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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

fatbob

Not responding
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There isn't an answer for sloppy seconds where someone has already put in the traverse/ outtrack are sometimes better
 

martyg

Making fresh tracks
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I just avoid powder days, until February. Those early pow days see every beater with a pick-up and shitty tires driving like ass-clowns. Too much agro in lift lines, on the hill, etc.

Once February hits, people are starting to get over winter here. They want to get on rivers. They want to get on their bikes. Shoveling has lost its shine. Once February hits, I am all about powders days, but also love laying trenches after it has been groomed down, on bluebird days, when everyone has gone home.
 

martyg

Making fresh tracks
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There isn't an answer for sloppy seconds where someone has already put in the traverse/ outtrack are sometimes better

Flat light. Above timberline. Skiing inside of a ping pong ball. I am all about other's tracks to add depth perception.
 

SSSdave

life is short precious ...don't waste it
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Silicon Valley
DodgeR-au_ch1a.jpg


No poll selection for this person.

I as a senior single will bother to do the 3>6 hour drives for powder days when the snow is deep and light enough plus a few other facts I'll use to decide. In terms of quality, there is fresh powder, and then there is Powder, and then there is POWDER. Sierra Cement...nope if that means the drive first. For Powder and POWDER if winds are manageable, will also storm ski as have all the clothing, head gear, and experience minimizing unpleasant weather like I just did this Tuesday at Northstar. And note even at popular resorts few ski more than a run or 3 while it is cold and actively snowing.

As a decades old California skier able to ski like a bouncing rabbit in tight trees, that knows resorts, lifts, and terrain where crowds won't be as much an issue, I don't usually have much of the long lift line issues nor terrain gets tracked out too quickly problem. In any case, far less crowded mid week is always going to be a positive element in the decision versus weekends. I can ski at any of my 3 Epic Senior Tahoe Local Value Pass resorts and be skiing untracked long after 98% of others think its tracked out and are resigned to cut up. Am amazed at how so many advanced skiers never figure these things out. For example you Squaw Alpine skiers would find a whole lot more untracked in Homewood and Northstar trees.

The most limiting mindset is the notion that only skiing steep powder is worthwhile as each resort often has lower gradient areas especially out of lift and trail views that are predictably ignored. But even perfectly in view of lifts and even resort bases may be left untracked if not steep like the above I ran 4 times at day's end. To understand where such zones are one ought analyze trail maps plus satellite and topographic maps with caltopo dot com your best resource. A key too, is knowing where fall lines are blocked by rocky and dense tree zones and difficult to traverse into slopes. Much more of course haha.

On some big fresh snow low elevation snow days, especially when highways close, will ski the small Dodge Ridge resort in the Central Sierra that is a shorter drive and has versus Tahoe resorts, far fewer advanced skiers/boarders able to get into the woods, has abundant dense trees and obscure places for an advanced hound to traverse into and is just $59 with coupon for we 65+. And in fact that is what is queued up for tomorrow given the current major cold storm dump occurring as I type.
 
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Jerez

Skiing the powder
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It depends on where I'm skiing. If it's my little home mountain, I'm stepping over Mom because it will mean a full day of freshies and fun.

If I'm at a big resort with crazy mayhem, then no, I'll wait for the first frenzy to pass. I remember one big day at Mary Jane. We were in the maze when they started the lifts and the lunacy at the top was awful. People running each other down to get first tracks. Yes the first run was super, but it was not as good as it could be because it was not the relaxed, lovely passage through silent snow but a shit show to get down before someone cut us off. I had much more fun a couple of days later when they opened some new terrain and we knew the mountain well enough to get some sweet turns in the trees.
 

tch

What do I know; I'm just some guy on the internet.
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Interesting post, @Andy Mink! Even tho' powder days are supposed to be the Holy Grail, I've come to see many of them as the Holy Hell, esp. at larger, well-known resorts (I'm looking at you, Alta/Snowbird!). Huge traffic jams, aggro skiing/line behavior, often-failed expectations. I'm just too old for this sh*t. I LOVE powder: don't get me wrong. But the best days are the unexpected ones, when they arrive with no advance warning or when it suddenly starts dumping while I'm there.

The only other approach that works well here in the east is to drive up to a smaller area WHILE it is snowing. Folks will be hunkering down, buying out bread and milk at the supermarkets, and generally waiting for bad weather to end. If you don't mind driving in snowstorms, you can sometimes get epic, deserted days.
 

mdf

entering the Big Couloir
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Well, I voted "probably not", but then I was thinking about Monday's powder day at Snowbird.
I did break trail in 3 feet of snow on a horizontal/slightly uphill traverse for about a hundred feet to get 2 good turns in an untracked nook that I saw.
I guess I really say no to the frenzy because I figure I'm not going to get to the front of the pack no matter what.
You guys are right that it is different with late spring powder days -- then you can win!
 

mdf

entering the Big Couloir
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With those Navigator 85’s on, this was you? -
Pretty much.
On a different run @cosmoliu were trying to find scraps of fresh that we saw from the Peruvian chair. We took turns breaking trail. I get to the crest of the small rise and head down, directly under the chair.
I went straight down, but it wasn't enough and I drifted to a stop.
Snowboarders on the chair called out, "thank you, skiers!"

Unfortunately, we did not swing wide enough, and basically got nothing for our efforts.
 

Spooky

Getting off the lift
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Not gonna lie, I love the pow, but I have low standards. If it's soft anything, I'm good to go.

I may go up early, I may not. Alta/Bird can get intense, but it's more about storm days and the rope drops the day or two after for me. I prefer touring for pow, so if it's soft in the resort :cool:
 

Posaune

sliding
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I've skied for a long time and gotten many, many powder days. I don't charge. I usually sit back and watch. Almost all of my skiing is at two hills so I know the terrain well and I go where others don't. I wait for the lifts to open, put on my skis, get at the end of the line, and then follow my plan. Most of the time I get great turns without the craziness.

Last week I pulled this off in spades at Stevens Pass; everyone was heading to one side of the mountain and I chose the other. I got uncut turns all day on my side of the mountain. This week I got another full day of powder at Baker using a similar strategy. Charging hard is too much work, and then you have to deal with the a-holes.

I only ski weekdays and if I were to hit a 5 minute line I would pack it up for the day. I won't wait that long.
 

4aprice

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I love powder but I don't chase it. I ski where I ski and when I ski and if I'm lucky enough to have the powder be there then excellent.

Sums up my view pretty well. Certainly not here in the northeast even with a home bump 45 mins away. Hopes are it snows while I'm on one of my trips out west, sometimes I get lucky other times I don't. Last year was lucky enough to catch 3 on my 1 trip but there have been plenty of trips where it didn't snow at all (none of those trips were bad).
 

AmyPJ

Skiing the powder
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If the stars align, as they did yesterday, or Sunday, for that matter, then there's nothing better. But I won't get caught up in the frenzy. I take a similar approach as Posaune and go where the masses don't. I don't need the gnarliest lines and such to enjoy fresh tracks, so I take the lower lifts while everyone else goes high (unless it's a warm storm, then the snow down low is pretty challenging.)

Yesterday, we lucked out and got fresh tracks from the day prior because one side of the mountain was on wind hold all day. It had snowed 6-ish inches while the wind hold was on. We immediately headed that way and got two runs in before it was skied out. :ogbiggrin:
 

Pdub

best day ever
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Last year at Jackson Hole it snowed around 10" every day and by the end of the week I was praying for sunny weather just to put an end to endless AM lift lines and the exhausting powder panic that makes every one crazy and a little inconsiderate. I'd rather ski regular old good conditions than battle the masses for 2 untracked turns. The only way to get powder turns these days is 1. backcountry 2. snowcat/heli 3. small ski areas way off the beaten track
 

Scruffy

Making fresh tracks
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But the best days are the unexpected ones, when they arrive with no advance warning or when it suddenly starts dumping while I'm there.

The only other approach that works well here in the east is to drive up to a smaller area WHILE it is snowing. Folks will be hunkering down, buying out bread and milk at the supermarkets, and generally waiting for bad weather to end. If you don't mind driving in snowstorms, you can sometimes get epic, deserted days.

Yep, skiing the storm is the best solution to overcrowded pow days the day after the storm. I usually, if I can time it, ski the storm, as the mountain is usually empty if mid-week, then arrive late the next day after all the pow-hounds are gone, cause they'll be done by 10:00, and ski the chop that they hate, and I love. Also I'll hit the woods for pow, or go skin something if there's enough of a base, which is getting more rare these days.
 

luliski

Making fresh tracks
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The best powder days are when it starts snowing when I'm already up the hill. I will drive in storms sometimes, if I have a few days off work, and don't have to worry about getting stranded and having to call in sick. I am so sad that I am working tomorrow, I have been trying desperately to get someone to switch days with me! So I guess I will try for powder days, but the timing has to be right.
 

crgildart

Gravity Slave
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It was fun until fat skis ruined it all. Not going to structure the rest of my life around making sure I'm on the mountain at 7:30am unless I'm already there sleeping on the mountain. Last time I got up at 5 and drove up in a really wild blizzard was over 5 years ago. It was amazing! Had the whole place practically to myself, WEEKDAY. But, not all that worth it overall these days. Passed on a couple other opportunities that would have cost me PTO or inconvenience. Now that there's hundreds of tail surfers there clogging things up I'm probably out if it involves a lot of effort just to get there.
 

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