Is powder overrated?

[ski_adk]

You are not allowed to answer this until you have experienced skiing in chest deep powder complete with fact shots at least once in your life time.

That is what haunts my dreams nearly every night...well, it's not really a haunting since it's quite welcome.

 

[SkiDork]

This is why we (well I anyway) ski trees. There's really (IMHO) no other reason to ski the trees, except for the fact that you can find pow in there much later than you can on regular trails...

 

[skibum1321]

You are not allowed to answer this until you have experienced skiing in chest deep powder complete with fact shots at least once in your life time.

That's a little extreme - I would say knee deep would be about the minimum cutoff. The deepest I've ever skied was waist deep. I got tons of face shots and it was sick. If you had chest deep "eastern pow" you would just stop unless you were skiing off of a cliff.

 

[NYDrew]

I'm going to have to say yes it is. There are many people, where most of powders reputation come from, that think skiing is just not worth it unless your butt deep. I feel any day of skiing is great, powder is more like winning a 100mil lottery vs just a 10 mil lottery.

So yeah, its overrated in the sense that it overshadows in skiing as the only way to have fun to some people.

 

[loafer89]

Okay, don't kill me. This is just a question to ponder and discuss. In all honesty, I don't recall ever descending into a run of totally untracked powder (12"+).

I did this last year at Sugarloaf during the February blizzard. I skied 14-16" of untracked on Ramdown, and fell down/ got stuck quite a few times after hitting 2-3' drifts. I also skied Glancer and Windrow in 20" + of untouched snow. The funny part about this was how few people wanted to venture into such deep snow, apparently alot of locals are not used to this (ski instructors included).

Powder is never overated, for me it's better than the other overated thread.:-D

 

[meat]

You are not allowed to answer this until you have experienced skiing in chest deep powder complete with fact shots at least once in your life time.

face shots with chest deep pow? you simply can't see with chest deep pow, your lucky to get a glimpse of atmosphere every few turns, skiing snow that deep is a constant face shot. Its a great feeling when dropping into a line when you know you have to cover or close your mouth or you'll choke to death, I have had this happen with waist deep snow too.
I had one chest deep run this year after that early march storm. I have had a handful of these type of runs over my 21 years skiing, they have all come on the east coast in the same special area each time. headwall like steepness is a must, best feeling in the world!

pow overrated? its like asking me if breathing is overrated!

 

[Greg]

I'm going to have to say yes it is. There are many people, where most of powders reputation come from, that think skiing is just not worth it unless your butt deep. I feel any day of skiing is great, powder is more like winning a 100mil lottery vs just a 10 mil lottery.

So yeah, its overrated in the sense that it overshadows in skiing as the only way to have fun to some people.

Well said. This is sort of where I was coming from with this thread. Hell, it was slow today....we needed some controversy...

 

[ski_resort_observer]

I know there are people who prefer groomed runs over powder and that's cool. They probably will not post as they know what the replies will be.

To continue the underlying tongue-in-cheek rationalization, asking people if "powder is overrated" is like asking if "free beer" is overrated. :lol:

 

[andyzee]

This is why we (well I anyway) ski trees. There's really (IMHO) no other reason to ski the trees, except for the fact that you can find pow in there much later than you can on regular trails...

Not this year, cept for maybe Jay and Stowe

 

[skiadikt]

sounds like you're pretty much a powder virgin ;-) once you 'get' it the first time you can't get enough. sort of like sx. i'd definitely take 5 pow runs over 10 non-pows. having said that, i do remember in my early years being frustrated by powder. some of my most creative falls. took a while to get it. even then maybe 12-15" was my comfort zone.

last year i upped the ante and picked up a pair of pocket rockets (90mm waist). i remember my first pow day on them. the suckers had a mind of their own and sought out untracked. love 'em.

 

[kingslug]

You are not allowed to answer this until you have experienced skiing in chest deep powder complete with fact shots at least once in your life time.

Now yer talkin. I've been up to my waist in the stuff. 3 and 4 foot dumps. Nothing like it. It takes getting used to, but when you do.........wahoo. It's why I love Utah so much.

 

[Marc]

Now yer talkin. I've been up to my waist in the stuff. 3 and 4 foot dumps. Nothing like it. It takes getting used to, but when you do.........wahoo. It's why I love Utah so much.

Yeah, I need that.

There was a Plake voice over in one of his films... it may have even been SnoWhat...

Anyway, the point was, it was a powder day... and he said something like...


"Everyone loves a powder day... but you know, you can't really go fast and you can't turn hard, and...."

[Cut to Plake taking face shots]

"ahh... hell everyone loves a powder day!"

 

[riverc0il]

In all honesty, I don't recall ever descending into a run of totally untracked powder (12"+). I've hit a few lines of untracked sections here and there and have skied during some impressive storms but haven't had the fortune of scoring a top-to-bottom run of deep and light untracked powder.

this is why:

I'm content skiing cruddy bumps and tracked up powder as that's the type of surface I encounter most often after dumps it seem.

Being able to is likely a unique combination of living close to a mountain, being able to hit epic days at the last minute, dedication, and luck, at least in terms of East-coast lift-serviced skiing.

having lived in boston area up until this year, i feel experienced enough to say that living close to a mountain has nothing to with scoring epic powder days. i still work the same hours and the same days and still need to take a vacation day to nail a mid-week powder day and have the same odds at scoring powder on the weekends. i just get to sleep in and not drive as far also, luck really doesn't have much to do with scoring big powder days. if you follow the weather forecasts closely, it is pretty rare that a surprise dump occurs. no need to call out sick for powder because you can usually see it coming a few days in advanced, plenty of time to ask for a vacation day. unless you need more than three days notice to take a day off, this is not a factor. it all comes down to wanting it and not having previous commitments that prevent you from going after it.

i only started getting into powder three or four years ago. before that, i couldn't ski powder to save my life and generally avoided it if possible. now i live for it, there is nothing over rated about powder.

 

[riverc0il]

Let me expand on the question though. Imagine five of your favorite runs. Hypothetically, on a given day, would you rather take just 5 runs (one run each) of untracked powder, or 10 runs (2 runs each) of tracked up crud? Sort of a quality vs. quantity question. If you say "untracked", at what point does your decision change, i.e. 3 runs each of the crud. Four? Never?

hands down five pow instead of 10 tracked or crud. what point would the decision change? i think i might rather take one single run of untracked pow than 10 runs of crud, but that is part of the inherent ethos of the earn your turn philosophy. there obviously is a certain point of diminishing returns regarding how deep the snow is. less than a foot, i might say i would like 2 or 3 compared to 10 sloppy crudy seconds. over a foot, i will take one sweet blissful run and walk away instead of 10 laps of left overs. there is nothing like a foot of fresh and you never forget your first face shot.

 

[NYDrew]

I would definately prefere 5 powder runs over 5 in crud. But im not going to stay home just cause there is now pow.

 

[SnowRider]

I wouldn't say its overated at all. I love the pow-pow, but I also like the groomed stuff and spring skiing. Powder is great but I think there are lots of people out there that love it just as much as a groomed run.

SnowRider

 

[nightingale]

Now I would think this is a "troll" post if it wasn't the ADMIN. "Is Powder Overrated?" He can't be serious. Can he? Maybe he just wanted to stir up discussion.

 

[knuckledragger]

Are you nuts????

 

[pepperdawg]

5 runs untracked... definately...

Ditto

 

[thaller1]

powder

I'm ok here! Had "over the head" shots in UTAH