Whatever Happened to Packed Powder?

I have had some awesome days this season...and I've had quite a few "spring" days...however, I cannot think of many instances where I was skiing in standard eastern packed powder conditions (i.e. two days to a week or two after a storm).  I'm not counting those manmade hardpack days in December, because that's just not real snow.   Maybe it's because I've been touring a lot, getting soft snow in the backcountry, but I feel like we're constantly going from powder skiing to a melt.....didn't used to be that way.  Just a thought.

Just timing.  I've had two days at Whiteface this year where I've literally said to myself....."that is the best packed powder I've ever skied".  Both happened to be a day or two after the storm.  With the quickly changing nature of our weather these days nothing lasts for long.....

Great point. Of 20 or so days this season, only one was packed powder.  That was for a few hours at best.  All other conditions to below zero in Jan to 62 in quebec last week.  Biggest spectrum of conditions, some even good, actually most ok, but very limited pp.

I've had 2 or 3 I can think of.  1 for sure was Mt snow on Feb 4.  Great conditions.  Other 2 were Hunter Mtn.  One after a storm and 1 when they were blowing snow.  

Global warming.

I think "packed powder" is still with us, even though it's not referred to that way anymore. In the nineties the term became sort of a joke. The mountains called everything "packed powder".

Packed powder.  LOL    

It's like saying "pre-owned car" instead of used car.

I've had some good ski days this year, but mainly on a mix of frozen granular / manmade / packed powder.

Umm,  WF rocking the best packedP i skied in a long time right now!

Yeah, very true.  I was there Sunday, and it was like butter!