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Powder straps for skis. Are they necessary?


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Having never skied in deep powder, was wondering if I should bring along powder straps so that I am not digging around looking for ski's.

Or am I just over optimistic or worse, letting my ambition get ahead of my ability!!!

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I had to look for a ski a few years ago in Hakuba after a deep dump.......damned near bottomless. ;) My skis are white which certainly didn't help but after an hour or so I found it. At least two other skiers I saw weren't so lucky that day and had to walk out giving up on finding lost skis. Straps are something to think about I guess.

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I found my mobile phone under 2 foot of snow after seeing it fall out of my pocket on the go pro footage and walking back up the hill at night. You should be able to find your ski. :D

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I found my mobile phone under 2 foot of snow after seeing it fall out of my pocket on the go pro footage and walking back up the hill at night. You should be able to find your ski. :D

Yes, and while you are looking for the ski....you are saying WTF,,,,WTF....over and over again to yourself.

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I've had a set of powder ribbons in my ski jacket for years. Finally used them last week for the first time, after helping a guy search more than 30 mins for a ski -- he'd already been searching quite a while on his own -- that never got found. Hooked them onto the bindings and stuffed them under pant cuffs, and of course never came off a ski for the rest of the day.

I guess it's like wearing a helmet or not, a matter of how much more secure you feel :lol: .

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Straps were standard equipment before the brakes came out.

The problem with straps were - when you fall and a ski comes off, the chances of getting hit by your own ski was greater.

The straps were there so you don´t lose your ski and the ski takes off and hits someone below.

I´ve lost a ski on the slack in Naeba. Never found.

I had a friend (Brazilian backpacker) lose a camera in a NZ resort. 1 week later it was found by his friends.

Matter of luck,

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Ive had to spend quite a while looking for skis in the powder in the past and I made some powder ribbons with a couple of metres of red ribbon and a small carabiner from the 100 yen shop. Clip the carabiner to somewhere on the boot and shove the ribbon under the pant cuffs - its easy to clip off when getting on a gondola and so on. However, I have to say I dont really use them - seemed to be more trouble than they were worth with the ribbon often falling out and so on - maybe it would work better with a shorter, thicker ribbon or something or just buy some proper ones. I really wouldnt be happy if I lost one of my 60,000 yen skis!!

If you do lose a ski, a good idea is to remove the other one and re-tracing your tracks, use the ski to smash through the deep snow diagonally across the tracks - when you hit something hard, most likely you've found it.

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One of my friends lost his ski at the top of 47 last year after a big dump. I yelled back up the hill that he was an idiot for skiing in the first place and left him searching the hill. I met him at lunch time and it turns out he found it... then lost it again on the next run... and then found it and lost it again. See! I was right, he was an idiot.

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