[Powder etiquette - one person mentioned "...ski the fall line and leave something for the others". Or words to that effect. -@geepers ]
I understand the concept and why it matters... and I have very little experience with powder. But this would be a tough one for me. I'm a meander-er. I tend to wander across the hill in various places looking for particular terrain features or snow conditions. Granted this is mostly on groomers, so maybe as I get more experience it will change.
But the few times I've skied some powder (not untouched at all), the same thing applied to some extent. I don't want to be limited in where I go, and skiing the same repetitive turn the entire way down the fall line is kind of "meh". I'm not sure I could have matched someone else's line even if trying anyway.
I know this is a little old, just checking if you’ve made any progress in your education.
If you realize yet there’s nothing “meh’ about skiing powder even if you maintain a smallish corridor. If not, you still need more powder therapy.
The wandering around a powder field is pretty funny. If you’ve got a heli filming, are doing 50mph, and the avy conditions are seemingly ok, then I can see it. Otherwise, I’m trying to figure where you’ll just have the freedom to go wherever. Certainly not in the back country as that would be dangerous.
Lets say your at Snowmass skiing the Big Burn area with 12 inches of powder. That area is ridiculously wide A quarter mile? Now on your own you could make some large turns, “wandering”. They will be somewhat limited because it’s not very sterp and you need to keep up some speed or fun goes away and drudgery ensues walking in pow. But you could do it.
So now imagine your with a group of a dozen you’ve spent all week with. Your “wandering” will now cut into someone else’s path and they have to ski through your tracks. Yeah, not the worst thing in the world, but there's a big difference between untracked and tracked. (Possibly more pow therapy is needed to understand this.) So, by doing you self expressed wandering through a pow field, you’ve deprived others of the profound experience of skiing untracked. For no good reason. Were you saving a child? Helping someone stuck? No, you were mindlessly wandering around, destroying fresh powder for no good reason. Everyone, including you, could have easily enjoy untracked instead, by staying in a corridor. You might be the only one considering that “meh”.