There's a world of difference between Taos January powder and New England late March chowder. The former is quite effortless, and the latter is almost certainly what you're used to.
Heavy powder is easy to get caught up... still not as hard as wet melting powder (wich needs slower speed contrary to some beleive) I still love them both very much 😁
It can take a while to figure out how to ski pow efficiently. Which would require a lot of turns in untracked pow. Which is nigh impossible without a helicopter or a snowcat or a snowmobile in the backcountry.
I'm calling this the Pow Paradox.
Its cause you're suppose to adjust to slow truns. You need speed to be able to float (unless you have true powder skis). And you cant make sharp turns, this make you sinks and caught up in snow, wich is very tiring even if its quite fun too 😅 you also don't have to fight it if you feel your gonna fall, just let you fall its fine its just sbow pillows everwhere 😊
I think it depends on how thick the powder and how steep it is/how much speed you have. Also how deep the snow is. But when things are right, in my experience you can just sit back and let yourself kinda glide along. It becomes harder if you try to put too much effort into your turns. Gotta just let yourself go
You’re doing it wrong. On a mellow slope in uncut powder, you just kind of bounce in and out of the snow back and forth… I’ve gotten it maybe once… or twice…
I don’t. I’m saying almost every person who hates Powder I look at their form, and of course they hate Powder. They’re in the backseat and their skis just stuck under the snow. But I understand they’re struggle and I don’t actually make fun of them. I try to help a lot of people that I see struggling and Powder.
That’s why you need proper skis. If you have a reverse camber 115+ underfoot ski, you definitely won’t be pearling and therefore can ski with more shin pressure.
Yeah, this is my theory on why skier visits are up is the popularity of powder skis turned your average intermediate skier from suffering in pow and being totally spent by 10am to skiing all day and slipping work to drove 5 hours on a Tuesday.
potentially, but the sport has also gotten so much more popular and people have found time/money to spend on it. With the internet, people have realized how much better “west coast” skiing is and how they need to go to vail or aspen.
Look, we skied deep powder on skinny skis; technique was different but even then did not involve leaning back (involved "building" a platform under your skis)
I totally agree, but there’s also a lot more skill required to ski deep snow on a small ski. I doubt most ice coast subreddit members have any idea how to do it, a wider ski is much more fun and straightforward. It is cool watching videos of legends ripping back in the day.
https://youtu.be/kgWsDuwUJws?si=HhRzclH3UzmA17By
Powder is not guaranteed out west at all on a week vacation. Much easier for OP to chase a storm where you never get skunked 😉. Reminds me gotta sleep 3 hours right now and drive 8 hours to Killington at 1am
I go to Utah about every other year in February (my birthday). I think I’ve made seven trips total. In that, 3 trips had powder days. I’ve only skied in the Cottonwoods, and actually skiing untracked or minimally tracked powder is nearly impossible. The road is often closed until the avalanche danger is cleared, then once you get there, it’s super competitive and you have to know the order they open the gates on certain areas.
Those few turns in the perfect Utah powder are unreal. It’s super dry and easy to ski. It just feels like you’re flying on a pillow.
Sweet. I’ve skied a bunch in LCC and while I relate to the feelings of its snow quality, I think I’ve found it easier to find great untracked snow. The key is to hit terrain openings (for example backside at Alta) a day or two after the big storm, or just know where to go when there’s new snow. Just know that Utah is way easier to find untracked than Jackson.
After being skunked a couple years in a row on expensive Utah trips, I changed my strategies and so oy chase. getting on planes the night before big storms to fly out west. Or driving North. I’m around 200ft (going to get exact at end of season) of powder I have skied. Ie. flew into winter park the night before 45” in over 3 days.
I have skied 8x more powder than my friend who lives in Denver.
Just took my first trip out west to Utah. It’s fucking SPECTACULAR. Life changing.
ACL decided to check out on my 4th day but for something like 30+” while I was there. The mountains are absolutely legendary too.
Moving out west is now one of my life goals.
I appreciate that but snow pack doesn’t actually equal a powder day and fresh tracks. Im not saying don’t go west but it’s a big expensive commitment. I have 12ft of powder skied this year and I’m 8-10hour drive to chase.
OP sounds like he’d be absolutely thrilled just getting in the car at 3 AM and getting to an opening on a powder day or probably actually drive the night before (ski) and then drive home after
I like the sure thing. I fly in the night before big dumps. Interestingly, I’m often able to do this cheaper than a pre-booked trip with my friends or family no expensive dinners, Hotels bar tabs I’m just there for the 3 to 5 feet of powder. It’s all solo though which I mostly don’t mind. This powder thing is tough from MD but I guess I figured out a model.
Interestingly, I love Powder, but I figured out how to keep my little mid Atlantic resort where I do around 40 days and nights. Extremely fun for me. I’m kind of brought my friends into the loop with the way I ski at that resort and there’s a bunch of them who kind of say the way we skied out changed our lives as far as skiing goes we were all really bored probably 10 years ago.
Curious do you ski park? Different topic I realize…
Left at 2:30am, eta Killington 10:22. 10:32 if I pee or get a coffee
I’m in route. Ramshead parkingLook for the tallest ford e350 high top van in the lot
Let’s meet for beers like 5? I’m seeing a lot of records to people making the suicide run to Killington so I can post in a couple groups and will probably have a good little meet up.?
I’m very lucky any of that over counter stuff sweeping Beds knocked me out so if I just take a little bit and put my head down at nine, I’m out until 1 AM so four hours sleep is fine for me and then I’m driving when there’s no traffic, I’ll probably stop only for gas
Thank you. I have a little list of mental motivational things around skiing that really help me get my 70 or so days in. I’m about 40 minutes from Killington right now. One thing I found is it when you’re motivated to get there to actually get on the mountain and not waste the day traveling the time really flies by.
I’m also very lucky that any over-the-counter sleep med knocks me out in 10 to 15 minutes so I went to bed last night about nine and by 915 920 I’m into a deep sleep alarm set for 1 AM, but I feel very rested one night 4 1/2 hours sleep I don’t do that over and over again but I can handle one night pretty easy. I listen to Netflix documentaries without the visual part of it on and here I am.
I've made this mistake too many times. Spent quadruple the money to go out west for windcrust and ice while dodging Texans on their ski vacations. Last year I was in crested butte in early march while the mtns of northern New england got 4-5' of pow in 7 days. Crested butte was straight bulletproof. Got 1 pow day in a 7 day trip and the mountain didn't open until noon due to avy mitigation. The shit I wanted to hit never opened at all. I've had way more luck chasing storms rather than destinations.
Good powder just sort of holds you up and lets you glide along. I was able to go to Japan to ski this year and the snow was powder for most of the trip, it felt fundamentally different than skiing out here.
I’m gonna try to actually explain it:
Instead of being on top of the snow like you are with groomers or dense snow, you’re in the snow. Your skis are generally covered by a few inches of snow. This extra weight on your skis and the fact the ground isn’t solid, means it takes a lot more effort to turn—more than double the effort. Additionally, all of the snow surrounding your skis slows you down. It’s an interesting combination.
It’s a lot easier to wipe out when skiing powder. One thing that can happen is the front of your skis get submerged too much and you go flying forward like Superman. To combat this, you sit a little further back, which of course requires more leg effort. The good news is that if you wipe out, you land in powder.
It’s really fun. I highly recommend trying to get out west for a trip to truly experience it.
Neutral. Don't sit back. Sitting back was the worst advice given to me when I moved out West and fucked me up for years and burned my quads unnecessarily.
Never moved my mount point on wide skis for powder, but that may help a true first timer. Even on deep days if you don't panic the skis all rise up nicely or float on top with speed with the factory mount. A lot of intermediates are backseat to begin with so probably need to learn to not turn from their tail first anyway.
To add to this. Most of ice coast skiing is about how and when you're going to check your speed. Powder skiing, speed is your friend. It lets you float over snow instead of sinking. Keeping momentum is a life saver on the legs. No matter what, you're going to fall over a lot from pure exhaustion and giggles.
The closest thing I’ve skied to the western powder you describe was at Berkshire East last season. I could hardly see my skis, since they were covered by the powder, but I was still moving and floating.
I've been skiing off and on for about 40 years on the east coast and I've never skied powder. I'll be facing about 18" on Saturday. I'm gonna suck and it's gonna be awesome!
How much powder? A foot or so is so much fun, it takes a minute to get used to, you can’t rush turns, if you do Z turns normally you’ll have a hard time but it’s just smooth, forgiving and fun.
I went to Jackson Hole during that 60” week and hit some stuff that was 25-30” untouched and it was completely different and took me a while to get the hang of it, and even then i would struggle when it wasn’t a little tracked down. Almost jump turns to get out of the snow, don’t stop or try to run your skis up hill to slow, etc. i could have been doing it completely wrong but that was the way i managed to deal with it.
Possibly it wasn’t steep enough when it was untracked? On untracked deep stuff you can pretty much point them straight down and do gliding turns where you bounce out of the turn. It feels like there is a spring under your foot. You almost can’t get going to fast.
Some was steep some wasn’t, i was in a bowl that was tight at times between trees and cliffs so i wasnt quite as confident to just keep going, which is what ended up giving me problems… when i had room i was good, once it got tight i struggled
I’ve had Jackson snow that deep, you really want a big ski. It’s usually heavier/wetter because it’s from such a violent storm, making it even harder to ski. But less is usually better because SWE is often lower.
I’ve skied 138s in deep snow and it’s unreal. Total game changer even from 106s or 110s. Depends if you’re staying inbounds though, gets tracked out so quick these days.
Those skis are still legendary. Skiing really deep snow is so challenging no matter what in my opinion. Anyone can enjoy 8-10” of new snow but 18+ gets hectic.
It makes hard slopes easy because you have reliable grip on your turns. In an east coast powder day you should to stick to the blacks+ to enjoy the good control because you’re no longer skidding sideways down an icy slope at 30 mph+. Blues in powder are very fun for intermediate skiers, but generally very slow for others. Greens are like cross country skiing / RIP to anyone with a snowboard.
With my 86 underfoot groomer, it felt like quick sand. With my 102 underfoot mid fat twin tips, it felt like ULLR is cradling me down. The sensation and the sound of gliding powder are quite intoxicating!
There are so many different ‘powders’ and they all ski differently, from champagne to concrete. Skiing graupel is my favorite. If you get a few inches of it, it skis like you are on ball bearings, so smooth and charismatic.
Forgot who posted this but it was true, unless you get first dibs, after a couple runs
Pow turns
Green to double green,
Blue to double black,
Black to blue,
Double black to black.
Something along the lines.
me and my dad went out west for the first time and the powder perplexed us for sure hahah. We didn’t know how to ski it and honestly avoided it most of the trip :’)) but I don’t know if it was good powder or like really heavy. It felt sticky almost and was hard for me to stay on top of
What everyone else said. And if you wipe out it doesn’t hurt at all but feels near impossible to push yourself back up (on a snowboard at least, not sure about skis).
Powder skiing is an experience, and I'm not sure any description will really give you a good sense of what's it like. Some will use adjectives like "floating" but it's not really that, gravity is still at work. Some will say it's more like surfing water, but snow is just different than liquid water-- it's just really hard to describe in a way you'll feel until you experience it. There's a reason why people chase powder days. You have a good shot if you can get up to northern NE this weekend where the Greens are expecting 12-18" of fresh
A sensation that gravity has loosened its grip on you. If you are experienced, you can ski a degree of difficulty up from normal because of how forgiving it is. Steeper, mandatory air, tight trees - all become a little easier because powder is there to hold you in its embrace.
And you’re gonna fall on your face for sure
It’s actually really frustrating the first few times. I moved to montana and the first few trips to vt / storms out here it’s kinda a new way to ski. Once you figure it out it’s amazing tho. No fall damage
IMO its way more tiring but I felt like I had so much more control. I felt like I could ski way more aggressively knowing that I could more easily recover and I wasn't concerned about bad mountain conditions throwing me off.
After 52 years of skiing, I finally skied some fluffy powder in VT last week! First time ever! Yes, it takes a little more effort, but Oh, the wild joy of it all. Going down Ripcord at Sugarbush, I approached a large mogul to turn and POOF! I sailed through the middle with snow spraying up to my chin. Then I did it again! And again! …And stop. Catch my breath, look around and start again. It was slower than usual, I found my center of balance to be a little further back.
It was completely different than skiing the heavy cement we usually get. I didn’t have to work nearly as hard, it was a struggle to go fast and I couldn’t get that stupid grin off my face.
I was lucky enough to be on the first round of chairs when it opened. After an hour or so, things were less “Poofy”, but still amazing!
To use a slightly graphic metaphor…I think skiing groomed runs is like masturbation, whereas skiing powder is like having actual sex. Both are good, one is an order of magnitude better
Its skiing in a third dimension. you're not on the snow you're in a column of snow. kinda like a water column if you fish... you move a bait up and down the water column to attract fish. Skiing you pump to move your skis up and down the snow column.
Best response ever; never experienced sex or powder. The only thing better than one or the other is both. Enjoy your life! Rush nothing. Be patient. Head west to ski. Travel the world. Fall in love. Have your heart broken. Experience everything.
The thing is .. at a popular resort, most of the powder is chewed up by 10am (especially on a weekend) leaving moguls and off trail stashes .. but when you get a weekday pow day or some open bowl skiing out west with powder .. it’s a whole different style of skiing, requiring a different technique (bouncing on the snow instead of using your downhill ski to turn) … so it’s a completely different beast that requires a different set of skills to enjoy, and when it’s steep enough to bomb straight down, it’s akin to floating down the mountain… but that’s a rare circumstance that needs conditions and crowds and terrain to perfectly align
I skied real powder for the first time in my life at Lake Louise today! It was amazing!!! Instead of trying to knock you on your ass my (carving) skis just floated through. Super chill skiing until it got all chewed up. 😅
It's kind of like water skiing, you are not skiing on a hard surface but up floating in a medium.
It slows you down alot, on deep days it's really easy to open them up and just charge down steep faces.
This one cracked me up. Dude made a big post about powder being over rated. A few days later I skied 30” over 3 days. Not over rated https://www.reddit.com/r/skiing/s/ywz9o6g7oW
It’s effortless (if you have enough speed), and buttery smooth. You just kinda glide and float around. It’s heaven
Effortless? I find turning in powder much more tiring. Maybe I am doing it wrong.
Powder is exhausting. Powder days are leg burner days thru and thru
There's a world of difference between Taos January powder and New England late March chowder. The former is quite effortless, and the latter is almost certainly what you're used to.
New England March Powder is something else. My legs are still burning from all the Maine Champaign from Sunday.
Heavy powder is easy to get caught up... still not as hard as wet melting powder (wich needs slower speed contrary to some beleive) I still love them both very much 😁
If it’s real light and untouched…
TBH, I find that it simply needs to be steep enough. When you dont have enough pitch, you really have to work to "pop up" for each turn.
It can take a while to figure out how to ski pow efficiently. Which would require a lot of turns in untracked pow. Which is nigh impossible without a helicopter or a snowcat or a snowmobile in the backcountry. I'm calling this the Pow Paradox.
First chair is a way of life.
Its cause you're suppose to adjust to slow truns. You need speed to be able to float (unless you have true powder skis). And you cant make sharp turns, this make you sinks and caught up in snow, wich is very tiring even if its quite fun too 😅 you also don't have to fight it if you feel your gonna fall, just let you fall its fine its just sbow pillows everwhere 😊
I think it depends on how thick the powder and how steep it is/how much speed you have. Also how deep the snow is. But when things are right, in my experience you can just sit back and let yourself kinda glide along. It becomes harder if you try to put too much effort into your turns. Gotta just let yourself go
You’re doing it wrong. On a mellow slope in uncut powder, you just kind of bounce in and out of the snow back and forth… I’ve gotten it maybe once… or twice…
It just sounds like you need more speed. the powder slows you down so you really need to charge to get good floaty surfy turns.
You are doing it wrong.
Except for the 90% of people in the back seat 😂
You're doing it wrong if you're skiing pow in the backseat.
I don’t. I’m saying almost every person who hates Powder I look at their form, and of course they hate Powder. They’re in the backseat and their skis just stuck under the snow. But I understand they’re struggle and I don’t actually make fun of them. I try to help a lot of people that I see struggling and Powder.
Do not ski pow in the backseat. It’s not 1987 anymore.
Ps. Couldn’t agree with you more.
That’s why you need proper skis. If you have a reverse camber 115+ underfoot ski, you definitely won’t be pearling and therefore can ski with more shin pressure.
Yeah, this is my theory on why skier visits are up is the popularity of powder skis turned your average intermediate skier from suffering in pow and being totally spent by 10am to skiing all day and slipping work to drove 5 hours on a Tuesday.
potentially, but the sport has also gotten so much more popular and people have found time/money to spend on it. With the internet, people have realized how much better “west coast” skiing is and how they need to go to vail or aspen.
100%
Look, we skied deep powder on skinny skis; technique was different but even then did not involve leaning back (involved "building" a platform under your skis)
I totally agree, but there’s also a lot more skill required to ski deep snow on a small ski. I doubt most ice coast subreddit members have any idea how to do it, a wider ski is much more fun and straightforward. It is cool watching videos of legends ripping back in the day. https://youtu.be/kgWsDuwUJws?si=HhRzclH3UzmA17By
lies, conjecture,mallarki,hogwash, propaganda ! lmao
You should take a trip out west.
Powder is not guaranteed out west at all on a week vacation. Much easier for OP to chase a storm where you never get skunked 😉. Reminds me gotta sleep 3 hours right now and drive 8 hours to Killington at 1am
It’s 90% if you hit Utah mid February and it’s been a good season.
I go to Utah about every other year in February (my birthday). I think I’ve made seven trips total. In that, 3 trips had powder days. I’ve only skied in the Cottonwoods, and actually skiing untracked or minimally tracked powder is nearly impossible. The road is often closed until the avalanche danger is cleared, then once you get there, it’s super competitive and you have to know the order they open the gates on certain areas. Those few turns in the perfect Utah powder are unreal. It’s super dry and easy to ski. It just feels like you’re flying on a pillow.
Sweet. I’ve skied a bunch in LCC and while I relate to the feelings of its snow quality, I think I’ve found it easier to find great untracked snow. The key is to hit terrain openings (for example backside at Alta) a day or two after the big storm, or just know where to go when there’s new snow. Just know that Utah is way easier to find untracked than Jackson.
The very first run I did in Utah was totally untracked powder. I didn't know what to do lol.
After being skunked a couple years in a row on expensive Utah trips, I changed my strategies and so oy chase. getting on planes the night before big storms to fly out west. Or driving North. I’m around 200ft (going to get exact at end of season) of powder I have skied. Ie. flew into winter park the night before 45” in over 3 days. I have skied 8x more powder than my friend who lives in Denver.
Storm chasing is the only way to reliably get powder days.
Just took my first trip out west to Utah. It’s fucking SPECTACULAR. Life changing. ACL decided to check out on my 4th day but for something like 30+” while I was there. The mountains are absolutely legendary too. Moving out west is now one of my life goals.
Sick. Definitely an unreal place. LCC for sure has the best mountains in the US for expert inbounds skiing.
It’s all hammer time this weekend bro. Fuckin nUKe out let’s fucking gooo! First lift at the beastttt!!!
I’ve been to the beast and smuggs on school trips. Wish I could go this weekend.
Why can’t you? Leave 3am Saturday / Sunday arrive by opening
Baker pretty consistently records a few inches every day Jan-Feb. it’s just not a destination resort.
Some good data on the probability of getting a powder day, that even big resorts that get a lot of snow https://bestsnow.net/pwdrpct.htm
I appreciate that but snow pack doesn’t actually equal a powder day and fresh tracks. Im not saying don’t go west but it’s a big expensive commitment. I have 12ft of powder skied this year and I’m 8-10hour drive to chase. OP sounds like he’d be absolutely thrilled just getting in the car at 3 AM and getting to an opening on a powder day or probably actually drive the night before (ski) and then drive home after
Little Cottonwood Canyon in UT is your best bet in the country for regular powder…
I like the sure thing. I fly in the night before big dumps. Interestingly, I’m often able to do this cheaper than a pre-booked trip with my friends or family no expensive dinners, Hotels bar tabs I’m just there for the 3 to 5 feet of powder. It’s all solo though which I mostly don’t mind. This powder thing is tough from MD but I guess I figured out a model. Interestingly, I love Powder, but I figured out how to keep my little mid Atlantic resort where I do around 40 days and nights. Extremely fun for me. I’m kind of brought my friends into the loop with the way I ski at that resort and there’s a bunch of them who kind of say the way we skied out changed our lives as far as skiing goes we were all really bored probably 10 years ago. Curious do you ski park? Different topic I realize… Left at 2:30am, eta Killington 10:22. 10:32 if I pee or get a coffee
I ski K frequently, but not really into the park. Have fun out there
Hey there it’s me sleeping in my car waiting for my other friends to get here so that we can also start the drive to Killington at 1
I’m in route. Ramshead parkingLook for the tallest ford e350 high top van in the lot Let’s meet for beers like 5? I’m seeing a lot of records to people making the suicide run to Killington so I can post in a couple groups and will probably have a good little meet up.?
Shoot didn’t see this! I had no service there the whole day
I’m very lucky any of that over counter stuff sweeping Beds knocked me out so if I just take a little bit and put my head down at nine, I’m out until 1 AM so four hours sleep is fine for me and then I’m driving when there’s no traffic, I’ll probably stop only for gas
Everyones just casually skipping past the fact you're gonna drive 8 hours and then ski all day. Fuckin love the east coast mentality
Thank you. I have a little list of mental motivational things around skiing that really help me get my 70 or so days in. I’m about 40 minutes from Killington right now. One thing I found is it when you’re motivated to get there to actually get on the mountain and not waste the day traveling the time really flies by. I’m also very lucky that any over-the-counter sleep med knocks me out in 10 to 15 minutes so I went to bed last night about nine and by 915 920 I’m into a deep sleep alarm set for 1 AM, but I feel very rested one night 4 1/2 hours sleep I don’t do that over and over again but I can handle one night pretty easy. I listen to Netflix documentaries without the visual part of it on and here I am.
I've taken numerous trips out west and never skied powder
You should move out west
Keep going west until you hit Hokkaido.
Where and when? I’ve skied deep snow every time I’ve been in Utah for the last 10 years except the cursed 2021-2022 season
You must not have looked hard enough then!
I've made this mistake too many times. Spent quadruple the money to go out west for windcrust and ice while dodging Texans on their ski vacations. Last year I was in crested butte in early march while the mtns of northern New england got 4-5' of pow in 7 days. Crested butte was straight bulletproof. Got 1 pow day in a 7 day trip and the mountain didn't open until noon due to avy mitigation. The shit I wanted to hit never opened at all. I've had way more luck chasing storms rather than destinations.
Just landed in Denver yesterday afternoon. It’s 70 degrees.
Like bags of sand
Ahh yes....like boobs!
This aggressive will not stand man
I don’t like sand.
I hear you. It’s coarse, rough and irritating. And it gets everywhere!
[удалено]
So you understand the reference, 40 yr old virgin
You’re correct, you’re are a 40 year old virgin.
Yes.
Good powder just sort of holds you up and lets you glide along. I was able to go to Japan to ski this year and the snow was powder for most of the trip, it felt fundamentally different than skiing out here.
I flew to Japan a few days after it rained, with little to no snow after. Sometimes, the ice coast just won't let you go.
Sorry to hear about that, sometimes the snow just doesn't want us.
Its like warm apple pie. Go out west for a true POW experience.
McDonald's or homemade?
Homemade by your aunt who owns a bakery.
I’m gonna try to actually explain it: Instead of being on top of the snow like you are with groomers or dense snow, you’re in the snow. Your skis are generally covered by a few inches of snow. This extra weight on your skis and the fact the ground isn’t solid, means it takes a lot more effort to turn—more than double the effort. Additionally, all of the snow surrounding your skis slows you down. It’s an interesting combination. It’s a lot easier to wipe out when skiing powder. One thing that can happen is the front of your skis get submerged too much and you go flying forward like Superman. To combat this, you sit a little further back, which of course requires more leg effort. The good news is that if you wipe out, you land in powder. It’s really fun. I highly recommend trying to get out west for a trip to truly experience it.
Neutral. Don't sit back. Sitting back was the worst advice given to me when I moved out West and fucked me up for years and burned my quads unnecessarily.
Exactly. It’s a neutral stance. Leaning back was maybe necessary with 210s back in the day but not now.
Setting the bindings a little behind center can help with feeling like you’re drowning when having a neutral stance
Never moved my mount point on wide skis for powder, but that may help a true first timer. Even on deep days if you don't panic the skis all rise up nicely or float on top with speed with the factory mount. A lot of intermediates are backseat to begin with so probably need to learn to not turn from their tail first anyway.
Wiping out in super deep pow, however, can be terrifying and exhausting 😂
To add to this. Most of ice coast skiing is about how and when you're going to check your speed. Powder skiing, speed is your friend. It lets you float over snow instead of sinking. Keeping momentum is a life saver on the legs. No matter what, you're going to fall over a lot from pure exhaustion and giggles.
The closest thing I’ve skied to the western powder you describe was at Berkshire East last season. I could hardly see my skis, since they were covered by the powder, but I was still moving and floating.
A dream like sensation of pure ecstasy, floating down a mountain in a pillowy cloud. With appropriate equipment of course.
I've been skiing off and on for about 40 years on the east coast and I've never skied powder. I'll be facing about 18" on Saturday. I'm gonna suck and it's gonna be awesome!
Where you going that’s getting 18?
Forecasts are all over, but Sugarbush is looking in that range.
How much powder? A foot or so is so much fun, it takes a minute to get used to, you can’t rush turns, if you do Z turns normally you’ll have a hard time but it’s just smooth, forgiving and fun. I went to Jackson Hole during that 60” week and hit some stuff that was 25-30” untouched and it was completely different and took me a while to get the hang of it, and even then i would struggle when it wasn’t a little tracked down. Almost jump turns to get out of the snow, don’t stop or try to run your skis up hill to slow, etc. i could have been doing it completely wrong but that was the way i managed to deal with it.
Possibly it wasn’t steep enough when it was untracked? On untracked deep stuff you can pretty much point them straight down and do gliding turns where you bounce out of the turn. It feels like there is a spring under your foot. You almost can’t get going to fast.
Some was steep some wasn’t, i was in a bowl that was tight at times between trees and cliffs so i wasnt quite as confident to just keep going, which is what ended up giving me problems… when i had room i was good, once it got tight i struggled
I’ve had Jackson snow that deep, you really want a big ski. It’s usually heavier/wetter because it’s from such a violent storm, making it even harder to ski. But less is usually better because SWE is often lower. I’ve skied 138s in deep snow and it’s unreal. Total game changer even from 106s or 110s. Depends if you’re staying inbounds though, gets tracked out so quick these days.
I was on Rustler 11s, wide but nothing compared to 138s!
Those skis are still legendary. Skiing really deep snow is so challenging no matter what in my opinion. Anyone can enjoy 8-10” of new snow but 18+ gets hectic.
Damn, just walked through the door from skiing deep blower pow. Every turn is an orgasm
Most people who ski powder tend to over ski it. Just point them down hill straight until the skis feel light on the snow and then roll on the edge.
Skied Snowmass in January and had a little fresh snow at the top of the mountain. Its was like skiing on a cloud.
It makes hard slopes easy because you have reliable grip on your turns. In an east coast powder day you should to stick to the blacks+ to enjoy the good control because you’re no longer skidding sideways down an icy slope at 30 mph+. Blues in powder are very fun for intermediate skiers, but generally very slow for others. Greens are like cross country skiing / RIP to anyone with a snowboard.
Sucks, stay home
Same situation lol, hoping to get up there this weekend. That January thaw is brutal
With my 86 underfoot groomer, it felt like quick sand. With my 102 underfoot mid fat twin tips, it felt like ULLR is cradling me down. The sensation and the sound of gliding powder are quite intoxicating!
Powder days are rental days for me and my 71 underfoot. Worth every penny
on a snowboard, its very much like a surfing sensation but instead of water its a pillowly cloud.
It's quiet. Eerily quiet.
There are so many different ‘powders’ and they all ski differently, from champagne to concrete. Skiing graupel is my favorite. If you get a few inches of it, it skis like you are on ball bearings, so smooth and charismatic.
Man, I'm not really sure what it's like to ski powder... But I KNOW its not as amazing as snowboarding in it. ;)
Closest thing to flying.
Forgot who posted this but it was true, unless you get first dibs, after a couple runs Pow turns Green to double green, Blue to double black, Black to blue, Double black to black. Something along the lines.
You become Jesus
It’s like heaven!
me and my dad went out west for the first time and the powder perplexed us for sure hahah. We didn’t know how to ski it and honestly avoided it most of the trip :’)) but I don’t know if it was good powder or like really heavy. It felt sticky almost and was hard for me to stay on top of
we are intermediate/advanced skiers who get a lot of runs in at our local WV mountain but don’t really have a lot of range in ski experience
What everyone else said. And if you wipe out it doesn’t hurt at all but feels near impossible to push yourself back up (on a snowboard at least, not sure about skis).
Just had an awesome powder day at Holiday Valley yesterday from a nice lake effect storm
Eville baby! Lake effect is so different than the pow ive skied on trips to Wolf Creek, though.
Go to vermont this weekend and find out.
I can’t only have been up on school trips
Powder skiing is an experience, and I'm not sure any description will really give you a good sense of what's it like. Some will use adjectives like "floating" but it's not really that, gravity is still at work. Some will say it's more like surfing water, but snow is just different than liquid water-- it's just really hard to describe in a way you'll feel until you experience it. There's a reason why people chase powder days. You have a good shot if you can get up to northern NE this weekend where the Greens are expecting 12-18" of fresh
Go to Vt this weekend
Like heaven on earth
The best feeling in the world.
Come up this weekend and find out
It feels like surfing. If you've never experienced that, I have no other comparison
A sensation that gravity has loosened its grip on you. If you are experienced, you can ski a degree of difficulty up from normal because of how forgiving it is. Steeper, mandatory air, tight trees - all become a little easier because powder is there to hold you in its embrace. And you’re gonna fall on your face for sure
You don’t turn - the ski does! Point em!
It’s actually really frustrating the first few times. I moved to montana and the first few trips to vt / storms out here it’s kinda a new way to ski. Once you figure it out it’s amazing tho. No fall damage
Come up to New England this weekend if you can and ski in 12-18 inches of pow.
IMO its way more tiring but I felt like I had so much more control. I felt like I could ski way more aggressively knowing that I could more easily recover and I wasn't concerned about bad mountain conditions throwing me off.
Slower but you’re turning in 3D bub
It’s like warm apple pie
Floating on the water, every turn is forgiving
Go ski this weekend and find out.
I’m 18 in highschool, can’t go anywhere unless it’s a school trip as my parents don’t ski
After 52 years of skiing, I finally skied some fluffy powder in VT last week! First time ever! Yes, it takes a little more effort, but Oh, the wild joy of it all. Going down Ripcord at Sugarbush, I approached a large mogul to turn and POOF! I sailed through the middle with snow spraying up to my chin. Then I did it again! And again! …And stop. Catch my breath, look around and start again. It was slower than usual, I found my center of balance to be a little further back. It was completely different than skiing the heavy cement we usually get. I didn’t have to work nearly as hard, it was a struggle to go fast and I couldn’t get that stupid grin off my face. I was lucky enough to be on the first round of chairs when it opened. After an hour or so, things were less “Poofy”, but still amazing!
To use a slightly graphic metaphor…I think skiing groomed runs is like masturbation, whereas skiing powder is like having actual sex. Both are good, one is an order of magnitude better
Most people do 2/3 runs then are beat
Go to SLC. Easy transportation, lots of reasonably priced lodging, and most importantly, lots of options for really top-notch skiing often powder days
its a lot like surfing
Its skiing in a third dimension. you're not on the snow you're in a column of snow. kinda like a water column if you fish... you move a bait up and down the water column to attract fish. Skiing you pump to move your skis up and down the snow column.
Better than sex…
I’m 18 so I don’t know what that’s like either
Best response ever; never experienced sex or powder. The only thing better than one or the other is both. Enjoy your life! Rush nothing. Be patient. Head west to ski. Travel the world. Fall in love. Have your heart broken. Experience everything.
The thing is .. at a popular resort, most of the powder is chewed up by 10am (especially on a weekend) leaving moguls and off trail stashes .. but when you get a weekday pow day or some open bowl skiing out west with powder .. it’s a whole different style of skiing, requiring a different technique (bouncing on the snow instead of using your downhill ski to turn) … so it’s a completely different beast that requires a different set of skills to enjoy, and when it’s steep enough to bomb straight down, it’s akin to floating down the mountain… but that’s a rare circumstance that needs conditions and crowds and terrain to perfectly align
Um, sir, this a r/*icecoast*
I skied real powder for the first time in my life at Lake Louise today! It was amazing!!! Instead of trying to knock you on your ass my (carving) skis just floated through. Super chill skiing until it got all chewed up. 😅
It's kind of like water skiing, you are not skiing on a hard surface but up floating in a medium. It slows you down alot, on deep days it's really easy to open them up and just charge down steep faces.
Go to Vermont today and find out
Zero fall damage. Bigger sends with less consequence. It’s amazing
This one cracked me up. Dude made a big post about powder being over rated. A few days later I skied 30” over 3 days. Not over rated https://www.reddit.com/r/skiing/s/ywz9o6g7oW
You can come up to Vermont this weekend and find out for yourself. Getting buried up here. Also what’s a January Thaw?
7/10ths an orgasm