Deep Powder Can Lead to Deep Trouble

by Gavin Ehringer

Colorado is renowned for its powder skiing; the Rockies create extremely dry snow that can cover a mountain like eider down. However, every storm is greeted by skiers and snowboarders retreating to lodges, defeated by the challenging conditions. It may look fantastic in photos, but powder is no easy thing to master. Here’s some advice to get the most out of a powder day.

I love powder, but I also have a healthy respect for the stuff. Going off-trail or even just off the groomed runs on a deep powder day can get a person into serious trouble.

For example, one exceptionally deep powder day at Wolf Creek, I dropped into a gully and took a tumble. Before I knew it, my head was 3 feet deep in the snow and I could not breathe. Panicked, I beat my hands as though I were swimming and tried to clear an air space. But the snow kept slumping down on top of me.

Finally, I poked my head out of the snow and managed to fill my lungs. But for a few scary moments, I felt like I was caught in quicksand.

While backcountry skiers and boarders fear avalanches, it is seldom that we recognize that powder snow can be dangerous, too. Skiers and snowboarders have perished because of asphyxiation after being buried in just a few feet of loose snow. With precautions, you can avoid such a horrific outcome.

First, stick to groomed intermediate runs until you have powder-riding skills. A compacted base underneath a few inches or even a foot of powder snow is a lot more manageable than finding yourself in bottomless powder. You need to learn to make easy, controlled turns in powder and to keep the nose of your board or tips of your skis up and float over the snow before you are ready to tackle knee-deep or waist-deep powder conditions.

Also, you need to be able to form a solid platform of snow underneath you so that you can stand up after a fall. These skills are best learned when you have a firm base underneath the powder. It pays to hire an instructor for a day of powder practice. A basic training session will help you to learn the skills of compacting a base, standing, riding away, and staying afloat in powder.

Once you’ve mastered powder on the piste, it’s time to go off the groomers and into the deep powder. Oftentimes, the best powder is found in the forests. Glades tend to be less skied and tracked out, so they hold on to powder for days after a snowstorm.

To make tracks in the trees, you need to keep safe. First, pick areas where the trees are widely spaced.

Never venture into the trees without a buddy, and always stay within verbal and visual range of your partner. That way, if you should fall and get buried, your partner will be there to dig you out.

If your friend should fall and get buried, don't leave him to get the ski patrol. You need to act immediately to clear an airspace and dig him out of the snow.

How much time do you have? Well, hold your breath while you are reading this and that will give you a good measure. When the time expires, so does your buddy, so be prepared to lend assistance immediately.

Dig with the hands or use your board or a ski as a shovel to clear snow as rapidly as possible.

Trees present a hazard in more ways than one. Often, a deep well will form around the base of a tree. This well will draw the rider in and make it difficult to get the head and body above the snow. If you should fall into the well, use the tree trunk to help you pull yourself up and out of danger. Better yet, try and give yourself a good 4-5’ feet clear of trees (this may be hard to do is forested glades, so here’s a tip: the bigger the tree, the bigger the well. So, avoid the largest trees).

If you do get buried in the snow, don't panic. Flailing will often result in the snow simply closing in around you. Instead, push your hands up to your chest as if praying, then spread them in front of the face and clear an airspace. Once the snow settles, you can rock your body back and forth. Your body heat will help compact the snow around you and also create more airspace to move about.

An extra tip for boarders: a snowboard can both help and hinder your self-rescue. A board can anchor your feet underneath the snow and hold you down. Unfortunately, the quick-release bindings that allowed riders to get loose from their boards have fallen out of fashion.

Trying to free yourself from conventional strap-in bindings will likely prove impossible if you find yourself buried. Instead, try to bring your knees up toward your chest and get the board underneath your body.

From there, you should be able to compact the snow underneath the board and use it as a platform to stand up.

While fatalities caused by falls in powder snow are indeed few, knowing what to do in the event of a fall could save your life. So, be prepared.

To find the comprehensive info on Colorado Skiing, visit www.coloradoski.com.

Gavin Ehringer covered snowboarding for the Rocky Mountain News for 15 years.