Pro Tips to Make Powder Skiing Fun, Not Exhausting

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Powder skiing is the holy grail of ski conditions. Yet surprisingly, many people don’t feel comfortable skiing deep powder. Often it’s simply because they haven’t been exposed to it enough. The truth: with a handful of tips around technique, body weight, and mechanics, you can prep yourself for any powder day. Ski’s online education course, Go Deep: How to Ski Powder, can help. We tapped Jackson Hole ski pro Ann Schorling to co-teach the course alongside professional freeskier and Olympian Wendy Fisher at Fernie Alpine Resort, which just happens to be on the B.C. Powder Highway.

Sneak Peek: Ski’s How to Ski Powder tutorial on Outside Learn

Ski caught up with Ann Schorling to talk about the experience, get her thoughts on how to make the most of a powder day, and hear about her favorite spots at her home hill—Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

What’s the biggest mistake you see people make when they’re trying to learn how to ski powder?

Schorling: I guess there are two that come to mind. One, powder is slow to react, so everything takes longer. When people try to turn in powder for the first time, they try to turn at the same speed that they would on firm snow. It doesn’t work and so they wind up working harder to try to make the turn happen as fast instead of being patient and making more subtle movements and letting the turn happen more slowly.

Second, we’ve all been taught to make turns that are round and go across the hill at a controlled speed. If you’re in powder, that causes you to sink farther down in the powder and you slow down, and it makes it really hard to start the next turn.

What’s been your favorite powder run and powder destination?

Schorling: Gosh, I am very biased toward Jackson Hole. I think it’s tough to beat a powder day in Jackson. My all-time favorite powder run would probably be Alta 1 in Jackson or Tower Three.

What’s been your go-to setup for skiing powder?

Schorling: For a powder day I typically like a ski that is about 100 millimeters underfoot and has a rocker tip so the ski will float a little bit more. My current favorite powder ski is the Rossignol Rallybird. It’s a playful women’s powder ski that can do it all.

What should people look out for when they’re watching talented powder skiers? What techniques should they be observing and trying to emulate?

Schorling: Notice the shape of their turn, then compare it to the turns that we would normally see on a groomer and notice the difference. Most of us who’ve been taught to be on firm snow have been taught to roll up on our edges to make the turn happen, and because powder reacts more slowly, the higher your edge angle, the more your skis will dive into the snow and get bogged down. If you watch pro skiers, you’ll notice that they actually don’t have a lot of edge angle when they’re skiing powder. They’ll have a little bit but not a lot.

Get powder-skiing tips straight from Ann Schorling in Go Deep: How to Ski Powder on Outside Learn. For the five-part course, Ski teamed up with Wendy Fisher and Professional Instructors of America (PSIA) instructor Ann Schorling to teach best practices for skiing deep powder safely and successfully. From choosing the right equipment to the anatomy of a good powder turn, you’ll learn pro tips and tricks that will get you skiing the deep with confidence. 

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