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It couldn't be that easy, right? Or is it? Powder skiing.

bounceswoosh

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Correction: One inch. But some places definitely got more blown in.
 

veronicarella

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I've gotten some better tips this year, and have a much more solid understanding of the mechanics of how to do the whole weighting/unweighting thing to float your skis back up.

How is the weighting/unweighting thing done? Not sure how easy it is for you to explain in writing, but I'm curious to learn how. I only experienced two days of knee (not waist) deep powder this season, and since I never got any tips before, took me the whole two days to experiment until I stop doing nose dives/face plants. Luckily, the snow is soft!

From my own trial and error, my conclusion is that the ski techniques are the same as on groomed and in powder, except the body feels like it's different. For example, good skiing techniques require staying centred or on top of the skis. Powder just reminds me when I'm not centred: If I'm too forward, that's when I'm face planting. On the other hand, it's almost the body's instinct to lean back to get the tips up in powder, but that's when the skis get away from me (same as on groomed). Eventually, I figured out that I just need to keep on top of the skis, which means adjusting constantly where the centred is based on what the snow is doing to the skis. Also, I figured out it's easier making narrower turns instead of wide turns, and even if just going straight, it still helps to pretend to turn, like micro turns by going from one outside leg to another without actually turning the legs, and continue to pole plant for balance. Overall, just being lighter on the feet!

Interested to hear the weighting/unweighting technique
 

novium

Certified Ski Diva
Mostly what made what people had been telling me was seeing this video (of instructing kids) on youtube:

I think the thing that clicked for me was also thinking about your good old cambered ski, which is what that kind of technique is meant for. It's basically a spring, if you think about it. So the unweighting is less about magically managing to hop up (even though that's kind of the drill the instructor is making the kids do to get the sense of it) but using the ski's spring-ness to propel you, and thus your skis, up. Which made my dad's insistence for all these years that it's a matter of pulling your legs up rather than actually gaining any air (like you'd do jumping rope) make a lot more sense.

How is the weighting/unweighting thing done? Not sure how easy it is for you to explain in writing, but I'm curious to learn how. I only experienced two days of knee (not waist) deep powder this season, and since I never got any tips before, took me the whole two days to experiment until I stop doing nose dives/face plants. Luckily, the snow is soft!

From my own trial and error, my conclusion is that the ski techniques are the same as on groomed and in powder, except the body feels like it's different. For example, good skiing techniques require staying centred or on top of the skis. Powder just reminds me when I'm not centred: If I'm too forward, that's when I'm face planting. On the other hand, it's almost the body's instinct to lean back to get the tips up in powder, but that's when the skis get away from me (same as on groomed). Eventually, I figured out that I just need to keep on top of the skis, which means adjusting constantly where the centred is based on what the snow is doing to the skis. Also, I figured out it's easier making narrower turns instead of wide turns, and even if just going straight, it still helps to pretend to turn, like micro turns by going from one outside leg to another without actually turning the legs, and continue to pole plant for balance. Overall, just being lighter on the feet!

Interested to hear the weighting/unweighting technique
 

novium

Certified Ski Diva
Also: I've got an update on the "waist deep powder" friend. I still doubt the waist-deep part of it (like Diamond Peak EVER gets that, even this year)...but it turns out, the skis someone gave him, the skis he uses...are rockers. So that would explain a lot.
 

lucy

Angel Diva
Mostly what made what people had been telling me was seeing this video (of instructing kids) on youtube:
I watched this YouTube video and tried it in six inches or so. It worked on green and blue runs but when I tried it on steeper stuff... well, it wasn’t so good, which leads me to believe it’s a user error! I am so jealous of all these people who have these amazing powder days because my experience with powder has been pretty frustrating. I hear “whoo hoo!” all the way down the run but it’s not me doing the shouting. Skiing powder makes me feel like a newbie all over again. Low visibility doesn’t help and today the low visibility, well, I’m in the lodge trying to recover. Lol.
Eventually, I figured out that I just need to keep on top of the skis, which means adjusting constantly where the centred is based on what the snow is doing to the skis
How do you do this?! I get centered just in time to run over a hidden bump that slams my knees into my chest. That sends me to back seat and well, you know what that means.
 

mustski

Angel Diva
I watched this YouTube video and tried it in six inches or so. It worked on green and blue runs but when I tried it on steeper stuff... well, it wasn’t so good, which leads me to believe it’s a user error! I am so jealous of all these people who have these amazing powder days because my experience with powder has been pretty frustrating. I hear “whoo hoo!” all the way down the run but it’s not me doing the shouting. Skiing powder makes me feel like a newbie all over again. Low visibility doesn’t help and today the low visibility, well, I’m in the lodge trying to recover. Lol.

How do you do this?! I get centered just in time to run over a hidden bump that slams my knees into my chest. That sends me to back seat and well, you know what that means.
I have the same issues. I just don't get to practice in powder much. I only have one day this season where it got above my boot tops and it was noticiably more difficult. I feel as if I fight to stay centered on my skis and that I am always being tossed back. I have powder skis. They help, but I wouldn't even try in waste deep !
 

snoWYmonkey

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I do have a dear friend, who has lived in Jackson Hole for over 30 years. She never did ski the resort and was a backcountry skier for her first 20 years. She is phenomenal in powder, but just now, literally, with a resort only new man in her life, learning to ski groomers. I can attest to how good she is in powder of all varieties and how corderoy really does not favor her style of skiing.

Who knows, maybe your intermediate friends do find it more forgiving, or since skiing is such a mental game, their head somehow is more in the game when it is snowing and powdery?
 

novium

Certified Ski Diva
It's been a while since I posted this, and I think I've got it figured out a little bit. The rockers are part of it, but primarily, I've come to think that the fact that they are beginner skiers actually helps them. One friend in particular skis skis that are way too short for her, so she basically never uses her edges, has to stay dead center on the skis, and does not shift her weight side to side. She has no piste muscle memory. In comparison, even when I'm trying to stay centered on my skis, I'm still getting forward, still shifting my weight to one ski or the other.

I recently bought new boots, and my bootfitter did a terrible job of adjusting my ski bindings, so that the boots moved back nearly an *inch* from center. Suddenly, floating in powder became massively easier (everything else became a battle). That really got me thinking about how even when I thought I was staying centered, I was probably getting forward.
 

Littlesonique

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I am a blue skier and did powder for the first time this year... I fell some but I did find it easier in some ways and a whole heck of a lot more fun than staying on the runs.

Powder slows you down so you need less skill :rotf:
 

dloveski

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I'm an OK skier and love 'powder'--and find it easier to do than carving properly. But truly bottomless carefree powder runs are a treat---but the pow does not last and the competition for first tracks is fierce. The runs get trashed pretty fast these days, then it's 'packed powder' and requires a little different approach. So, I agree with earlier posts, powder can mean very different things to different people and on different runs and resorts. And equipment absolutely matters.

Few powder days are alike. Some are like floating on air and others kick my butt and I'm done in three hard runs. To me, I go for untracked snow (which requires some combination of luck, knowledge, and timing) and just cuz it's 'powder' doesn't mean it's bottomless! In fact, it's what's underneath---like a shark in the ocean----all the snow/bumps/ice you cannot see. So just point and shoot on what you think is powder is not going to work. I'ts hard to ski bumps you cannot see under that smooth powder.
 

dloveski

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
caveat: big difference between fresh powder on groomers (really fun and a treat) and off-piste powder (thus the what's underneath post earlier). I recommend pow on groomers as a way to get hooked. and it is a kind of addiction of sorts.
 

Belgiangirl

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Starting to ski ungroomed terrain was kind of a mindset thing for me. Was absolutely terrified seeing my BF ski off the groomed trails in the beginning - even if it was under a lift line where I could see him top to bottom. I hadn't skied for over a decade but was still a solid intermediate, skiing anything groomed from blue to black over here. Then on the very last day of that first trip, we got snowed in and had an unexpected extra day of skiing with powder everywhere. I decided to just have faith and told him I'd follow him wherever he went, but to take it easy. He was the best, took me to some mellow terrain and practiced with me all day.

I think I'm a better 'powder' skier at this moment than I am on groomers. The right gear definitely helps a ton too! Getting off those 70-something mm skis was an eye-opener :smile: Falling is also less likely to have nasty consequences, unless you're skiing rock solid crud it's so much softer to land than groomers.
 

TeleChica

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
In terms of anticipating bumps etc under the snow, I think it helps to keep an athletic stance, hips, knees, ankles all slightly bent. Must easier to absorb uneven terrain that way.
 

cskis88

Certified Ski Diva
No idea what the trick is. Occasionally I get a taste of what all the fuss is on a not-so-steep run where I can just sort of squiggle down, no edges, no loopy turns (buttering??), with a reasonable amount of speed. My freeride instructor went face first in some powder (it was untracked because just opened, but the snow had been there for a couple of days). We in the lesson were all of more or less the same ability (advanced skiers looking to get out of respective comfort zones and into the expert double-black runs), managed to get down the steep part of the gully mostly okay (I got stuck at the bottomw of the steep part and kind of sat down), but as the run flattened out a bit, half the group, including the instructor fell. I was on new skis (Blizzard Sheeva 10s) that are the widest skis I've ever tried. The skis help, but they're not magic. I'm still kind of a mess in powder. I have a tough time getting used to the speed changes that I don't intitiate, hence I fall forward more often than I'd like to.
 

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