How to Snowboard in Powder: Tips on Terrain, Gear & More

Learning how to snowboard in powder is an important skill that all riders should be familiar with whether you are heading to the ski resort, sidecountry, or backcountry. In this overview, the Burton Guides outline the key things you need to know about riding powder so that when the day finally arrives, you can drop in on that untouched slope and experience the true bliss of snowboarding.

As it turns out, snowboarding in powder is quite a bit different from snowboarding on groomed terrain and there’s a few things you should know before catching pow fever.

1. How to Choose a Powder Snowboard
2. Stance & Binding Adjustment for Powder Snowboarding
3. How to Snowboard in Powder: Riding Technique
4. How to Snowboard in Powder: Safety Considerations
5. Outerwear for Snowboarding in Powder
6. Tools for Planning Your Next Powder Day

1: How to Choose a Powder Snowboard

Learning how to snowboard in powder isn’t just about technique, having a snowboard that was designed for soft and/or deep conditions can be a big part of a successful pow day too.

Back in the day, there were fewer specialized snowboard shapes and riders would often just “size up” their favorite snowboard to ride backcountry powder lines. And while this approach did deliver better floatation, it also meant more swing weight and less torsional flex (a stiffer board that was heavier and harder to flex edge-to-edge). Fortunately, as snowboard construction evolved to feature new materials and shapes, powder-specific snowboards allowed riders to float, turn, and slash with ease.

Generally speaking, there are five primary traits that can be used to describe every snowboard: shape, taper, reference stance, bend, and flex. (For a more thorough explanation of what these traits are and how they work together, check out Understanding Snowboard Measurements.) Additionally, width is another important quality to consider when snowboarding in powder.

When shopping for a powder snowboard, keep the following qualities in mind.

1. Shape: A directional snowboard (with a longer nose and a shorter tail) tends to perform well in powder, moving the rider’s center of gravity back.
2. Taper: A snowboard with more taper (a wider nose and narrower tail) allows the rider to assume a more upright position, as the nose floats up on the surface of the snow while the tail sinks.
3. Reference Stance: A snowboard with a setback reference stance (shifted towards the tail of the board) helps shift the rider’s weight back and provides lower-effort float. Note that you can always shift your stance toward the tail of your board, even if the reference stance is centered.
4. Bend: A rocker snowboard (with downward curve between the feet, and a raised nose and tail) can provide additional lift in deep snow. But there are so many unique snowboard bends that we recommend trying a few different profiles to figure out what you like best. Have a look at Burton’s Flat Top™ and Directional Flat Top™ bends. Additionally, consult Burton’s Rocker Snowboard Guide for an overview of Burton’s other snowboard bends.
5. Flex: Flex, or personality, has a big impact on how responsive a snowboard is. Without a firm groomed surface to dig your edge into, a more forgiving, softer flexing snowboard tends to be better suited to riding powder.
6. *Width:Snowboard width is often a consideration for riders with larger feet, but a wide snowboard also delivers increased surface area, allowing you to size down while maintaining floatation in deep snow. At Burton, some of our powder-specific boards, like the 3D Fish and Short Stop, are built wider specifically for this reason.

Already know what you’re looking for? Check out Burton powder snowboards and be done with it.

2: Stance & Binding Adjustment for Powder Snowboarding

Learning to snowboard in powder means knowing how to adjust your snowboard stance and binding angles when the conditions get deep. Especially relevant for riders who rock a one-board quiver, a quick stance adjustment can make riding powder much more enjoyable.

3 Binding Adjustments for Snowboarding in Powder

1. Shift your stance back towards the tail of your snowboard, while maintaining the width of your original stance.
2. If you normally ride with more pronounced negative rear foot binding angle (-20-degrees), try softening your stance by adjusting your rear binding closer to neutral (the 0-degree position) by 5-degrees or more.
3. Experiment with reducing the forward lean of your binding hibacks towards a more neutral position (such as straight up and down).

Pro tip: Review Snowboard Stance Angles Explained to learn how to optimize your stance for powder, freestyle, and all mountain riding.

3: How to Snowboard in Powder: Riding Technique

When learning how to snowboard in powder, few things are more important than developing good technique. Ultimately, you’ll have to get out and ride powder to become good at it, but there are four things you should think about as you build the skills.

1. Pace Yourself
2. Lean Back
3. Maintain Speed
4. Don’t Carve, surf

Pace Yourself: Most riders who are new to snowboarding in powder will quickly realize that it is much more physical than riding around on firm snow. Your legs will tire quicker while riding, getting up after a fall will be more challenging, even skating around requires more effort. So, remember to pace yourself. You’re not in a hurry. Take your time. Rest when you need to.

Lean Back: Fat Joe was onto something, because snowboarding in powder is going to require some changes in posture and body position. Specifically, you’ll need to lean back and shift your hips and center of mass towards the tail of your snowboard. The degree to which you lean back will depend on a few different factors, like the shape of your snowboard, your stance, the depth of the snow, and the steepness of the terrain you are riding. Also, know that leaning back too much can result in reduced snowboard control, so ultimately, you should only shift your weight enough that the nose of your snowboard floats and you don’t submarine.

Maintain Speed: When learning to snowboard in powder, you’ll quickly realize that you don’t pick up speed nearly as fast, and you will also come to a stop much quicker. Because of this, you should always make a conscious effort to maintain speed.

• Wax your snowboard with the wax type that matches the conditions and riding temperatures.
• Keep your turns wide and open without coming completely perpendicular to the fall line.
• Drop into other people’s tracks through low-angle or flat terrain where speed naturally slows.
• Seek out the steeper terrain.

Don’t Carve, Surf: Snowboarding in powder is similar to surfing on water, in terms of the mechanics of the board and how it interacts with the snow. With this in mind, it’s important to understand that the entire base of your snowboard comes into play, and the edges become much less important. When riding, focus on staying loose, bending your knees, and using your ankles to help control your snowboard. Initiate turns with your legs, not by swinging your arms or flailing your upper body.

4: How to Snowboard in Powder: Safety Considerations

When heading out to ride deep powder, it’s always a good idea to ride with a trusted companion. This advice applies to both riding at ski resorts and in the backcountry (where it’s non-negotiable). We ride with partners because of two primary deep snow hazards.

Tree Wells: A tree well is essentially a moat that forms at the base of a tree as snow piles up around it. Tree wells can extend all the way to the ground and easily be over five feet (150 centimeters) deep. If you fall head-first into a tree well, you may be unable to extract yourself and you risk death from suffocation and/or hypothermia. Riding with a buddy ensures that someone will be looking for you if you go missing.

Avalanche: Primarily a hazard in backcountry riding, avalanche danger increases significantly with the arrival of new snow. Riding with a companion, the proper avalanche rescue equipment, and the knowledge of how to locate and rescue your partner if they are caught in an avalanche is absolutely crucial in the backcountry. Never ride in avalanche terrain alone.

Pro tip: Before heading out, please review How to Get Started with Backcountry Snowboarding for more information on backcountry safety.

5: Outerwear for Snowboarding in Powder

Having the right snowboarding outerwear can make things much more comfortable on a powder day. When assembling your kit, here are a few things to consider.

Waist Gaiter (Powder Skirt): A waist gaiter, otherwise known as a powder skirt, is an elastic inner feature on some ski and snowboard jackets that secures around your hips and prevents blowing snow and powder from getting up under your jacket. Waist gaiters not only add an extra degree of warmth by trapping warm air inside your jacket, but they also keep the snow out when riding (or wiping out) in deep powder.

Bib-style Snowboard Pants: Like a powder skirt, bib-style snowboard pants provide a higher level of protection against loose snow flying up under your jacket, soaking your base and insulation layers. Bibs may also have additional pockets for stashing important items close at hand, and their over-shoulder suspenders keep them up without the need for a belt.

Face Covering: A face covering such as a balaclava, will allow you to breathe comfortably, even while taking face-shots of that sweet blower pow. Take your face protection one step further with an Anon MFI face mask, which magnetically integrates with Anon MFI goggles for a seamless fit that can be lowered or reconnected in seconds.

Goggles: Chasing and riding powder often means snowboarding on storm days, so having the right eye protection to match the weather is crucial. Bring a quality pair of goggles to the mountain, preferably with multiple lenses, one for low-visibility storm conditions, and one for bright, sunny, blue-bird skies when the storm is over. Review What is VLT: Visible Light Transmision Explained for a thorough explanation of snowboarding goggle lenses.

6: Tools for Planning Your Next Powder Day

The final piece of the powder snowboarding puzzle is planning. Riders who put in a little bit of time looking at forecasts and following the weather patterns will have much more success finding the goods. In North America, two popular tools that we like to use for finding the best powder are OpenSnow and Windy.

Open Snow: This website and smartphone app provides weather forecasts specifically produced for skiers and snowboarders. It offers a super basic free version, or an advanced paid version. Forecasts can be viewed by region, state, or individual ski area. One of our favorite features of Open Snow is the New Snow Email Alerts, which notify us early in the morning when our pre-selected favorite mountains receive new snow above a threshold that can be manually set.

Windy: This weather forecasting website and smartphone app has a feature-rich free version, as well as a paid premium version. If you like data, and nerding-out on weather radar, lapse rates, wind direction, and comparing multiple forecast models, then this tool is for you. While it’s significantly more complicated than a standard weather website, Windy has everything you need to become your own meteorologist and track the storms, helping you pinpoint the places that will have the most, and best powder.

Pro tip: We recommend checking with your local snowboard shop to see what forecasting tools they recommend for your area. For Colorado-based riders, have a gander at Seth’s Weather Report, a gem of a resource offering free local snow forecasting and reporting via Facebook.