And then there’s powder, the king of snow. Without powder, snowboarding would still be an Owen Paul-style Favourite Waste Of Time™ (youtube him) but with this wonderful addition, it transcends mortal pleasures. Powder is to snowboarding what sugar and milk are to tea: a magical bonus on top of an already wonderful thing. Most people won’t ever experience it – in the same way that most people won’t feel what it’s like to surf through a barrelling wave. As such, riding cold, fresh powder is one of life’s rare delicacies: a sporting Beaujolais nouveau, a mountain rider’s lobster thermidor. It is also, however, one of the most difficult experiences to explain.
