learn

Learning to ride or ski powder can be an intimidating thing, especially if you're worried that you may hold up the rest of the group. One of the best things about going catskiing is that there's plenty of time and snow, so you can really learn how to link consecutive turns in powder.

Catskiing is a great place to learn to enjoy powder, and we're working to make it even easier for our guests to "Get it" by providing this list of tips. Many of us have been riding powder for 30 year, so there's plenty of knowledge for us to draw on. The best tip we can give you is to relax and have fun. Once you relax and realize learning to ski and ride powder is supposed to be fun you will learn so much quicker.

We hope that you can pick and choose from our little nuggets to find the tips that help you learn faster and get to the "Hey this is fun!" level quicker. Take it from us, the more you ride the better it gets.

Equipment

The biggest thing to learning to ski or ride powder is having the right equipment. You don't surf on water skis so why waste a great powder day on the wrong skis or board? Getting the right tool under your feet on a powder day will blow your mind and make your learning curve look like a shuttle launch, straight up.

The Right Skis

When your skis "float" it makes turn initiation so much easier because you aren't sinking down into the powder as far so you get up to speed to make that first turn quicker. You aren’t struggling to get two anchors out of the snow to start a turn. Fat skis pop right out with minimal speed, so you use less energy actually skiing. It’s not the skiing that exhausts you on the wrong skis; it's the having anchors on your feet that won't pop out of the snow that wastes all your energy. You use all your energy trying to keep the skis on top of the snow; fat skis get rid of that problem

and make it so you actually use your energy skiing. We recommend K2 Coomba's and Pontoons. Two guys that know a lot about skiing powder are Doug Coombs and Shane McConkey. Use their skis and you can't go wrong.

The Right Board

The Burton Fish is the ultimate board for learning to ride powder.

We've had people that were ready to sit in the cat for the day after trying to ride the wrong board for a run. We won't let you ride the wrong board for more than one run; it kills us as much to see you struggling, as it does you. We'd swap the person onto a Burton Fish and it was like one of the first lines in the Bible… In the beginning there was nothing and then there was light and it was good. Just change the word "light" to "Fish" and that is almost what it's like. You can see people go from worst day ever to this is the best day ever in 50 feet.

But the Fish isn't just for beginners... many of our photographers

and guides ride them because they're also the ultimate "tree board".

There are many other powder boards of course, and they all work. You need to be slightly careful though, as boards designed for open glaciers (often European) aren't necessarily particularly well suited to Canadian terrain, where the tree line is higher. You won't see many Swallowtails in Canada, for example.

Features to look for in a powder board include taper, a nose big enough to float, and a soft tail to work in the low resistance snow we get. Most powder boards have some set-back in the default stance, which should work fine.

Wax

A good hot wax is like magic. It makes your skis and board slide easier when you're going slowly.

People tend to think wax is just to help you go fast. Sure you want a good wax job for speed, but it's super important for low speed manoeuvrability too.

The easier you glide, the easier you can initiate turns, and the easier you can get up to speed for that all important first turn.

Good wax helps you get across a flat section., which in powder is one place you don't want to stop (because you'll use lots of effort trying to walk through waist-deep powder).

Clothing

If you are soaked with sweat you get cold faster. Simple fact. If you aren't falling, you aren't learning. After you fall you start sweating because you expend a lot of energy getting up out of the hole you just made. Once you get the trick to getting up in powder it will be just like getting up on hardpack, you don’t even think about it, you just pop up. Until you "Get it" you will sweat up a storm so having the right clothing makes all the difference in whether you have a warm fun day or a soaked cold day that sucks.

Base Layer

Dress in layers and avoid cotton like the plague. Nothing gets you colder quicker than a cotton layer. It soaks up all the sweat and the snow that turns into water when it goes down your neck. Once cotton is wet it will stay that way. Brrrrr. The new tech fabrics from all the major companies make playing in the snow such a much more pleasant experience that you definitely want to invest in a tech base

layer. All the fabrics wick away moisture keeping you warm and dry unless you go swimming.

Thermal Layers

Over your base layer you'll want to throw on some fleece or wool layer. It continues the wicking and the warming. It's better to have multiple thin layers than one thick layer so you can take off a layer when you are too warm. Being to warm is the same as getting snow down your neck. You'll be soaked in no time.

Outerwear

What you have on top is just as if not more important than what you have underneath. We all swear by Burton's AK line. We've haven't had one pulled stitch in 5 years of using their clothing for our guides and staff. They all get at least 110 days on them and they are still as waterproof and breathable as they day they were new.

When you are looking for clothes for powder you want to make sure that you can seal up the waist with a powder

cuff or a zip that attaches the jacket to the pants. It is the most important feature on your jacket.

Some people like hoods and some people don't so it's more of a personal thing. When you are looking at outerwear for riding powder, a slimmer profile is better as when you gt better and start advancing from riding glades to riding trees you won't have all the bulk snagging on branches.

Tuck in your powder cuff at the waist and the ankle

Tuck your powder cuff into the waist of your pants

instead of over top if it doesn't have any loops to keep it from moving. Before I had a zip to tie the waist together I’d tuck the powder cuff into my pants so my belt would keep me from "Blowing the seal" on a good wipeout. We joke there is nothing worse than a wipeout where "You blow the seal", the seal between the jacket and pants or your collar and neck gaiter.

Most pants come with waist as well as ankle powder cuffs to pull over your boots and hook onto your laces. I personally like to tuck them in between the boot liner and the outer shell and then lace or buckle up my boots so the laces completely seal the ankle from getting snow in your boots or up your pant leg. If you end up walking a bit in deep snow you will be stoked to have used this tech. The snow will push up the outer fabric of your pants but your powder cuff will be still securely tucked into your boots so no snow ends up where it shouldn't. When it’s over the boot and the snow is light it goes into the space between the elastic and the boot and ends up down you boot. The thing with powder is it seems to find the little gaps in your powder armour you didn’t know about.

Hockey Lacing

Having never played hockey, I was amazed at age 38 to learn a new way of tying my boots from Andrew "Rookie" Hicks.

When you tie your boots put an extra left over right and under on it before you make bunny ears and the extra wrap will keep the start of your bow from coming loose. Rookie still laughs at how amazed I was at this one.

Gloves and Mitts

Gauntlet gloves and mitts are great. They keep your wrists dry when you are digging around in the snow looking for your goggles, and when you are digging yourself out by going over the cuff of your jacket sleeves. You can usually pull them tight with a drawstring.

Moms test baby bottle temperature on their wrists because wrists are super temperature sensitive. Your wrists work the same for cold snow as they do for too hot milk, they don't like it. Once your wrists get wet the water soon makes its way down to your hands and then your hands are cold for the day. A good seal on your wrists is important to having a good day. As much as I like being in the snow, the only place I like to feel snow is on the small parts of my face I couldn't cover.

Goggles

When you wipe out in powder it's really easy to fill your goggles with snow. Once they're wet, it's downhill all the way for most goggles.

One technique is to make your goggle strap just a bit tighter than usual so the goggles don't come off your head as easily. As dumb it sounds that's the biggest tip: keeping them on your face keeps a lot of the snow out of the goggle. It also keeps your hat on more too so you don't get so wet.

When you yard sale and everything is full of snow, your first instinct is to reach into your goggles and dig out the snow. That's the worst thing you can do. Instead of digging, hold your goggles in one hand and tap them against something so you knock as much of the snow out of the frame as possible. You can usually get 95% of the snow out this way. When your fingers touch the antifog layer when you are digging the snow out of the goggle you are condemning yourself to ever decreasing visibility over the course of the run. It's better to look past a bit of snow inside your goggles than to wipe them "clean" with your hand.

The best thing about catskiing is you can give your goggles to the cat driver and he'll put them on the heater in the cab and dry them out for your next run.

Bring a goggle cloth or two and keep them dry so if you really have to you can wipe the goggles, but check the instructions: some goggles shouldn't be wiped at all.

If it's sunny you can always bring sunglasses as well as goggles, which gives you a backup whilst you wait for the goggles to dry.If you're lucky enough to have a back up pair you can always bring them and swap when necessary (if you lose your goggles our guides carry spares). If you're even more tech then you can try the goggles with the built-in fans, which work well.

 

Terrain Tips

Speed

Speed is your friend in powder. You don't need to ride at race speed, but you do need enough speed to get a rhythm going. It's easier to make sequential turns than it is to make the first turn, so a little speed is a good thing.

It takes more skill to ride well slowly in powder - that's one reason that riding through trees is a challenging thing to learn.

If you feel like you are going too fast in powder… just sit down. Works every time.

Play Leap Frog

If the snow is deep or the slope a little flat remember the "Leap Frog". Leap frog is when one person goes first and blazes a trail and the next person rides in their track and because of the extra speed from riding in the track will pass the first rider and go further across the flats. Try get as close as you can to the first rider when you pass them so they can get onto the track with minimal effort. The next rider or the first rider hops in the track and leap frogs past the second rider going further across the flats. Keep going as far as you can and you will be amazed how little walking you will have to do.

Look where you want to go instead of looking at what you don't want to hit

It sounds simple but once you get in the trees for the first time there is lot of new stuff coming at you. It's not your fault you start thinking of Kennedys and Sonny Bono. If you don't want to hit that tree or rock, don’t look at it. As soon as you look at them you start heading for it. It’s like a magnet. If you are skiing or riding the trees, look at the spaces in between the trees instead of looking at the trees. The spaces will get bigger and the trees will get smaller and you will find yourself having fewer close calls with inanimate objects.

Don’t be too scared of the trees though. The most dangerous things on a powder day are your friends, that, and playing football in the trees.

 

Lee Anne Patterson's Ski Tips.

There are a few simple things you can do to make skiing really, really easy. The number one thing is being in terrain where you can enjoy a free fall feeling. Turning should not be about slowing down, turning is used to guide you through the terrain so you can play and make the most of it. If you are turning to slow down all the time, the terrain is too steep and you will never learn the flowing, freefalling sensation of powder that people become addicted to.

Even though skiing is a technical sport once you understand the feeling you are going for in powder skiing the sport becomes more about athleticism. To set yourself up to be more athletic in your skiing there are 3 easy things you should do and always do.

1. Always ski with your abdomen muscles contracted.

2. Always have both elbows in front of your core.

3. Always make sure your collarbone lines up over your knees.

These three “must dos” set you up to be in balance with the unpredictable nature of powder skiing.

The unpredictable nature of powder skiing is created by the fact that the speed of you ski isn’t as consistent as in on piste skiing. For an example put your weight too far forward and your tips dive and voila…head over heels…fast, because your ski has just slowed down way faster than you, leaving your feet way behind your body. Too far back and only your tips are out and you can’t change your direction… you feel trapped and just keep moving faster with your feet way in front of your body. None of that happens in groomed skiing, it just can’t because your ski can’t sink creating the speed changes. But being able to stay in balance with your ski changing speed is the free flow of powder skiing. So be athletic, stay on terrain where you can let it go and find the freedom.

Lee Anne is our lead guide and a legend in the freeskiing world

Point your hand where you want to go

As simple and as dumb as it sounds, that’s all there is to riding powder on a snowboard. If you let your arms flail all over they will take your body with them. Try not to let your front arm cross the plane where it is not in front of you. Once your front hand is past the line your shoulders form, your body will start turning whether you want it to or not. Keep your hands on the front side of your body. Point your hand where you want to go and your body will follow. Don't point at trees or rocks. If you are having a hard time keeping your hands from flailing around, put up your dukes. Pretend you are going to fight someone and put 'em up. If they are in front of you they won't drag your body off in strange directions you don’t want to go.

Don’t pat the dog

A lot of people think they should be dragging their hands in the snow when they make a turn. It's not your fault. When you look at a picture in a magazine you will see the rider with their hand in the snow. You just can’t see that in the photo they are going mach 7 on a steep slope, so you think you need to drag your hand too. Don't pat the dog.

As soon as you drag your hand it pulls you off balance and usually makes you wipe out. Stand up. Don't crouch. Keep your hands up. Put up your dukes and point where you want to go. Don't pat the dog until you hit 40mph. Don't feel bad, just think how Tony Hawk feels watching twelve year olds skateboarding with video game style.