 Poster: A snowHead
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So i ended up with a ski coming off whilst off piste and spending the best part of an hour trying to find it. It was nowhere to be found until a snowboarder happened to hit it about 50m down the road (turns out they aren't so bad after all!) this event led me to being a tad more cautious in my expeditions and i ended up feeling like i missed out a bit so have decided to make some powder traces for my next holiday. I have some misappropriated tape and other bits and bobs for me to use but i just wondered what the best length to make the traces too short and they will be pointless, too long and i wouldn't know where to put it all  does 2m sound about right?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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slowphil, Consult with Mr Goldsmith 
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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?
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slowphil, or a bit more. But I hate them.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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slowphil, mine are about 2m. Have saved me hours of searching. They deffo are a pain in the butt to use, but on the other hand searching for your skis for an hour is a much bigger pain!
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Steilhang, I find them very easy to use. I have put small karabiners on the one end and clip them onto my ski bindings and then just fold them up and stuff the rest under the powder gaiter on my ski trousers. Takes no more than about 30sec to do both.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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slowphil, This is something I am considering trying to make, after our friend lost his ski off-piste,and took a good deal of digging to locate it. I'm not sure exactly where on the binding to attach the ribbons though. I did find this site, and theirs are 3m long.
http://www.ripcordpowderleash.com/
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If possible the attachment should be just behind the heel, or the deep snow will tug at any exposed leash and pull it gradually out. In fact I never quite found a way to prevent this happening, so I gave up on them. Strangely, though, despite having had the same experience as snowphil several times in my early days of sometimes going off piste, in the last 20 years of skiing mostly off piste I cannot remember it happening.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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The Pros of quickly finding your ski outweigh the Cons of putting them on and occassional unraveling.
I 100% endorse them.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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I find having my bindings set at 14 takes away the annoying necessity of having to use powder leashes & the worry of my ski coming off at an in opportune time.
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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.
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frank4short, at the expense of a mildly inconvenient knee op from time to time?
that said, i can't imagine traces being anything other than a pain in the butt and good searching technique (use tail of ski to cut across the path of the lost ski) usually sorts you out
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Nice idea but soo ghey. I just couldn't use them!
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You know it makes sense.
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I was planning to go down the diy route with some carabiners for easy clip/unclip but that powder leash link looks interesting. Any tips on stopping them from coming out when not needed...I wonder if using some elastic round the top of the boot and threading the tape under it would be enough?
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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frank4short, I suppose with the bindings set at 14 you just lose the whole leg and can find the ski by following the trail of blood. Good idea!
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Poster: A snowHead
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| Liveezy wrote: |
| Nice idea but soo ghey. I just couldn't use them! |
Not spending hours searching for your skis is gay 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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I know, catch 22. What to do!!? There must be a better solution? Ski beacon??
Arno, you have some cool pics dude.
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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?
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I was skiing in serre che earlier this month in fresh deep powder with 4 kids and two adults, spent more time digging than skiing, dont mind cranking up my dins but wont do the kids, found myself holding back on where we would go cos i was certain we were going to lose a ski. are traces the only solution? what about a leash? or does the trace always stay on the surface? someone on here must know the best solution!
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Arno, Steilhang, Yawn! I choose to ski with high DIN bindings set up high have done for the last 7-8 years. Never had a problem with it or my knees.
As to the ski beacon idea ortovox did it about 15 years ago. They were scrapped almost immediately as being a danger of interfering with regular transceivers.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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DaveMcSki, a leash is one way to get a ski induced injury. Not sure I would do it with my kids.
Not lost a ski for more than 10 minutes yet. Poles on the other hand...
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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These are gaper-tastic but you look like more of a gaper spending hrs looking for a lost ski.
I've heard that it is possible to use devices that help you find lost keys to also find lost skis in snow.
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| Quote: |
If possible the attachment should be just behind the heel, or the deep snow will tug at any exposed leash and pull it gradually out. In fact I never quite found a way to prevent this happening, so I gave up on them
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could try self adhesive velcro pads some on the powder ribbon and the other part on the inside of the ski pants? or carry a small metal detector in your pack????
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Bit surprising there isn't something that could be done with an RFID - like used in anti-shoplifting tags. You could build the detector search device into an avalanche transceiver I would think?
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Big fan and never had them drop out of my trousers. Not inclined to lose my skis often but last year I did a drop off into steep and deep snow - completely bombed but used the PTs as a climbing rope to get back up to my ski - would have been knackered otherwise 
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I have some misappropriated tape and other bits and bobs for me to use
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slowphil, Highly advise going down this route as I lost my nice slush and rubble ones and paid a ridiculous amount in resort for a crappy bit of ribbon with a loop on the end - huge rip off!!!
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stoatsbrother, Ok so not a leash then! but we probably averaged around 10 mins digging and we had one hunt for 30 mins where a child had lost the ski and the others had tried to help and by the time the adults arrived on scene it looked like a small explosion had occurred and no one knew where the original fall had happened. I suppose it was a steep learning curve. but, every time i had to hike back up the powder slope to help a child look, I kept thinking there must be a better way than this.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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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.
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No need for powder traces: learn to snowboard. 
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You know it makes sense.
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frank4short, sorry to say i agree with arno et al. I use to have my bindings set real high for off piste just like for racing. Now I have had a knee op I have them on 7. They do not come off if I ski well, but if 'I' get it wrong they come off and save me another knee op. And I ski off piste most of the time.
If you want to see pics of what we get up to visit my facebook page.
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#/snowcrazy.chris?ref=profile
My advice to anyone, have the bindings on the middle range, get tracers and save your knees, I speak from first hand experience. We all get it wrong sometimes, even the best (and that is not me) so save a lot of pain. Been there now and thought it would never happen to me. 
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Maybe I've just been lucky but ski coming off is a bigger worry than falling and ski not coming off?
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Poster: A snowHead
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| bobinch wrote: |
| Maybe I've just been lucky but ski coming off is a bigger worry than falling and ski not coming off? |
If you are skiing something steep and off piste, a ski popping off and causing a crash is often a big deal. To a lesser extent, losing a ski in deep snow off piste is also quite bad. The nature of the snow/skiing and the reasons above mean that 'on piste' DIN settings are often too conservative and for many they accept the higher risk traded off against the problems caused by pre-release and losing skis - this is also why there are type 3 and 3+ on the DIN chart.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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if you fall and your ski doesn;t come off, the extra length and weight of the ski can putt some pretty heavy forces on your knee, hence the bindings are supposed to release under a moderate pressure - the DIN benig the amount of pressure the binding will take before releasing
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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?
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| Arno wrote: |
frank4short, at the expense of a mildly inconvenient knee op from time to time?
that said, i can't imagine traces being anything other than a pain in the butt and good searching technique (use tail of ski to cut across the path of the lost ski) usually sorts you out |
I agree. Tracers are a good idea for beginner powder skiers, while tethers are very likely to cause you harm as the attached ski or skis clank into you. 99% of the time a ski will be just beneath the surface at the point where you came out of it. If you sweep for it, you will find it, or even better, the backmarker will.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Yep, you should have someone above/below watching you and where your ski may go if it comes off. Also, if the ski shoots of then it will leave a track mark for you to follow. Obviously not so easy to see in chopped crud but it's there.
Is this now a "what DIN should i use" thread??
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FAQ
