What is chop snow?

Chop: Freshly fallen powder that has been skied on enough to be chopped up, but there are few bumps. Chopped Powder: Powder snow that has been "cut up" by other skiers/snowboarders. Chowder: Heavy, wet, lumpy snow.

What is the best type of snow for skiing?

The Perfect Snow Conditions for Skiing and Snowboarding

• Fresh Snow. Fresh snow, the favourite amongst most piste skiers and snowboarders, beginners, intermediate and advanced alike. ...
• Powder (Pow) ...
• Packed Powder. ...
• Icy or Hard-packed Pistes. ...
• Slush Snow. ...
• Crud Snow. ...
• Sticky Snow.

What do you call bumpy snow?

Corduroy: Named for the ridges in the snow caused by grooming machines, corduroy is another word for groomer or groomed slope.

What is Spring snow called?

Powder (Pow) – Fresh snow after a storm. This is what we live for. Slush – Snow that is often found during the spring that is wet and sloppy because of warm temperatures and sun exposure.

What is Slarving?

Slarve / Drift / Surf / Slide / Schmear: You're flying down the mountain in soft, deep pow, laying over a turn and then you roll your ankles down the fall line, letting your skis break free in a long, controlled power slide with your skis perpendicular to the fall line.

16 related questions found

What is chop skiing?

Chop: Freshly fallen powder that has been skied on enough to be chopped up, but there are few bumps.

What is a forgiving ski?

A "forgiving" ski simply allows for grosser body movements without instantaneous reactions. Say you regularly let your hips fall behind your feet; a forgiving ski will give you time to regain your balance without repercussions, while an unforgiving ski will dump you unceremoniously on your rump.

What is corn ski?

Large-grained, rounded crystals formed from repeated melting and freezing of the snow. Under Corn Snow or Melt-Freeze conditions, a crust forms on the surface that will support your weight when frozen, but turns to deep slush during the heat of the day.

What is aggressive snow?

In French or English, there is aggressive snow, which is so cold that skis can't run smoothly over it.

What does skiing corn mean?

Corn refers to the snow during the time window when it has become soft and forgiving, but not too wet and slushy. In other words, it's the “Goldilocks” of snow—not too hard, not too soft, but just right.

What is grand slalom?

Giant slalom (GS) is an alpine skiing and alpine snowboarding discipline. It involves skiing between sets of poles ("gates") spaced at a greater distance from each other than in slalom but less than in Super-G.

What is slang for snow?

Pow is the slang term for fresh powder, or fresh snow. If someone is looking to “shred some pow,” they are anxious to go boarding in the fresh fallen snow.

What is crud skiing?

Technically speaking, crud skiing is all about being in a relaxed, balanced position to absorb the varying terrain. Maintaining loose ankles in your ski boots will help absorb the micro terrain and snow variations more efficiently than your legs can.

What is icy snow called?

Sleet, shown here with a penny for scale, is composed of small, translucent balls of ice. Sleet is often the result of rain that freezes as it falls to the ground.

What are the 4 types of snow?

Snow comes in five general types: graupel, plates, needles, columns, and dendrites. Each snow type forms in different temperatures and moisture levels.

What are the 7 types of snow?

This system defines the seven principal snow crystal types as plates, stellar crystals, columns, needles, spatial dendrites, capped columns, and irregular forms. To these are added three additional types of frozen precipitation: graupel, ice pellets, and hail.

What is powdered snow?

fresh loose snow, esp when considered as skiing terrain.

What is hardpack snow?

Hardpack. This is an often-misunderstood snow term. When fresh snow becomes densely packed, it is hardpack. The snow has never melted and recrystallized, but has been tightly compressed through grooming, skier traffic, or wind exposure.

What is snow slush?

Slush is basically snow that is starting to melt and thus becomes further wet. People who have had slush puppies (an icy snack) have a better understanding on what the word slush means. Wet snow is heavier to traverse on than light slow so you will notice how the turns in slush are harder than on softer snow.

What is a death cookie?

During the day, the warm spring sun turns snow to mush. Then, if grooming machines work a run before there's a deep freeze, they chew up the slope's surface, leaving chunks in their wake. When the chunks freeze, they turn into what are affectionately known as “death cookies.”

What is elephant snot snow?

If freshly fallen snow fails the powder test because it's too warm and wet, what you probably have is crud. Particularly wet and dense crud may be called elephant snot, gloop, glue, cement, ice cream. Wet snow will fall when the temperature is about minus 2 to plus 1 degrees.

What does powder skiing mean?

Short of taking a trip to outer space, powder skiing is the closest that most of us will come to a zero-gravity situation. Powder skiing is the type of skiing that is done on ungroomed trails covered by loose, freshly fallen snow.

Are wider skis harder to turn?

Wide skis, on the other hand, have more surface area and therefore provide more flotation (think snowshoes as an example). This means that they perform great in powder, but take more effort to turn and are harder to control and sloppier on groomers.

Are wider skis better for beginners?

Generally speaking, beginners are going to want a narrower ski. For starters, beginners spend most of their time on-piste, where a wide-waisted ski will feel unwieldy. Narrower skis are also nimbler and are therefore easier to lay over on edge.

What is the benefit of a wider ski?

With better torsional stiffness wider skis perform exceptionally well on groomed and hardpack conditions. The torsional stiffness decreases chatter at higher speeds, and allows the ski to have increased edge hold on hardpack snow. Another huge advancement in the progression of wide skis are the ski bindings.