Powder Skiing

Powder skiing is one of the most enjoyable and exhilarating forms of alpine skiing. It involves as the name describes skiing through powder, which is typically considered snow that is eight inches or higher. What makes powder skiing so enjoyable and innervating is the feeling and sensation that it induces. When you're ripping through powder it feels as if you're floating depending on the type of ski you're donning. That feeling of floating in waist deep powder as it blows up in your face is the closest thing to euphoria and ecstasy that I've ever felt. To experience this sensation though you have to be outfitted in the right pair of skis. Depending on how deep the powder is, the width of your skis will change. Super deep powder that comes up to your waist or higher will require the widest skis available to provide the greatest amount of float. By increasing the width of the ski, the overall surface area of the ski increases, thus distributing the skier's body weight more evenly and providing more lift or flotation. For the deepest powder, skis with an underfoot width of 125 mm and above are recommended. One of the best aspects of powder skiing is the fact that you can enjoy powder on in-bounds and out of bounds terrain. If you're skiing at a resort, powder isn't only reserved for the groomers or the blue runs, but falls on all the terrain. The best places to find consistent, reliable powder usually reside in the western half of North America. This is the case because in the western half of North America there are more big storm systems that dump huge amounts of cold blower powder on mountain ranges such as the Sierra Nevadas, Cascades, and Rockies. Out in the Northeast, there are storm systems that pass over the Green and White Mountains, but they're usually not big enough or the moisture content is too high for abundant, deep blower powder to be produced. Temperature also plays a role in the consistency and quality of the powder. Ideally to insure you get cold, light "blower" powder, temperatures need to be twenty degrees or colder. In the West, storm systems bring along cold fronts with them, which lower temperatures below fifteen degrees. In the Northeast the same thing happens, but to a lesser extent. The cold front that comes along with the storm system usually isn't as strong, so the powder that falls ends up having a higher water content, and thus being heavier.

        

Different Types of Alpine Skiing

As mentioned before alpine skiing is the act of skiing downhill. Skiing downhill can mean many different things in terms of the downhill terrain that you are skiing on. For the average alpine skier most of the skiing they do is in bounds meaning that they only ski within the marked boundaries of a ski resort. This means that they're skiing on one of three different types of trails: groomers, non-groomers, and glades. Within those three different types of trails there are four different difficulty ratings that each trail gets categorized under. A green circle on a trail sign denotes an easy, beginner level, a blue square denotes a medium, intermediate level, a black diamond denotes a hard, difficult level, and double black diamond denotes a very hard, expert skier only level. Breaking down the three different trail types, you'll usually find, at most resorts, groomers to be mostly green circles and blue squares, glades to be mostly black diamonds and double black diamonds, and non-groomers to be an assortment of blue squares, black diamonds, and double black diamonds. Each trail type is pretty self-explanatory, groomers are any trail that get groomed by grooming machines known as cats, glades are trails that have trees littered and interspersed throughout, also known as tree skiing, and non-groomers are any trails that don't get groomed, which usually means they have moguls, large humps of snow that get created by skiers pushing snow into a large pile. For anyone who wants to venture out of bounds, backcountry skiing is perfect option for them. Backcountry skiing is exactly what it sounds like. Most of the time it involves taking a helicopter to a remote, isolated drop off zone where the skiers get dropped off and ski down a predetermined route. This type of alpine skiing is a sub-type of backcountry skiing colloquially referred to as heli-skiing. Heli-skiing isn't the only type of backcountry skiing though, many people use specialized backcountry skis and ski boots to "skin" out of the resort bounds and into the backcountry.

  

Alpine Skiing vs. Nordic Skiing

When people mention skiing the first thing they think about is usually alpine skiing, also known as downhill skiing. The term skiing though is very broad and can refer to either alpine skiing, nordic skiing, or telemark skiing. This blog post is going to focus on the differences and similarities between alpine skiing and nordic skiing. Across all three types of skiing there is one common similarity: they all involve two skis, a pair of bindings, and a pair of boots. For each various type of skiing the skis, boots, and bindings are all different. When it comes to alpine skiing because it is all downhill the skis are taylor made for going fast downhill and have sharp edges for slicing into the snow. Nordic skiing on the other hand takes place on flatter, less mountainous terrain so as one would imagine it is very much like hiking on skis. Due to this fact nordic skis are much thinner and lighter for fast, quick "strides" up small hills or on flat ground. Because nordic skiing takes place on flatter ground the bindings can only have a toe attachment to allow the heel to move up and push the ski forward. With alpine skiing because it is all downhill gravity moves the skis forward so you don't need toe attachment only bindings and instead have heel and toe attachment bindings where your whole foot is immobilized in the binding. Since the bindings differ between alpine and nordic skiing so do the boots which attach into the bindings. Just as it is with the bindings, nordic ski boots are much lighter and more streamlined in comparison to alpine ski boots. Nordic ski boots almost resemble hiking boots in that they have either laces or velcro straps and have a very similar shape. Alpine ski boots on the other hand are entirely different. They are much heftier and more insulated, and have a hard plastic polymer shell.