a ski slope can delight or frustrate. Personally, I love them, but I know that most skiers don’t, which is natural if they have a hard time skiing them. Even if these skiers don’t have a hard time turning, they may have a hard time feeling and staying poised and comfortable from turn to turn to turn.
The reason bumps exist at all is because any little high spot or lump on the slope, serving as a natural pivot point, facilitates turning your skis. Skiers figure this out early and use bumps (whether they enjoy bump skiing or not) to trigger or launch their turns. The real problem comes in putting it all together, staying in balance on a moguled slope, controlling your speed in the limited space available, and arriving at the end of one bump turn poised, comfortable, and ready for the next. In a word, finishing a bump turn well is harder than starting that turn.
Start your bump turns the way you always do--only less so. By this I mean that when you cross over the top of a bump, don’t pivot your skis as hard as you normally do. Trust in the fact that your skis will follow the scraped-out hollow of the bump’s trough. That’s right, the round shape of the turn is already there in the rounded shape of the bump’s gully; all you need to do is let your skis drift. They will follow the curved gully in an arc that brings you around under the bump.
Most skiers who have trouble with bumps simply over pivot their skis on the very top. They complete the entire turning action in the first foot or two and find themselves out of balance, with their skis jammed sideways or crosswise to the gully at its narrowest point. One reason skiers seem to have a hard time just letting their skis drift on down through the gully is an anxiety about picking up too much speed. It’s true, you will go a little faster right in the middle of each turn as you’re coming around the side of the bump. But you will finish each turn underneath the bump, where you’ll have more room to turn your skis sideways without getting them caught in the gully.
So, this should be your basic pattern for comfortable bump skiing: a slow start, pivoting your skis just enough to get them into the turn; a relaxed middle phase drifting around the bump, letting your skis follow the rounded gully; and finally, an active finish below the bump where you actually turn your skis as far across the slope as you want to slow down. Remember, slow down beneath the bump, not in the middle.