Powder straps?

Does one need straps that connect from your ankles to your skiis when skiing the POW in CO generally, so if you fall, you don't lose your ski? Or has that gone away?

Shoulda had em in whistler 2 years ago. Got 1-3 feet of pow depending where on the mountain you were. When you wiped out you just prayed you could find you ski.

On any day over 10 inches I will use my powder cords. Don't tie them on to your leg though. Just attache them to your heel binding, roll them up and stuff it up your pant leg. If you tie it to your leg you risk injury. when you jettison out of your ski the cord will pull out of the snow along with your leg so that you can easily locate the ski.

Powder cords are needed even on those days, cause wind will deposit that ten inches of snow into drifts of two or three feet in some areas.

they're a good idea. I once didn't have em and spent a half hour poking the bottomless snow for my cordless skis.

A half foot or less and I usually don't use my cords.

search and you will find.
http://forums.epicski.com/showthread...=powder+straps

The powder straps that I am familiar with do not connect to your ankles. They connect to your bindings only. THey are long. You connect one end to your bindings and stuff the other end either in your pocket or up the ankle of your pants.

They will save your ass. They saved mine.

They attach to the ski and tuck into your pants leg; they do not attach to your body. See?

DefJef: The type of powder cord you are probably thinking about used to be called a "safety strap" and has not be used for 20 years. In those days, if you fell and lost a ski, it stay with you, but could also bonk you on the head or slice the bridge of your nose open, or how about a three-inch cut across your lips, etc. Powder cords are as described above and are very usefull. However, sometimes skis will dive through 2 feet of dry powder and slide along a hardpack surface, thereby traveling many feet away from where you fell. In that case, good luck, but the colorful cord gives you a much better chance and saves time.

Ummm. They are still required if you do not have a device to stop a runaway ski. Fortunately the vast majority of bindings have ski brakes that are generally sufficient to meet the letter of the law. But snowboards, telemark, monoskis, ... should be equiped with a safety strap. And riders of said equipment should be equiped with a helmet to prevent 6' of sharp edge causing a head injury.

I use good old fashion Salomon safety straps, sent to me by a bear. I used them for 20 years and only got it in the face once, so I figure those are pretty good odds. They keep the ski with you so you don't have to wallow after it. Leashes are for wimps

I can see the need for a strap attached to your leg. After losing a ski and having a ski end up a thousand vertical ft. below me another time. Brakes seem to lose their effectiveness in deeper snow on steep terrain. Not good idea on hardpack where you can slide and drag the ski with you when you fall, but in soft snow when you fall usually you don't go very far.

The need for powder straps is inversley proportional to how often you fall. If you fall a lot, you might think you need them but you will discover that they become a hassle if you have to redo them each time you wipe. When you are wiping out several times a run and you are trying to keep up with others, the straps slow your recovery time down, at least until you lose a ski. Then they are worth it

I used to wear powder straps after being with friends who did not have them,
having learned the lesson that scouring 10,000 footers for a friend's ski sucks, but I take the risk now, go strapless and I have not regretted it.

I think the speed you ski at has alot to do with it also. Although I didn't think I travelled that far after falling in 3 feet of powder at the 'bird a few years ago, I spent 30 minutes searching in an area that was at least 30 feet below where my ski was sitting in plain sight (from uphill). Fortunately, another person came by and pointed out how far off I was looking. Not sure the straps would have helped in this case because of the depth of the snow, steepness of the slope, etc. but you never know.

I love it when people from new york and rhode Island debate the usefullness of powder cords.

Try skiing without them in 3 feet of cascade maritime snowpack pow. then see how much fun it is to search for your skis. The downtime spent putting the cord back up your pant leg is nothing compared to the downtime searching for your ski without a cord.

I have a 5 foot long neon green powder cord. It's very easy to spot, even under the snow. Well worth the five bucks I spent (canadian) in whistler right before skiing in two feet of blower. I didn't have to use them, but I didn't fall.

I have found that unless it is super light snow the drag on the powder cords tended to pull them out of my pants cuff, so I started running them up inside my powder cuffs and sticking the bundleded up end of the cord in the top of my socks. It keeps them from spooling out when you ski and also keeps them in place when you unclip and walk inside, but they come out just fine if you fall. I have spent too much time on great powder days looking for a ski and now I wouldn't ski deep snow without them.

The cords are a must over 4" of fresh.

NEVER use a strap that attaches to your body.

My wife is a patrol, and we still talk about the days when people would have their cheeks removed. Facial reconstruction should not be part of the sport.

I bet when I finally go bald the back of my head looks like it went through a vegomatic from those damn things.

come on, Newport has some sick POW and steeps!!!

Powder Straps: Dead giveaway for gapper touron.

Guy Searching For Lost Ski: Dead giveaway for a too cool dumbass local.

Been there done both. Use the chords or lose the skis. Yes, i am a dumbass gaper.

Lighten up everyone.

Obviously I use powder straps. A bonus is when they unravel from your pants leg and trail behind you as you descend, you like look a ski fairy!

Give me a break dude. I never fall in powder, but I do pull out of skis in different crust layers, or blow out when I hit a rock stump or stick one under a log.

I guess I am a gaper touron powder fairy then.

A really good trick when you DON'T have the powder straps, is to locate your ski by doing the "Bread Slicer". Assuming you can find at least one ski, you can use the tail to slice through the snow along your path of fall. Eventually you might hit the buried ski. Sometimes you need to slice up to 20 or more feet of slope. I spent hours doing this once...I bought powder straps after that so I too could look like a touron gaper.

Ok what we need here is a simple little device ......it works the same way a tape measure does, you know the auto retracting ones which carpenters use.

Right ! Now we need to make it skinny and integrate it into the bindings ....got the idea ?

So when you are thrown from your bindings it auto ejects and throws out a plume of tape, easy.

When the ski is retrived simply press the button and it retracts (like the tape measure / vacuum cleaner (hoover)).

When taking the skis off you simply hit the tab to prevent it from firing.

The downsides to this would be

a) you would have to take it off your ski when you go into the bar etc as
b) people would find it hilarious to set your tape rocket off all the time.

This is an easy invention people, who ever decides to go in with me on it will be uber rich, anyone who steals it has to give me a slice.

Powder cords or straps are a MUST in the deep stuff.
Years ago at Steamboat I lost a ski in "the closet"and looked for 4 hrs till darkness came and was booted out by patrol. Went back the next morning with a shovel and found the ski 20 feet below where I fell about 4" under the snow. Very relieved as this wasn't even my ski..it was a buddies who lended it to me as a demo......never again w/o cords!!

Safety straps (attaching you to your skis) will be deadly in an avalanche. They will act as an anchor and may make a bad situation tragic.

Powder cords don't attach to your leg.

So, I've been looking at getting a couple pair, anticipating our trip to the ESA at the end of the month. Most of them seem to attach to the brake arm. Do they actually hold there? How can I be sure that they won't interfere with the brake function (when I'm on groomers)?

...and Cirque, they may actually keep people from stealing your skis...

Safety straps do.