Eit’s snowing And it’s gonna snow all night. Not only snowboarders are eagerly awaiting: fresh snow! Anyone who picks up their board early the next morning and takes the gondola to be one of the first to buckle up on the mountain will find the untouched white powder, which also makes skiers addicted and happy. Nothing makes snowboarding as fun as skiing in deep snow.
If you have the right board on your feet. But the decision is usually made before the holiday. Many riders should only own one board anyway and take it with them on vacation. We were also traveling with a single test board. This was also the case on the day when the new flakes were stacked more than a foot on top of each other. Since the Alchemist from K2 had previously shown on the groomed piste how calmly and sublimely it chauffeured its driver down the mountain at the highest speeds, skepticism arose during the gondola ride up to the deep snow that it would probably not be able to perform at its best in this terrain.
It was like that in the end. After a few meters off-piste, we started sweating because a slight shift of weight to the back foot wasn’t enough to keep our nose above the snow. Otherwise the alchemist will disappear in the white powder like a submarine on a dive. It was sometimes hard work to consistently lean your body backwards and lift your feet at the same time. Even if the K2 board, which costs 650 euros, should offer buoyancy in terms of design, because it has a “rocker” on the nose that relaxes the “camber” a little. But the board is too hard for these purposes. After work, there was some fun in the deep snow.
Back to the slopes
Actually, the use of a screwdriver might have relieved the thighs. On every snowboard, the binding can be moved a few centimeters along the board, in this case backwards would have been good to lengthen the nose. It only takes a few minutes and is well worth it if a day in deep snow is the order of the day. However, on normal days in the Alps, there are usually just as many groomed slopes, because many ski areas offer only limited opportunities for freeriders. Then the position on the board, which is adapted for deep snow, would not be optimal – which would be a shame, because with hard and heavy boards like the Alchemist, snowboarders take the lead on the slopes. As soon as the K2 flagship is given free rein in the shot, its driver pulls past everyone else without flapping or jerking. With large turns, the edge reliably eats into the snow, so that you can easily ski half circles that are wide on the slope. It never breaks out on short ones, the board reacts quickly and directly.
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