Worst snow conditions to ski on?

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JB TELE
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Worst snow conditions to ski on?

Post by JB TELE » Mon Feb 06, 2023 10:46 pm

Today I encountered a bunch of different snow conditions, but one of those was 2-5 inches of fresh powder on top of breakable wind crust with very soft powder underneath that. I was on a 20-25 degree slope above the treeline in my leathers and s-bound 98s. The wind tends to ruin snow conditions up high around here.

Image

The good news is I did find plenty of silky smooth consolidated powder below the treeline. I'm finally figuring out tele powder turns. I wasn't pressuring my rear ski enough and it was getting dragged away from me in the pow.

What's the worst snow conditions that you have encountered?

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connyro
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Re: Worst snow conditions to ski on?

Post by connyro » Mon Feb 06, 2023 11:07 pm

JB TELE wrote:
Mon Feb 06, 2023 10:46 pm

What's the worst snow conditions that you have encountered?
Breakable crust so obtuse that it ruined my leather boots.



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DG99
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Re: Worst snow conditions to ski on?

Post by DG99 » Mon Feb 06, 2023 11:34 pm

Yes, breakable crust. What I see isn’t a crust on top of soft though. Consolidated below, rather. Your skis sink in maybe six inches and you can’t turn one bit. I’ve heard it called “trap crust” due to it traps your skis in a straight line.

The other baddie is “coral reef”. Icy, hard, with lots of uneven chunked up formation.



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lowangle al
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Re: Worst snow conditions to ski on?

Post by lowangle al » Tue Feb 07, 2023 4:22 am

The worst time I ever had coming down was on a breakable crust. It was probably a rain crust, about a half inch thick on top of deep soft powder. Once you boke through the icy crust dug into your legs and stopped you. I took my skis off to walk, but the snow was too deep.

Like JB said, usually the good snow is below tree line, out of the wind. In this case, the good snow was high up above the rain line.

At one time my goal was to master crappy conditions, now I just try to avoid them.



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greatgt
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Re: Worst snow conditions to ski on?

Post by greatgt » Tue Feb 07, 2023 4:43 am

What you all said and one more. Tons of snow and everything was rounded. Surface was unbreakable ice smooth as a hockey rink. Wax disappeared in seconds and there was no control as our medal edges were rounded from use. Horror show! Took skis off with @ a hundred yards left. TM



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Montana St Alum
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Re: Worst snow conditions to ski on?

Post by Montana St Alum » Tue Feb 07, 2023 8:10 am

Dust on crust is not pleasant, for sure. Break through and the fun stops fast.



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Jurassien
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Re: Worst snow conditions to ski on?

Post by Jurassien » Tue Feb 07, 2023 4:33 pm

The worst snow I have ever experienced in my life was definitely in Burkina Faso. That stuff was brown and grainy - even bright red in places.

The natives seemed to like it, but I couldn't get my skis to glide - regardless of how well they were waxed.

I don't know why they promote it as a skiing destination.



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randoskier
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Re: Worst snow conditions to ski on?

Post by randoskier » Tue Feb 07, 2023 4:51 pm

Water on top of the ice on long Norwegian/Swede lakes, huge slush puddles for KMs. I think there is a Norwegian word for this condition.

The Sami people have over three hundred words for snow and all its states.

Sami word for this- soavlle: lake water mixed with snow on top of the ice



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Krummholz
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Re: Worst snow conditions to ski on?

Post by Krummholz » Wed Feb 08, 2023 7:44 pm

randoskier wrote:
Tue Feb 07, 2023 4:51 pm
Water on top of the ice on long Norwegian/Swede lakes, huge slush puddles for KMs. I think there is a Norwegian word for this condition.

The Sami people have over three hundred words for snow and all its states.

Sami word for this- soavlle: lake water mixed with snow on top of the ice
Hey! We have that here in the 3 lakes region of Colorado. Grand, Shadow Mountain, and Granby. It made for a sucky fishing tournament.
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randoskier
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Re: Worst snow conditions to ski on?

Post by randoskier » Thu Feb 09, 2023 4:07 am

Krummholz wrote:
Wed Feb 08, 2023 7:44 pm
randoskier wrote:
Tue Feb 07, 2023 4:51 pm
Water on top of the ice on long Norwegian/Swede lakes, huge slush puddles for KMs. I think there is a Norwegian word for this condition.

The Sami people have over three hundred words for snow and all its states.

Sami word for this- soavlle: lake water mixed with snow on top of the ice
Hey! We have that here in the 3 lakes region of Colorado. Grand, Shadow Mountain, and Granby. It made for a sucky fishing tournament.
How is the ice fishing there? Trout? The water on the ice can be a bummer on a long tour. I wear Yeti over-the-boot gaiters so at least I am dry.

We used to live in Allenspark, our house was at about 9,000 feet altitude (2700m). It was hard to get over to your side of the mountain in winter during that long period after they shut Trail Ridge Rd. for the season. We used to ski a mountain that I believe was off of 14, it had a real dramatic looking rock summit but on closer inspection was a crumbly black mess of rotten rock, but great skiing on the rest of the mountain under it, an up and down tour, never saw a soul on it. I have to ask the missus the peak name. It was pretty high, I think an outlier of the Never Summers, we skied it a lot (when we were too lazy to drive to Rabbit Ears or Steamboat).

Did you ever ski at Hidden Valley in Rocky Mountain NP before the NPS shut it down (to large groans)? My wife learned to ski there while on NPS trail crew (she has only skied telemark skis her entire life), they had lifts and not much grooming, ideal. It minted a lot of great skiers.
https://www.visitestespark.com/blog/pos ... ki-resort/



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