Powder cords

I bought a deal of surveyors' tape and tie some onto my binding, tucking it under my pant cuff.  It works perfectly and costs nearly nothing.

I suggest you not bother with cords if it's less than 8 inches but for deeper surveyor's tape works fine for occasional use but it has a couple of problems if you ski powder on a regular basis.

-It cuts and tears easily so needs to be replenished

-Like it's more expensive ski store cousins, it will not help you if you find yourself at the bottom of any kind of drop looking up at your unobtainable skis because you can't climb a wall of hip deep snow. I know this from lots of experience.

In my avatar I am sking at least four feet of fresh and am wearing modified Silvretta touring cords that attach me to my skis by a one foot, breakawayable leash. When I fall they are within reach. I am also wearing a helmet although skis seldom windmill in powder of any depth. I never never wear these cords when there is risk from tree wells or avalanches and will go back to the old surveyors tape.

Sure it breaks from time to time, but once you've bought a roll of tape you'll have enough for years to come.  Just stuff some extra in a pocket and throw the rest of the roll in the bottom of your pack or in the trunk of your car.  

I use 10' lengths of black parachute cord, and tuck them up inside the snow cuff of the pants.  Is it the safest, no.

 

 It is handy though for a lot of other options from ski harness for climbing to a makeshift sled if something goes way wrong.

 

Anything that helps you find a torpedoed ski faster is a good thing.

A DIY climbing harness out of p-cord?  That's hardcore.  I remember the ones you could make from 1" webbing from my patrolling days, and thoses were none too comfortable, even over ski pants.

 

Use a 10" lengths for powder cords, so it comes out 2 strand; not too bad.  Rarely hike anything over 30 minutes or will use the backpack, so it works.  Best, NO!  Functional, yes.
 

 

    Get a colored parachute cord or anything similar. Cut it about 10 feet long, then get a clear plastic suction cup, they are very easy to find. Drill a hole in the middle, stick the cord through and tie it off. You now have a professional looking powder cord that works very well. 

 

Don't use them. Have not lost  a ski in 4 years.

 

You're probably a better skier than I am & never fall, but I disagree entirely.

 

I spent an hour on a steepish face 4 years ago searching for my brand new Icelantic Nomads and it wasn't until a friendly passer by helped me, that he found them (20' up slope from my upper limit).

 

I went to Walmart and bought 20' of orange webbing for about $4 which I attach with some velcro.  I think I want bright & fluorescent rather than black which could easily look like natural twigs etc in bad light.

 

 

Perhaps, perhaps not.  I almost never see anyone using these cords. Finding skis in powder gets easier with experience. Usually the ski is somewhere between where I am an where I popped out.

 

 You can usually tell if you pooped out by the heel (ski dove) or by the toe (tip deflected), you can usually even feel which direction it went. So then you know where to search. The bottom line is the skis almost never travel very down the slope under the snow.

 

 

 

I've skied for 48 seasons and I've been a Mt. Baker powder hound for a lot of them.  I had never lost a ski until last season when it took about an hour to find it.  I was right under the chairlift so I got lots of comments from folks as they passed by.  I don't loose a ski very often and when I do it's usually an epic crash site where my ski is sticking up out of the snow where I can find it easily.  Not that time, though.  I started using powder cords (tape) after that.  So far it hasn't come in handy, but it will sometime.

 

 

Tim - I have to laugh.  The morning before we hooked-up when I bought your P4's, I took a dive on JP face and ended up searching for my ski for at least a half hour.  My son finally located it about 20 feet up from where I thought it was.

 

 

I've been on the chair and seen peoples ski submarine 100 yards.  They won't find it for hours with or without cords.  I don't use them, but think they are a good idea for most.

I'm lazy, if I don't find it within a minute or two, I ski down on one and get another pair.  I typically leave a 2nd string pair on top at the patrol shack all winter.

Resurrecting a dead post here, but I must disagree with the assertion that skis don't travel far under the snow. Although with practice one might be able to estimate direction skis will travel under the snow (I'm dubious), skis travel under and above the snow. If you're lucky, they'll break the surface and really get themselves out of sight. 

 

I wasted half a day last season hunting for one of mine that popped under some cement at Kirkwood. As best I could tell, it damn near pulled a 180 under the snow. I post holed and found it with my boot as I was leaving my search pattern. The cords were in my pocket the whole time. X-( 

My group of 3 stopped to help a skier search for their lost ski last year because he had been there for 3 or more runs. His ski was finally found a good hundred feet downhill of where he started searching. Drole advice about not falling in powder aside, it's a good idea to take precautions when you're sking powder. The exception being those who enjoy spending half their powder day looking for a lost ski.

Bob

$4.50 buys you enough for half a dozen pairs of leashes.  Tie off the ends with a Prusik knot for an easily adjustable loop.

 

http://www.rei.com/product/799630/pmi-3mm-utility-cord-package-of-50-ft

 

 

Never lost a ski in my life, but I have spent over half a day looking for one. Finally got some cords this season from fly2mike (great cords), haven't had a ski fly off on me yet, going to be exciting when it happens lol. Possibly this weekend.

If $4.50 is too much. there's this

http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-202048189/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

...add an S-Biner to the binding end, some big plastic buttons to the outbound end to help the cord surf along the surface.

 

If its 10"+, I always use cords.

...ask the 2 guys whom I skied with last year in 24+ POW, I gave them both sets before we started the day...

I'm not about to ski POW with someone who doesn;t have them... and be part of the search squad when they have to start lookin.

Last Yr I watched 2 guys dig out about a 15 yd square area of 20" deep on Climax at Mammoth, and not sure if they found the ski - they were there from just before 10:30 until at least 2:30 - then they were gone; and we had a HUGE hole in the middle of the face...

 

They deserved all they got

Get 'em, use 'em.  They're cheap and it saves time searching.  I once spent 25 minutes searching in Highland Bowl and we didn't find a buddy's ski. Ski patrol found it the next summer. Last week the same buddy lost a ski just off the side of a groomer at Jackson Hole for 10 minutes and was very sheepish when he finally skied down to me and explained.  Think he'd have learned his lesson!  Don't be that guy!

I completely agree with Dino on this one. Powder days are too few and to precious to spend them looking for a ski. If you don't want to spend the money for Pow Tales or the powder cords my competitor in Seattle sells take the advice of Toecutter and buy some ribbon to stuff up your pantleg and tie to your ski. It's a bit of a pain the butt solution, but better than spending your time looking for a lost ski.

Bob

I think  time spent fiddling with the cords over many powder days over many years vastly exceeds the time saved in looking for skis.

I rarely release my ski in powder condition.  I don't grab my cords every time (over 18"), but that one time I released about 4 years ago, I had my cords.  I looked and found it about 15' from where I thought my ski may have been.  Probably saved me about 30 minutes of digging and searching.  This year in DV, I saw couple of guys AND two patrols searching for over 1 1/2 hour. I assume that they were looking for a ski.  I don't believe they found it.  Putting on the cords is no big deal to me, if I remember them.

I trained two chipmunks to find any ski i might lose.

They clean up crumbs from lunch tables nicely, too.

I suppose choosing 'White' is not a good idea.

 

I invented Pow Tales after loosing one of my favorite skis in about 15" of light powder. My wife and I looked for over an hour before giving up. I had powder cords that you stuff up your pant legs in my pocket at the time, but hardly ever used because they were such a PITA. Pow Tales install directly on your ski boots and live there until needed so you can't forget them. The included bungee cords allow you to custom fit your Pow Tales to your rear ski binding piece, so it's very easy to engage and disengage them. They are the most user friendly powder cords on the market. Check em out at http://powtales.com. At $19.95 they're a steal, and don't forget...Epic Ski members can get a 25% discount.

Cheers,

Bob

I've been skiing Tahoe powder for decades and enjoy storm skiing if it isn't too windy. And have been using powder cords most of that time. My season pass resort regularly has some of the deepest depths in The West occassionally with storms leaving cold dry fluff one is down in at crotch depth.  Scary time to be without cords on steep slopes.     Long ago I was skiing steep D1 face at Alpine in knee deep fresh dry fluff atop a firm base.  Came out of my skis and could not find one of the skis spending over an hour methodically X<>Y using the found ski slicing back and forth trying to find it.  Was no where about the crash hole.  Then noticed the tip of my lost ski sticking up slightly above the snow way down the slope up against a small tree trunk.  Ski head totally submarined underneath the snow several dozen yards without breaking the surface leaving no signs.   After that began using cords.

 

Surveyors tape will usually work but sometimes will become crusted up under a cuff when temps from body heat are warmer and during ejection not stretch out, instead coming out in an ice encrusted blob that may end up under the snow. The other issue is unless one bothers to nicely fold up the tape, it might end up in a tangled knot, again coming out in a blob.  Of course round nylon cords cannot be folded up and yeah they definitely tangle.  So one issue with any cord or tape design is figuring out a way to wad or fold it up so when skis come out it stretches out orderly without tangling up.  That is why one old product of red cords from the old days used to have a hard plastic piece at the end which was supposed to be placed under one's ski pant elastic powder cuff.  That way the plastic piece has the most resistance coming out so the rest of the tape or cord will tend to stretch out to full length before the plastic pops out.  The other function of the plastic piece is if it is flat shaped, it will tend to float planing above the surface of the snow which is more an issue in cold smoke conditions.  Just the kind of powder one does not want to be wasting time looking for a ski.   I've seen a few skiers that don't bother to wad the surveyors tape up under their pant cuff and instead just let several feet stretch out behind. Not a wise idea, especially when one is in a lift line haha. 

 

 

 

 

Those Pow Tales look like a well designed product.  Buy em!  For creative types with a wee bit of time on their hands here is my own custom design which can be made for hardly any cost but requires a little time.  Fabric shops call the material nylon belting which will be thinner than mountaineering webbing, and quite foldable:

 

http://www.onlinefabricstore.net/webbing-strapping/polypropylene-webbing/1-red-polypropylene-webbing-.htm

 

The end piece that goes under an elastic pant cuff is just an oval flat cut out from a small sheet of red foam.  The end that easily attaches or disconnect from the back of my Rossy rental binding is a key ring I simply attach to a convenient spot.  The belting end loop readily slides in.   A few inches below the cuff end is one of those elastic bunji type hair bands one can buy in any drug store for a few cents.   A piece of duct tape divides the hair band so it is just the right opening to squeeze on the folded up belting.  I marked the belting with a black marker every few inches at points I tend to fold at. 

 

After ejecting from a ski in powder, the belting stretches out orderly.   I always fold up the belting BEFORE stepping back into the binding

 

David

Edited by dave_SSS - 12/30/12 at 2:33pm

Unless someone is hudgly unsmart, it takes about a minute to get cords set for the day. Compared to the potential time spent to find a ski that's torpedoed many yards, it's a no-brainer.

I just have to report something I saw in line for the Jackson Hole tram the other day.

 

First off, it's important to understand that it had not snowed in about three days, so any inbounds "powder" that might be found would have to be scooped up from a large area and dumped into one spot to actually cover a ski.

 

Anyway, there was a guy in line for the tram trailing his 8-foot-long pink powder cords behind him attached to his boots as everyone shuffled along in the line.  I looked hard at him to try to figure out if he was doing this as a joke.  Probably about 35 years old, wearing a day ticket (not a season pass) and carrying some wide K2 skis (not sure of the model).

 

It's the first time I've ever in my life seen someone trailing powder cords in the tram line.  You learn something new every day.