Excuse my rant. Been too sick to so much as walk down my driveway, let alone ski, for two weeks, and it's affecting my attitude.
<execrable rant>
I call total BS on this thread and the many like it. What I see, on the rare occasions when I get to ski powder, is that the vast majority of skiers are either studiously avoiding the ungroomed, or else flailing hideously, in a way that aligns not at all with their accounts in the bar last night of long-past powder exploits.
In short, they need all the help they can get. I know I, for one, am nothing but grateful for my modern powder skis. I am utterly uninterested in trading them in for my old Olin 195s. None of my ski buddies is, either.
Yes, I've been skiing for 55 years, so I know all about skinny skis. Compared to today's gear they sucked in every conceivable way. Getting back on a pair will NOT bring back that one day you vaguely remember from when you were 19 and there were only 20 other people skiing the back bowls. It's not the skis you're attached to; it's the context, with its accumulated patina from having been fondled in a pocket of your memory all those times, like Bilbo's ring. If you really were and really continued to be a skilled frequent practitioner of powder skiing, you'd be down at the bench waxing up for tomorrow, not talking about how good things were yesterday.
</execrable rant>
Photo from the recent Utah gathering, courtesy of Jim Kenny,