Finding skis when your bindings release in deep snow

tzhaki

tzhaki

New member
I was incredibly happy with the 12" in PA today and had a blast skiing some trees

However, on the last run, I decided to ski on a black diamond with a bunch of chopped up powder. I suck at powder skiing as I've done it approximately zero times in my life. Twice on that run, I tripped over a little hill of snow, my ski released and got buried, and I spent 10 minutes dragging my feet around searching for it.

Frantically shuffling my boots along the snow to search for my ski worked, but it was stressful af and I felt like this method just isn't reliable. Is there a better way to find your skis/prevent this from happening? I'm sure there's something out there, but when I look it up, all that comes up are 20+ year old snowheads threads with outdated stuff in them.
 
topic:tzhaki said:
I was incredibly happy with the 12" in PA today and had a blast skiing some trees

However, on the last run, I decided to ski on a black diamond with a bunch of chopped up powder. I suck at powder skiing as I've done it approximately zero times in my life. Twice on that run, I tripped over a little hill of snow, my ski released and got buried, and I spent 10 minutes dragging my feet around searching for it.

Frantically shuffling my boots along the snow to search for my ski worked, but it was stressful af and I felt like this method just isn't reliable. Is there a better way to find your skis/prevent this from happening? I'm sure there's something out there, but when I look it up, all that comes up are 20+ year old snowheads threads with outdated stuff in them.
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you could try doing a string from your boot to ski or just use your pole to stab through the snow
 
The problem is the ski can continue sliding under the power.

The key is to immediately visualize and go to the location where the ski was released. Mark this location with a pole or something. Then you search the fall line from there.

Sometimes you can see the hole that the ski drilled.

If not, I prefer to search with my hands. You want a light touch. Searching with boots or poles will compact the snow and might push the ski further down. This is why search parties of 10+ people often lead to the ski not being found.

It might look ridiculous, but just get down on your belly and search.
 
14578522:michael_bc said:
The problem is the ski can continue sliding under the power.

The key is to immediately visualize and go to the location where the ski was released. Mark this location with a pole or something. Then you search the fall line from there.

Sometimes you can see the hole that the ski drilled.

If not, I prefer to search with my hands. You want a light touch. Searching with boots or poles will compact the snow and might push the ski further down. This is why search parties of 10+ people often lead to the ski not being found.

It might look ridiculous, but just get down on your belly and search.
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yeah this OP, you're not really missing anything, finding a ski in pow just sucks sometimes. unless you use those streamer things (which i don't think ive ever seen in real life) or a leash, yeah sometimes you're just going to to have to find it, so def do what this guy said and mark the release spot and take it from there
 
if it's totally lost you can take off your other ski and use that ski to slash through the snow. your ski more effective than a pole for probing through the snow to find a ski. there are some good videos out on this technique. I'm too lazy to search them right now but I've seen a couple out there
 
oh also don't underestimate how far a ski can go when you crash. start the search right at and below the release spot of course but just know, ive found skis that traveled way tf further than i thought possible
 
I had the same problem this weekend. I have wider skis, kept floating well, but my bindings were wrong. Later at the ski lift set to much more weight, then had no more problems.
 
14578458:CowboySkibop said:
I attach a road flare to my skis when I’m skiing pow
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Epic just to think about it

Yup, looking for gear sucks. I lost 2 poles to the powder and spent 4 hours looking for a ski in the backcountry. Nothing beats almost looking my pack!

I was transitioning to the downhill when a release above me took all my gear downhill. My pack was suck in a tree 10feet up. Took me an hour before giving up and spotting it.
 
14578551:SofaKingSick said:
yeah this OP, you're not really missing anything, finding a ski in pow just sucks sometimes. unless you use those streamer things (which i don't think ive ever seen in real life) or a leash, yeah sometimes you're just going to to have to find it, so def do what this guy said and mark the release spot and take it from there
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My dad bought some of the streamer things. You look like a dork when you lose your ski on anything other than powder and have a 20ft fluorescent ribbon trailing behind you and frantically have to try and roll it back up. I stopped using them very quickly - although I suppose I might regret that if I ever lose a ski entirely.
 
14578856:freestyler540 said:
Epic just to think about it

Yup, looking for gear sucks. I lost 2 poles to the powder and spent 4 hours looking for a ski in the backcountry. Nothing beats almost looking my pack!

I was transitioning to the downhill when a release above me took all my gear downhill. My pack was suck in a tree 10feet up. Took me an hour before giving up and spotting it.
Click to expand...

I’ll literally do it once Bohemia opens no cap

stay tuned on @ swerverideworldtour
 
Storytime…

My crew rallied some friends and a couple of siblings to book a private Cat Skiing trip that was close to where one of my buddies grew up. There were 12 of us in the cat, and it blew our minds. We got 11 runs of 800-1500 vert, all of waist deep pow. Since there were no randos, all 12 of us were ripping so we didnt have anyone slowing us down.

Our 7th run comes up, and as were clicking in, the lead guide, a grizzled dude in his 50s on clapped out dynastars and marker dukes, groups us up- “just a heads up, if you go too far to the right, theres 25 foot rock. If you get cliffed out, you can ski around it”

”can we hit it?” The question was met with a smirk, and the guide skied off. We all make a beeline for the trees to the right…and ended up in a meadow below staring back up at more like a 40 foot cliff in all its glory. All but 2 us didnt find it. We watched our 1 buddy drop into the softest landing ever and ski out. There was cursing and begging the guide to do that run again so we could hit it.

”we have to keep going. Sorry boys.”

then the guides radio turns on. “Hey, this kid lost a ski. We need you guys to come back up and help us find it”.

we go back up, and sure enough- the dumbass tried to 3 a stump about 10 feet down the fall line and lost a ski. He and the tail guide had been looking for it the whole time. That was our break- we got to find the cliff again.

we go back up, and spend about a half hour looking for that ski. 12 of us and the 2 guides were all whacking mindlessly with our poles, skiing down to trees, pinning back bushes, and diving headfirst into pow, hoping- until finally- “WHACK”. We found it. 35 minutes of digging with shovels, snowplowing down this perfect, waist deep landscape, ignoring face shots to find that stupid ski. We were all covered head to toe in snow, and soaking wet. But this was our redemption. We were led down to the cliff by the one guy who had hit it last time, but he stopped about 20 feet uphill from the cliff. We took our turns- a couple of backies, a few falls, and one stomp directly into a tomahawk by yours truly. It was glorious. Then we look up and our one friend who had hit it before pinned it and popped off of the takeoff- it may have just looked huge from our angle, but id never seen anyone take a cliff that big.

everyone got a great hit except for the one poor kid who lost his ski. The rest of the trip he was scared to hit anything or have fun because he was worried about losing his ski.

at the end of the day, the guide said:

”in my 20 years of guiding- ive never been with a more fun group to ski with, ive never found a ski after someone lost it in that much snow, and ive NEVER- seen anyone hit that cliff as big as him.

So thank you to the Salomon Shift for prereasing on my homie and allowing me to hit one of the best cliffs of my life
 
14579056:paige. said:
My dad bought some of the streamer things. You look like a dork when you lose your ski on anything other than powder and have a 20ft fluorescent ribbon trailing behind you and frantically have to try and roll it back up. I stopped using them very quickly - although I suppose I might regret that if I ever lose a ski entirely.
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hahah yeah exactly, it's really one of those things you don't want to use at all until the moment you really do need it

kinda the opposite, my buddy was obsessed with some white skis and finally bought them and we were so hyped on them. one day he loses it in pow and 30 minutes into us all looking hopelessly for it, at the peak of our frustration, i hear him on the other side of a tree scream "WHY. THE. FUCK. DID I GET WHITE SKIS AHHHHHH" poor guy lmao

form vs function, the skier's eternal dilemma...
 
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