Wondering what type and if anybody uses them. Last year spent 1/2 hr of a powder day looking for a ski. Turned out to be 30 feet above where I landed (crashed). Don't want them attached to me just behind the ski. Are they a pita?
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Powder Ribbon??
- Thread starter kayco53
- Start date
powder chords
Long shoe laces work fine. Get the party colored ones. Tuck 'em under the powder cuffs on your pants.
Don't forget them when you kick out at the mid station bar. Skis with flashy ribbons strewn about just don't cut it.
Long shoe laces work fine. Get the party colored ones. Tuck 'em under the powder cuffs on your pants.
Don't forget them when you kick out at the mid station bar. Skis with flashy ribbons strewn about just don't cut it.
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- Nov 11, 2016
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I use leashes. As do many of the hard core powder hounds at Mt. Rose. Powder cords are better than nothing but I have spent considerable time searching for skis with powder cords on them. My leashes are nice short G3 cables but many of the others' are just runaway straps of 70s-vintage Salomons. Much less of a PITA than searching for a ski while others tear up all the good pow.
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Use 8' black parachute cord. Works fine and always a good thing to have around anyway.
8 FEET??? Seems like that could be dangerous, causing a ski to "snap back" at you.
They are not connected to me, just secured to the bindings and tucked up inside the snow cuffs of my pants. Have used them to carry skis for boot packs a time or two. Simple easy cheap and versatile.
I learned the hard way that, when you take a tumble/roll, you travel a lot farther than you think you do. Even if you think you're sure you know how far you fell before you stopped, if you haven't found your ski(s) within a couple of minutes, then start looking higher up the hill.
Also, powder cords/ribbons are only a pain if you ride trams/gondolas a lot. If you only take your skis off once or twice a day, then they're not a problem.
Survey tape is kind'a flimsy. Any bright colored tape or cord about 4' long works very well. They don't cost a lot in a ski shop. Even less in a hardware store. If a cord, a big knot or a big button on the end helps it float to the surface to be easier to find. Attach the cord to your outside brake (so it doesn't get cut by a sharp ski edge). I also put a big knot just where it goes under my elastic cuff to help hold it in place. I've never yet remembered to take them off the brakes before I stumble in for lunch....
To find a buried ski, start looking where the ski came off, not where you finally stopped sliding. The skis usually don't travel far. Use the tail of the other ski as a knife slicing through the snow to locate the buried ski.
To find a buried ski, start looking where the ski came off, not where you finally stopped sliding. The skis usually don't travel far. Use the tail of the other ski as a knife slicing through the snow to locate the buried ski.
Although most of the time even without flags or cords, finding a ski buried beneath snow won't take too long with x by y search with the length of whatever other ski. But sometimes that is not the case and that can be an expensive bummer as well as waste a good day of skiing fresh. After really deep dumps of light snow like we have most winters about Tahoe, when skiing steep slopes, a ski can really find some deep spots to end up well away from any surface bomb hole. Also decades ago while skiing steep Wolverine at Alpine Meadows I lost a ski in about a foot of new light snow and searched quite awhile unsuccessfully. Apparently before that light foot deep fresh snow had been a period that firmed up a smooth snow surface. At some point I looked way down the slope and noticed the nose of my ski up against the trunk of a mountain hemlock tree. The ski had traveled all the way down below the snow surface probably against the smoother firm layer even with the break released!
Here's the link to that Pow Tales site that I think is a good product though have not used them personally:
https://powtales.com/index.html
There were a couple lengthy discussions on epic about powder skiing retention devices and though like above some related they used simple flags were rather condemned for functional reasons. I used flags decades ago and soon came to understand their issues.
One still tends to see some on fresh snow days using thin plastic neon orange surveying tape as flags. They do sometimes get under one's ski edges or snagged on boot or bindings causing a tangle especially on windy storm skiing days that is of course often when fresh snow is best. Also are an issue in lift lines when they get beneath other persons skis. And per below may not always float above the surface of light snow. On the positive, are cheap, light, and easily deployed once attached to skis.
One of the first over the counter products decades ago that I bought were orange cords a few feet long. Recall they have a plastic thingy at the end. The purpose of the thingy was to provide something larger than the flag or cord to float above snow. Otherwise, especially in light powder conditions, cords or flags would sometimes deploy out without any part remaining above the snow. In the Pow Tale design I am not sure if that is overcome. The worst issue with the orange cords was that on some near freezing days, the glob of cord that was supposed to be pushed up underneath elastic pant cuffs, would become iced up and then deploy as a blob of stuck together ice and cord not able to remain above the snow surface.
I thus designed my own cords per the following. Instead of a cord went with a one inch or so wide synthetic fabric neon colored webbing that was thin and soft enough that it could be folded up at about 3 inch lengths. Will suggest going down to a sewing and fabric store. Cotton absorbs water then may ice up in a blob.
At one end attach an inch or so diameter piece of foam maybe 3/8 inch thick with a purpose of after skis have departed from one's boot, float, planing above a snow surface to keep a flag visible. On skis find a spot at the back of bindings to attach a clip and at times have drilled a small hole through part of the binding plastic through which stuck a small metal split key ring. At the ski end of the flag placed fastening clip that I could readily attach in fumbling numb fingers to the split key ring.
I then used a hot iron to create folding points every 3 inches or so along the length of the flag that would improve the ability to quickly fold it back up after deploying.
Near the ski end of the flag, pushed a small elastic hair loop and over the flag with a purpose of going around the folded flag keeping that compact. The Pow Tale design uses a Velcro pocket that is probably more functional.
When skiing, with the flag leave a few inches unfolded to reach from the ski split key ring to one's pant elastic cuff under which the folded flag is stuck. I don't tend to fall much in fresh powder and as long as the pitch is not too steep, use a relaxed bouncing style to go long distances. But when I have fallen over decades, the flags have always been visible above the snow.
Here's the link to that Pow Tales site that I think is a good product though have not used them personally:
https://powtales.com/index.html
There were a couple lengthy discussions on epic about powder skiing retention devices and though like above some related they used simple flags were rather condemned for functional reasons. I used flags decades ago and soon came to understand their issues.
One still tends to see some on fresh snow days using thin plastic neon orange surveying tape as flags. They do sometimes get under one's ski edges or snagged on boot or bindings causing a tangle especially on windy storm skiing days that is of course often when fresh snow is best. Also are an issue in lift lines when they get beneath other persons skis. And per below may not always float above the surface of light snow. On the positive, are cheap, light, and easily deployed once attached to skis.
One of the first over the counter products decades ago that I bought were orange cords a few feet long. Recall they have a plastic thingy at the end. The purpose of the thingy was to provide something larger than the flag or cord to float above snow. Otherwise, especially in light powder conditions, cords or flags would sometimes deploy out without any part remaining above the snow. In the Pow Tale design I am not sure if that is overcome. The worst issue with the orange cords was that on some near freezing days, the glob of cord that was supposed to be pushed up underneath elastic pant cuffs, would become iced up and then deploy as a blob of stuck together ice and cord not able to remain above the snow surface.
I thus designed my own cords per the following. Instead of a cord went with a one inch or so wide synthetic fabric neon colored webbing that was thin and soft enough that it could be folded up at about 3 inch lengths. Will suggest going down to a sewing and fabric store. Cotton absorbs water then may ice up in a blob.
At one end attach an inch or so diameter piece of foam maybe 3/8 inch thick with a purpose of after skis have departed from one's boot, float, planing above a snow surface to keep a flag visible. On skis find a spot at the back of bindings to attach a clip and at times have drilled a small hole through part of the binding plastic through which stuck a small metal split key ring. At the ski end of the flag placed fastening clip that I could readily attach in fumbling numb fingers to the split key ring.
I then used a hot iron to create folding points every 3 inches or so along the length of the flag that would improve the ability to quickly fold it back up after deploying.
Near the ski end of the flag, pushed a small elastic hair loop and over the flag with a purpose of going around the folded flag keeping that compact. The Pow Tale design uses a Velcro pocket that is probably more functional.
When skiing, with the flag leave a few inches unfolded to reach from the ski split key ring to one's pant elastic cuff under which the folded flag is stuck. I don't tend to fall much in fresh powder and as long as the pitch is not too steep, use a relaxed bouncing style to go long distances. But when I have fallen over decades, the flags have always been visible above the snow.
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- Nov 11, 2016
- Posts
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It´s 6 or 7 inches. But I ski tele so my boot buckles have a D-ring to which it clips.
Once I finally gave up and started walking down through the trees and found it about 50 yards lower than where I fell and searched. Lost another that was found by a troller when the snow melted in the spring. He said it was about 20 feet off the trail in the woods. That puts it 30-40 feet from where I fell. A few feet of cord wouldn't have helped either time.
We spent 45 minutes looking with 4 adults and 4 kids for a ski that came off in a Bowl last year. Just as were about to give up one eagle ended member of our group spotted the faint double lines of a ski brake in the chopped up powder snow, followed that 200’ downhill into the trees and there it was, hidden by the overhanging branches. We had looked all along that tree line, but it was completely shielded from view.
Cords might have helped, if they had stayed out from underneath the branches.
Cords might have helped, if they had stayed out from underneath the branches.
- Joined
- Nov 11, 2016
- Posts
- 540
The vertical red wire connecting the binding to the boot via a metal clip.
Widely available, e.g., https://www.bergsskishop.com/telemark-binding-accessories-p45684c2775.html
Mine are bright pink and say "ATOMIC" on them. They were available in a blister pack.
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