Riding cement and mashed potatoes.
How do you deal with it? I find it nasty and difficult to negotiate and not that much fun, it’s pretty much a case of leaning way way back and burning thighs, or does it not have to be this way?
So instructors, what are your tips on this?
Sorry, do you mean hard, chopped-up snow? or really sticky snow? I think you mean sticky snow but the cement threw me off… unless it’s wet cement.
Cement - “Sierra cement”, wet sticky snow.
Honestly, the best thing you can do is ride swtich as much as possible to balance the load. Reading over a few of your posts about your stance and not improving, I think your riding would benefit greatly from experimenting with your stance and also focussing on getting better at switch. Switch is the key to progression and minimising muscle fatigue. Please read these articles on Switch and Stance.
https://www.boardworld.com.au/content/category/switch/
https://www.boardworld.com.au/content/category/stance/
Another suggestion is to really loosen up your lower body, but especially your ankles. The stiffer your lower body is, the more your muscles have to work, leading to rapid muscle fatigue. Think about keeping your core strong, but using your lower body like suspension. Keep those ankles loose and let the snowboard and your core do the work.
I see Cement type snow, and mashed potatoes as 2 totally different conditions.
Cement would be classic “hardpack” hard icy groomed snow. found in early mornings after way below freezing temperatures.
Mashed potatoes is soft, sometimes slushy, it can be very fine granulations, like sugar, but mashed potatoes usually sticks together a bit more than the sugary type.
Cement could mean ice. I’m very familiar with icy conditions. East coast US, is often referred to as the Ice Coast for that reason. We have a lot of man-made snow, and not as much fresh powder. Tips to riding hard packed ICE is to keep a low edge angle on your board. having more of the board’s base on the snow, and less edge on the snow will allow you to have greater control. Very sharp edges is helpful as well. a higher edge angle is avoided also because it often means that your body is in a more dynamic position, or you can say more angulated. But on ice and hardpack you dont want to be leaned over, you want to be more upright and overtop of your board.
for mashed potatoes….
they are kind of fun. it’s slower, wetter snow sometimes it takes a bit more to move your board around, so you need to give you board more INPUT to get more OUTPUT. as you meed to move around the potatoes to move the board.
Days like this you can handle steeper slopes than usual because you go slower.
again high edge angles are not your friend, because your board sinks into the snow and increases the possiblilty of toe drag, and I’ve had my heel cup drag and cause me to fall many times in these conditions.
place you board on the floor, indoors.
increase the edge angle that it would take for your heel cup to hit the floor also.. very high, right? but if you were able to push that edge into the snow say 2-3 inches (5-7cm) your heel cup would make contact with the snow much sooner.
I only learned this after falling many times and looking back at the snow to learn what happened by studying the marks my board made in the snow.
Did I describe the snow conditions are you had intended?
Yeah, I intended the cement and mashed potatoes to be the same thing, essentially the dump that produces 2 feet of fresh, but is of high moisture content and tends to be difficult to steer through. I’ve always found it difficult, despite learning my craft in Tahoe, which is famous for these sorts of conditions.
Hardpack bothers me less, the trick I found was to put more pressure on the back foot as I’m coming out of the turn to keep from slipping, essentially increasing your effective edge on the snow.
That is a good tip as well!
So the conditions you are mentioning is when it’s fresh, but crusty on top?
I’ve been on that a few times… let me thing on that one… if it’s the correct explanation.
so many types of snow isnt it.
Yeah, I intended the cement and mashed potatoes to be the same thing, essentially the dump that produces 2 feet of fresh, but is of high moisture content and tends to be difficult to steer through. I’ve always found it difficult, despite learning my craft in Tahoe, which is famous for these sorts of conditions.
Hardpack bothers me less, the trick I found was to put more pressure on the back foot as I’m coming out of the turn to keep from slipping, essentially increasing your effective edge on the snow.
one great way to ride powder which will give you loads more control and take the pressure off your back leg is to transfer your weight on to the front of your board as you start a turn. Some people call this dolphin turns but you don’t want to dive in too deep if the snow is really heavy as it will flip you as you mentioned, but if you are gentle you ocan dive your board under the snow and by transferring your weight to the back of the board as you turn it reaches out of the snow and finishes off your turn really cleanly and can pop you right out of the snow if you get it right. Plus releaseing the pressure off of your back foot as you mentioned.
i have a question i’d like to throw out there, do most people do ‘down unweight’ or ‘retraction’ turns in powder? What i mean by that is at the end of the turn sucking your legs up underneath you as your board crosses underneath you into the new turn. And if they do do they start with a few normal turns to build up speed before moving to the above described turns. riding powder isn’t my greatest strength so i’d appreciate any thoughts the powder rippers out there might have.