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Heresy: Are powder days worth the hassle?

Are powder days worth the hassle?

  • I'd step over my sick mother to get a shot

    Votes: 29 25.2%
  • I'll go but only if the lines are short

    Votes: 24 20.9%
  • Probably not, it'll be tracked out in 3 minutes anyway

    Votes: 9 7.8%
  • I'm a powder hound if I'm already on the mountain when it's snowing

    Votes: 37 32.2%
  • Nope, hate the traffic, hate the lines, and all the good groomers are covered

    Votes: 8 7.0%
  • What's a powder day?

    Votes: 8 7.0%

  • Total voters
    115

Bruuuce

My advice is worth what you paid for it.
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I was involved in one true rope drop at Snowbird (the video posted made me think of it). Not interested in ever doing that again. I'll stick to hunting for other options and finding tree stashes or stick to bump runs. Not a great memory (even though I did actually get some nice turns on that run since I was near the front...).
 

Tricia

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Last Friday when you @Andy Mink was on his way to Mt Rose, I was on my way to Squaw to ski with @Bob Barnes and his client. I got caught in traffic so I just chilled and got there when I got there.
Powder days only cause anxiety if you let it.

I've skied enough powder days when I got there for first chair (or close to it) and it was skied out within the first hour or two. I've found that everyone skis hard, tracks it out and then leaves, so I stick around and ski the leftovers which usually include some freshies.

And if I'm skiing with Andy, I know he's not going to snake my line because I'm usually in front of him. :)
 

falcon_o

Getting on the lift
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Rochester, NY
Only way to experience a snogasism:

An overwhelming feeling of euphoria experienced when making first tracks in champagne powder
 

Tricia

The Velvet Hammer
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Only way to experience a snogasism:

An overwhelming feeling of euphoria experienced when making first tracks in champagne powder
@Bob Barnes says, if you want to get a good taste of powder, you gotta eat some.
 

CalG

Out on the slopes
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It is the incredible smoothness of motion through undisturbed snow that calls me out each time.
Seeking a return to the white room. Floating, Breathless. Alive
 

Jim Kenney

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Gonna revisit this question soon as a good storm is coming to Wasatch over the next 48 hrs and I may be in the middle of it.:D
 

CalG

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We need a Powder Wednesday thread.

There would be a lot of GOOD things to say.
 

Guy in Shorts

Tree Psycho
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Perfect Powder Day is a figment of the imagination. Reality rarely lives up to the dream. Hunt down then kill every piece of powder in my world. Number of trophy turns are few. Living in the East has it's limits.
 

Tom K.

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Had a good one during a good week at JH in late January.

Must have been eleven inch Wednesday you say? Nope. Damn good, but sun was not our friend (it seldom is at JH). And people, of course.

It was two inch Monday, when there was a solid 6 inches on Thunder by 9 AM. A two inch report does not bring the hordes. Love those magic days when it dumps between 6 AM snow report time and 9 AM opening time!

Best two inch day of my life!
 

mishka

Getting off the lift
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Jun 15, 2016
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341
I would say sometimes you win, sometimes you lose when rope drops on powder day. Chinese downhill is not something I would like to participate in At the Same time have to put effort to get there with hope stampede not happened.

pictures from snowbird last week, the day after storm
 

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Jim Kenney

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went up to snowbird today 2/16/20 expecting huge crowd on powder day 8" sunday of holiday weekend, but it was ikon blackout day and slopes looked like a light weekday.
gadzoom lift line at noon, it was like this over much of the mtn all day, unbelievable:
1581908607626.png

very glad I went up.
will try again tomorrow as more snow is expected, but blackout is lifted and road will be closed 530-8am for avi mitigation - back to more aggravating scenario i'm afraid.
 
Thread Starter
TS
Andy Mink

Andy Mink

Everyone loves spring skiing but not in January
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I look at that photo and videos from Vail last week and think, yeah, getting run down by an undetermined number of powder hounds before ending up in a huge line would TOTALLY be worth it. Oh, heck no!
 
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Tricia

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Perfect Powder Day is a figment of the imagination. Reality rarely lives up to the dream. Hunt down then kill every piece of powder in my world. Number of trophy turns are few. Living in the East has it's limits.
The crazy thing is, the surprise powder days are the perfect powder days. I remember when I moved to Tahoe and was skiing Northstar a lot, hitting low angle tree lines with no one but Phil in sight. We called those days great "F" ing days.
Fun
Fresh tracks
Free refills

After skiing all day we'd talk to friends who skied other resorts that were prone to wind hold and hear how lousy the day was for them because of limited lift capacity and things getting tracked out in the first hour on the runs that were open. I was clueless to such things coming from Michigan and skiing Northstar upon my Tahoe arrival.
Now that I primarily ski Squaw/Alpine and Mt Rose, I have a better understand of the lift lines and tracked out conditions.
 

Marker

Making fresh tracks
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Perfect Powder Day is a figment of the imagination. Reality rarely lives up to the dream. Hunt down then kill every piece of powder in my world. Number of trophy turns are few. Living in the East has it's limits.
There was one day last season were we skied mid-week all day in fresh refills, but not much untracked. I really needed the Fischers that day, which attracted a number of comments in the gondola. The chop was a lot of fun. Too bad I've not been lucky so far this year...
 

SSSdave

life is short precious ...don't waste it
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For advanced skiers that can ski trees and have studied the topography, Northstar on fresh snow days with low snow elevation levels has IMO the best potential for untracked lines all day of the north Tahoe resorts. Unfortunately at most of Northstar's slope elevations, many of our maritime winter Pacific cold fronts come in too warm, leaving heavy snow or worse Sierra Cement, P-ing on the base, so Rose becomes the better choice. The wise strategy is to understand when Northstar is the overwhelming better idea.
 

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