Skiing in Tough Powder.

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Skiing in Tough Powder.

Postby piggyslayer » Fri Dec 05, 2003 7:19 pm

Problem description:
Powder conditions can be quite diversified. A popular classification everybody talks about is based on the moisture content (light Utah fluff, heavy wet snow, Sierra Cement, etc). I believe that there are other varieties of powder conditions and they feel way different from typical fresh 12?? no matter how heavy or light it is. Here are examples:
? Untouched snow 2-4 days old or older. Such snow, especially when exposed to lots of sun, tends to loose its ?elasticity? in the mechanical sense (meaning it does not ?give back?). Skiing it feels like WALKING ON QUICKSAND, far more so than in the wet/heavy snow. Fresh powder (especially dry powder) accumulates energy during the turn and this energy is returned at the end of the turn aiding the PMTS ?release?. Old powder becomes ?plastic?, it does not give back, if you push on your skis the skis stay down.
? Layers of untouched snow some light, some heavy. Things are good if I float in the top layer, as soon as my skis dig a tad deeper I am abruptly slowed down- jerked back.
? Combinations of the two above.

Questions:
What other strategies in addition to good powder habits: even weight distribution between skis, proper fore-aft balance, lots of patience, picturing one big fat ski instead of two, etc., can be advised to improve ski technique in the types of snow described above?

I think good approach in such conditions is to try staying light all the time (by trying to stay afloat or close to it?that is why fat skis are great in powder?that is one of the reasons why my skinny wife was doing way, way better than me on the A-Basin East Wall 4 days after the memorable last year winter storm has ended). Am I right?

What about the speed. If staying close to the surface of the ?quicksand? snow is the goal, the speed should be my friend. Am I right?

I was wondering if Harald or other PTMS experts can write some comments on what to do in such conditions?

In particular, are there any good drills preparing for tough ?plastic? powder?
Powder drill shown on the second ?Anyone can be an Expert Skier? tape and described in the book (p. 168-169 ?Hopping warm-up?) shows a skier (Harald) bouncing up and down in the snow. I love (always did love to do) this exercise.

I was wondering if proper way to perform this exercise should be achieved by actively pulling up/flexing the legs to achieve the ?float? as opposed to extending the legs (in the middle-between two floats) and simply relaxing the legs so the energy accumulated under the skis generates the float.
In reality the two approaches are on two extremes and my current skiing is somewhere on the continuum between these two. I was wondering if moving closer to the ?pull up? not ?push down? approach could lead to an improvement.

Thanks a lot. Hope to see more of the PMTS hats on the slopes!
Piggy Slayer
let the piggy breathe
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Postby chicken » Sun Dec 07, 2003 9:10 am

I appreciate (a lot) a qualifier which I do not deserve, but resent that Piggyslayer attributes my last-year experience to my skis and not to my skills!!! Seriously, I was scared to move at all, and so failed to commit zillion typical errors. I just stayed ?on the skis?, letting them do what they wanted. Hardly an approach to recommend?especially since at the end the skis ?wanted? to bury their tips in a small hump. Guess what happened next?Bless water-proof pants!
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Postby The Big Show » Mon Dec 08, 2003 5:16 pm

hiya piggy,

Here's what I do in the milk. Keep in mind I'm not a ski instructor. Just some hack who likes to rip.

1) Keep the tips pointed down the hill
2) Concentrate on the float
3) Don't let my pole baskets fall behind (when the drag behind me it puts me in the back seat)

Other than that, I just focus on what HH talks about in the 2 video. It works.
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Re: Skiing in Tough Powder

Postby piggyslayer » Wed Dec 10, 2003 9:17 pm

Big Show, thanks for the post.

I guess, you are saying that there are no subtle differences in technique between skiing regular "elastic" snow and "plastic" snow with damaged snow-crystal structure.
This quite possibly is the case.

Actually, I regret using the "Though Powder" title.
I have encountered "plastic" snow only few times in my life. At least once, however, it was not powder:
2 weeks of sunshine have passed after the lifts have closed for the season. I decided to hike up and ski down a south facing run (no new snow after the lifts have closed, and this run was groomed many times since last snow storm visited the area). Probably nobody has been on this run in the last 2 weeks. The snow was weird, quite different from typical spring conditions! I could feel layers of snow under my skis being collapsed and destroyed by the impact of my weight without any energy transfer to my skis.

My encounters with "plastic" powder have been more recent and a bit more frequent (still quite rare as it is hard to find untouched powder within Ski area boundaries 4-5 days after the storm) and that is prompted me to refer to "plastic" snow as "tough powder".
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