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.