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I prefer corduroy to powder...

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
there, I've said it at last! Powder is vastly overated in my book, hard work, and almost impossible to find your skis in if you fall over, whereas give me some freshly groomed corduroy, ready for me to zoom down, and I'm as happy as Larry.

Comments?
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
depending on what's on my feet, I sometimes prefer pisted runs. And there is something to be said for laying down tracks on fresh corduroy just after the basher has gone over it. Particularly if you can get a bit of speed up, and then get on a lift to admire your work before others ski over it! snowHead
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 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Horses for courses in my book, Kramer.
You're probably not alone in your view - sometimes a really crisp mornings blasting down perfect corduroy takes some beating.
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I used to hate powder for the same reasons, plus it slowed you down and who wants that eh?
Recently however I've started to really enjoy powder - makes me feel like a pro even if I don't look like it!! Same skis, but the technique's getting better snowHead
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Kramer It is easier for me to find powder (or pow-pow at least, giant half-skied mushrooms of it) than fresh corduroy that isn't an ice sheet.

It's what I get for travelling with snowboarders- moaning about runouts and never a Deer Valley trip, woe is me.
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 brian
brian
Guest
Ripping down the piste is good but that floaty thing in the powder is like a drug. Once you've tasted it you yearn for more and more.

Also, there's something deeply satisfying about looking back at a nice set of tracks you've just cut in a pristine stretch of the white stuff !

So cord good, powder better in my book.

Now, good old Scottish windslab on the other hand ......
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 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Someone at the top of this post needs a good slappin'
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
I must admit I agree with Brian (maybe its because I'm a bit of a baby in powder or just because my knees are not what they used to be), but I would rather be on a newly pisted piste too. Maybe we should have a vote on this one?
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I prefer a newly pisted piste, as well - but that's because I'm not a very good skier!
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My favorite would be 10cm / 4 inches of fresh powder on a nicely pisted slope in bright sunshine, the best of everything Laughing
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D G Orf wrote:
My favorite would be 10cm / 4 inches of fresh powder on a nicely pisted slope in bright sunshine, the best of everything Laughing


I'm with you on this, it's superb when you're on the first lift up! Very Happy

AW
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 And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
Love powder, love corduroy, love hard, favourite = softish spring snow. Very Happy
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 So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
I've never met anyone yet who can ski powder well but prefers corduroy.

If you can break the frustration barrier there's another dimension to explore in powder skiing. I want to ski the mountain, not just the prepared highway/autobahn/motorway.

http://skimountaineering.com
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
I'm inclined to agree with easiski. If you're not polygamous with snow, you're likely to be frustrated in love. Powder's just too rare.

And, yes, a few inches of spring snow on a firm base can be sensational. They say you must know the aspect of slopes and follow the sun...
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Will some of you idiots buy a snowboard and learn why God gives us powder!
Sheesh . . . you'd think that some of you had a problem with that thought.
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
I'll vote for spring snow, just behind any sort of snow at all of course Very Happy
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Masque, well said even boarding badly in powder is like............well can't really explain but it's an amasing sensation just sitting back slowly floating in the snow snowHead snowHead Cool , although carving a thin line down fresh corduroy before the everyone else is quite good as well to blow away the drinks from the night (mornign Wink ) is quite satisfying!!!!!
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 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
I'm with David G and easiski here, spring snow is the best surface of all.
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Quote:

carving a thin line down fresh corduroy before the everyone else

TRAITOR!
'first tracks' and 'boarder' is an oxymoron and physically improbable.
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Why? There's nothing oxymoronic there, and how does it relate to the quote? As I say, it's best to enjoy every type of snow, by learning the techniques that work best in each medium, be it powder, spring, ice, crust, corduroy, corrugated steel or any of the other varieties dutifully recorded by physicsman.

Variety is the spice of life. And long may it be enjoyed by skiers, boarders, monoskiers, bladers, bin baggers, langlaufers, people who go down ski slopes on inflatable rafts etc. etc. etc.
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Quote:

And, yes, a few inches of spring snow on a firm base can be sensational. They say you must know the aspect of slopes and follow the sun...


Isn't that called "Hero snow".

I must admit that I like the powder when it's dry and light and fluffy, and not at all cut up, but how often do you find conditions like that? Most of the time it's a bit damp and sticky, and hard work, for not a great deal of reward.
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 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
How exactly would you define spring snow?
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 brian
brian
Guest
Masque,

Yeah, and once you've bought your board, go for the typical boarder trick of sideslipping down vast tracts of the fresh stuff, using it all up in milliseconds rolling eyes

You guys are the SUVs of the powder world
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brian, more like the SUV towing a caravan - swerves all over the place when everyone wants to go in a straight line, shouldn't be allowed, can't cope with narrow roads, or ones going flat/uphill, and when they stop, they take up a lot more space, and are a nuisance to NORMAL, POLITE, CONSIDERATE road users...
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 brian
brian
Guest
johnboy, It's part melted and refrozen so it goes that kind of granulated way. If you get it just as the sun has softened the top surface, it's magic.
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brian, I'm sure I can find more than a few witnesses to show that I've just as much antipathy towards incompetents side-slipping a board as I have for those pr*cks on sticks who do even more violation to powder. It’s a matter of skills development and the macho ideal of always trying to ski runs that are beyond our level - without taking instruction or time to practice and refine skills. In most piste situations a well ridden board is just as capable of carving the same line as a skier (and I can prove that assertion). My skill lever is not good enough to attempt that on a world class downhill, but I’d argue that it’s possible and that the level of control needed by the boarder is greater, simply by dint of the shorter edge length and the balance factor of that single edge.
Fuxup: you want to take that argument onto the snow? Is it time to start organising the next JWAZ ‘tour d’abuse’?
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 And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
Kramer, I appreciate the realism in your posting. The powder/piste dichotomy is not always helpful and I'm sometimes supicious of those fundamentalists who eulogise the light and fluffy to the exclusion of everything else. In many ways, they are different forms of the same art and I'm not going to sit here and state with the Godly zeal of Calvin that piste skiing is beneath the dignity of experienced skiers-it isn't. To carve a turn on the corduroy, at speed, and feel that you are in harmony with the hill, is a splendid sensation. The ability to ski powder should be seen as a corollary to piste skiing, the former merely equipping you with the additional skills to access more of the mountain. What puts people off skiing powder are the initial difficulties encountered (constant head planting, fear of gaining speed down the fall line and exhaustion) but you need to just stick with it, give it time and patience, and be prepared to listen to a good guide. Of course, you need to modify your technique, but not as radically as you might think.

These days, I don't feel the need to ski off piste if the conditions don't merit it and am happy to ski the pistes-I often get the same amount of pleasure.
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 So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
Well I prefer powder to corduroy but I can appreciate good corduroy too. I agree with others that skiing a well pisted run first thing can be a great sensation.

But better than powder? Not for me. A few hours of perfect powder skiing is the ultimate skiing sensation. The first time you really crack powder skiing is just great. There's nothing like it. However, I'm not sure I'd want to do nothing but powder - variety is great.
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
Kramer wrote:
...I must admit that I like the powder when it's dry and light and fluffy, and not at all cut up, but how often do you find conditions like that? Most of the time it's a bit damp and sticky, and hard work, for not a great deal of reward.


The next time you run into conditions ranging from "new snow but a bit damp and sticky" all the way to "heavily cut up, saturated with water, and rotted to a depth of 2 feet", do everything in your power to rent a pair of fat boards. I can almost guarantee that you will no longer think of such conditions as "hard work with not a great deal of reward". Technique is great, but this is a case when you actually can "buy a turn".

Tom / PM
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
And that's what purists (Glen Plake, et al) so dislike-the concept of 'buying' your turns.......

Has skiing technology gone too far, as appears to be a regular complaint in connection with golf equipment?

Perhaps in 10 years we'll get genuinely 'intelligent' skis with power steering, automatic braking, etc. YES, LET'S TAKE THE SKILL OUT OF THE SPORT!
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Kevin - When I put on my instructor's jacket, I'm in the business of "putting smiles on people's faces". Fats do this. They open up much more of the mountain, and in much more varied conditions to guests. Because of their success, such people stay with skiing, and often develop much better skills than those who are not presented a "fat" option in difficult conditions and simply leave the sport.

As our younger colleagues on Powder and TGR would say, your comments are "so yesterday". The hardest core skiers made these arguments years ago with the introduction of fats. Now, the hardest core ski enthusiasts are on fats. If you don't believe this, take look at the threads that describe what equipment the skiers at Powder and TGR are currently on, and what equipment they feel is most desirable and anticipate purchasing.

Tom / PM

PS - I met Plake last season when he came to my resort. He is a nice guy, but my impression is that he does the Ludddite bit mainly to bolster his own recognition in the sport.
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
This sounds like the old 'you can't be an expert skiere you not skiing on over 2 metre skis' nonsense. Who cares, I know I can ski all the terrain available to me and only once this year did I wish I was riding on bigger skis. That was right after a major dump and we really did have powder up to our thighs. I should have used my Dynastar Bigs and I wished I had them as I struggled to keep up a certain darksider by the name of Masque, on ordinary all-mountain skis.
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 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Powder, Powder, Powder.................no contest..............with you all the way Masque. Saalbach/Hinterglemm late March 2004. Ski guide took me and 6 other boarders through fresh fields of 3 foot powder. Best experience on the board ever.


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Physicsman - I tend to use an all mountain ski such as a Bandit B2. I can ski powder (after a fashion ), I have heard other people say the same as you about "fat boys", but I'm not sure whether I can be bothered with swapping skis, when I know that with a bit more practice I will be proficient in all conditions without the need to swap skis.

The point of my post is that for all those people who go on and on about how good powder is, there are many more who find it hard work, and yes when it all comes together it is great, but IMHO not necessarily better than bombing down a pisted run. I wonder which one Herman Maieur (?sic) would prefer?
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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I'm with Kramer on this one, ski (or snowboard) at your own pace, on the piste or off it - it doesn't matter as long as you're having a good time!

If I were to have one pair of skis only, I'd have the B2's as well. As it happens I have no pairs of skis... Sad
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Me neither. I have to hire them Crying or Very sad
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Quote:

I've never met anyone yet who can ski powder well but prefers corduroy.



DB had it right.


They are both good in their own way but if you have a good day on powder and get to that point where you just feel that you are floating between turns and it's all just happening automatically then you really would never say you like corduroy more.

Powder is beautiful. snowHead

Actually thinking about it - skiing is beautiful. All of it ....
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
A good day on powder is more memorable than a great day on piste, for me. It goes as far as remembering specific turns, whereas, a good day on piste, and I will remember a good run, but not as much detail
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People that hate powder are great - they leave more of it for us to enjoy. Before snowboarding came along almost no-one was good enough to cope with powder (and sadly despite my call-sign neither was I!). Nowadays with modern gear most people who've done more than a few weeks/days skiing/boarding should be able to love shallow powder at least, and will soon graduate to the deeper stuff!
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Kramer wrote:
Physicsman - I tend to use an all mountain ski such as a Bandit B2. I can ski powder (after a fashion ), I have heard other people say the same as you about "fat boys", but I'm not sure whether I can be bothered with swapping skis, when I know that with a bit more practice I will be proficient in all conditions without the need to swap skis.

The point of my post is that for all those people who go on and on about how good powder is, there are many more who find it hard work, and yes when it all comes together it is great, but IMHO not necessarily better than bombing down a pisted run. I wonder which one Herman Maieur (?sic) would prefer?


The difference in perspective may come from our different situations. I own quite a few different skis, and I usually have several with me, ready to click in to, in my roof box or in the locker room. While I may only swap pairs once during the day (or just at the beginning of the day), it is no big deal for me to do this. I understand that it can be a major hassle if you are renting.

With respect to your statement, "...that with a bit more practice I will be proficient in all conditions without the need to swap skis...", I think the current feeling is that fats allow even the best skiers to "become more proficient", ie, do things that they couldn't have otherwise have done, as well as making easy conditions (eg, untracked powder) absurdly easy.

That being said, I love bombing down the groomers just as much as the next guy.

Cheers,

Tom / PM
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