Powder days are overrated.

[raisingarizona]

Unpopular opinion…..

Powder days at most resorts aren’t what everyone cracks them up to be. Now before you all bust out your pitchforks here me out.

My home hill has become very successful. Almost too successful imho. When the snow arrives the hype train unloads an ungodly amount of Phoenix folks wanting that post for their Instagram. A weekend powder day is basically unbearable. If we’re having a real winter we can generally escape the madness by going back country ski touring but when there’s limited terrain and conditions out of area are too thin you are out of luck.

Every once in a while we get a midweek sleeper day and those really are the best but all too often if it snows in town schools close for the day and all of flagstaff shows up anyways. During a midweek pow day with limited terrain you better be there for the first hour because after that the fresh snow is gone! It’s a frenzy for that hour and if you want first chair or even tenth chair you better be there an hour before they load.

I used to be that powder snow snob years ago but I’ve sort of moved on. I actually prefer wind whipped cream or buff over the blower. Blower is overrated. It’s slow, blinding and if you don’t have enough pitch, downright annoying. Blower also makes take offs for big airs harder to calculate. I also prefer carvy packed pow, chalky alpine steeps and soft/ish bumps over blower! Yup, I said that. I like going fast. Not sort of fast but full fucking throttle, better have your goggles on or tears will be pouring off your cheeks adrenaline pumping fast! Blower feels like slow motion. Yeah, face shots are cool but if I really want em I can them by smashing a push pile at 50 miles per hour.

Another thing…..anyone can ski blower and look pretty good doing it. It disguises flaws and hides the lesser skilled skiers behind a curtain of pow. If you want to know who really rips, take a look at the skiers making “normal” conditions look easy. The skiers shredding zipper lines and bending a ski on icy hard pack. Those are the bad asses!

I’m not kidding, my “pow” days are often a day after the storm and the hype train returns the hordes of chasers back home. Give me ski on lifts, packed powder, chalk and sick moguls without the leg breaking obstacles hiding under that fresh blanket of fluff and a 10 mg gummie over the crowded powder day frenzy, rope drop crazed rat race any day of the week.

Ok, end of my rant. ?

 

[tirolski]

Shhhhhhh. Don’t tell folks that. Next thing ya know the folks'll all be wantin some.
To be fair, it holds up better than yer typical cut up pow, which is atypical.
Folks around here don’t ski as much if there’s no snow in their yards.

Don’t eat gummies, ya know sugar is bad for ya.
>70% dark chocolates work well for skiing and ya can use em to tip the workers for their help if they want some.

 

[Ripitz]

Unpopular opinion…..

Powder days at most resorts aren’t what everyone cracks them up to be. Now before you all bust out your pitchforks here me out.

My home hill has become very successful. Almost too successful imho. When the snow arrives the hype train unloads an ungodly amount of Phoenix folks wanting that post for their Instagram. A weekend powder day is basically unbearable. If we’re having a real winter we can generally escape the madness by going back country ski touring but when there’s limited terrain and conditions out of area are too thin you are out of luck.

Every once in a while we get a midweek sleeper day and those really are the best but all too often if it snows in town schools close for the day and all of flagstaff shows up anyways. During a midweek pow day with limited terrain you better be there for the first hour because after that the fresh snow is gone! It’s a frenzy for that hour and if you want first chair or even tenth chair you better be there an hour before they load.

I used to be that powder snow snob years ago but I’ve sort of moved on. I actually prefer wind whipped cream or buff over the blower. Blower is overrated. It’s slow, blinding and if you don’t have enough pitch, downright annoying. Blower also makes take offs for big airs harder to calculate. I also prefer carvy packed pow, chalky alpine steeps and soft/ish bumps over blower! Yup, I said that. I like going fast. Not sort of fast but full fucking throttle, better have your goggles on or tears will be pouring off your cheeks adrenaline pumping fast! Blower feels like slow motion. Yeah, face shots are cool but if I really want em I can them by smashing a push pile at 50 miles per hour.

Another thing…..anyone can ski blower and look pretty good doing it. It disguises flaws and hides the lesser skilled skiers behind a curtain of pow. If you want to know who really rips, take a look at the skiers making “normal” conditions look easy. The skiers shredding zipper lines and bending a ski on icy hard pack. Those are the bad asses!

I’m not kidding, my “pow” days are often a day after the storm and the hype train returns the hordes of chasers back home. Give me ski on lifts, packed powder, chalk and sick moguls without the leg breaking obstacles hiding under that fresh blanket of fluff and a 10 mg gummie over the crowded powder day frenzy, rope drop crazed rat race any day of the week.

Ok, end of my rant. ?

Powder is for queens, corn is for kings.

 

[Sbob]

You need to ski Plattekill!
Steep enough for the deep.
No hoards and plenty stashes hiding days after any storm.

 

[riverc0il]

It is definitely all about the sleeper days. 6-8" not forecasted is great. I will always take shallow and quiet over deep and busy. Let it rain in the cities and snow in the mountains. Or when the masses arrive 3 hours after opening due to sloppy highway conditions.

The biggest dumps are usually not my favorite days of the year due to crowds and how fast things get tracked up. But whenever I think things are too crowded, I stop and remember that I am part of the problem.

My favorite snow condition is about 8-10 inches of semi-dense untracked snow on top of groomed. Flat surface underneath the new snow, just enough lift so you barely touch with the surface, big high speed arcs. Awesome. I get to experience that less than once per year on average.

I'll take the blower too, because we don't get that too often. But... there needs to be a base. Blower on top of thin cover can be ugly. Dense snow is best until the base is solid.

 

[raisingarizona]

You need to ski Plattekill!
Steep enough for the deep.
No hoards and plenty stashes hiding days after any storm.

I was a Plattekill skier in the early 90’s, before Laz’s purchase and when there was a t-bar to the summit. I skied fresh snow in the trees back then there and smashed wall to wall bumps on blockbuster all day long!

There are exceptions to my rant for sure.

 

[Harvey]

Great powder is not the only ingredient in a great powder day.

 

[tirolski]

It is definitely all about the sleeper days. 6-8" not forecasted is great. I will always take shallow and quiet over deep and busy. Let it rain in the cities and snow in the mountains. Or when the masses arrive 3 hours after opening due to sloppy highway conditions.

The biggest dumps are usually not my favorite days of the year due to crowds and how fast things get tracked up. But whenever I think things are too crowded, I stop and remember that I am part of the problem.

My favorite snow condition is about 8-10 inches of semi-dense untracked snow on top of groomed. Flat surface underneath the new snow, just enough lift so you barely touch with the surface, big high speed arcs. Awesome. I get to experience that less than once per year on average.

I'll take the blower too, because we don't get that too often. But... there needs to be a base. Blower on top of thin cover can be ugly. Dense snow is best until the base is solid.

Yup.
First day one year it dumped on Song and they opened before Thanksgiving.
Realized I suck in really deep powder but still enjoy it if that’s all I got.
My friend skis a lot at Snow Ridge and lives closer to that hill, rips pow & loves it.
He’s the one with the red hat and the shit eatin grin in the video. NOV2016. Was there then too, practicing...

 

[Andy_ROC]

Powder days at my home mountain Bristol, well they suck. The place is crowded enough, and as you say pow will draw out the masses, even on a week day. The few I've experienced at Bristol were skied off and in piles in 45 mins.

Now with that said, I've experienced a few amazing pow days at Grand Targhee and Powder Mountain. The 2 days I was at GT it literally nuked snow all day long and the tracks were getting filled in. At Powder they even limits their pass sales to 1500/day and that's for 2,800 acres lift served. Neither was crowded in the least.

Some my best ski days have been when the temps are very cold, maybe even sub-zero and that keeps away the panty waists

 

[Peter Minde]

@raisingarizona agreed. Snow needs a day or 2 to compact and set up, even if it's been groomed. As for the crowds, I'm lucky: the further away from the ski center, the fewer people I generally see. Unsure whether that also applies in alpine.