2) You Will Discover It Is Bloody Hard To Turn

So, you’ve left the piste, you are cruising through the soft snow until…. Holy crap! Why is my board sinking? Welcome to the love/hate relationship you will have with powder, my friend.

When riding in the deep stuff, you need to put a decent amount of pressure on that back leg to keep the nose of your board out of the powder. If it’s your first time, you will definitely feel the leg burn after a few minutes.

But make sure you don’t straighten that front leg completely – otherwise you won’t be able to turn and you’ll end up face first in the pow.

3) You Will Get Stuck In A Ditch

I can guarantee this will happen to you within minutes of riding through a powder field for the first time. You are carving through the snow, whooping to your mates when suddenly you’ve stopped. You are in a ditch and you can’t get out.

I think it took me half an hour to dig myself out the first time I got stuck in a ditch. Plan your route so you stay high, people. Avoid the dips – however tempting they may seem – it won’t be so fun when you have to climb out sweating and swearing. Again.

6) You Will Head Off Without Avalanche Safety Kit

….. Until you realise that’s a really, really bad idea. 75 people were killed by avalanches in Europe alone last year.

In the Portes du Soleil, there have already been a handful of major slides – two which came onto the pistes – so it just goes to show, nowhere is completely safe.

Get yourself on an avalanche safety training course. They aren’t expensive, they are only a couple of hours long but the knowledge you will learn could save your life (or someone else’s) one day.

Mint’s Off-Piste course provided us with a great grounding in transceiver training and spotting potentially risky terrain.

7) You Will Crash Into A Tree

This can be pretty serious, but nine times out of ten you will find yourself wrapped around a rogue tree stump (or stuck upside in a tree, hanging from your board) crying with laughter at your less than graceful slam.

8) You Will Lose Your Hat/Googles/Dignity

Powder tends to turn the cautious among us into total loose canons. The landings are so soft, you can just hoon it, right?

I can guarantee when you bail, it will be in a spectacular fashion. Powder spray everywhere. Googles will fly off. You helmet will bounce on your head like a ping pong ball. Your phone or car keys will fall out of your open pocket. Finding these items in a powder field is a nightmare.

At least snowboarders don’t have a tendency to lose their sticks quite as often as skiers lose skis in powder. Feel sorry for that dude who has spent the last two hours looking for his brand new Volkls with no luck….

9) You Will Take Your Board Off – And Not Be Able To Get It Back On

When you get really buried in a big powder pile, you will be tempted to take your board off. If you can help it, don’t do it.

Firstly, you could drop your board. If you are hiking back up a 100m steep section and you let go, well that’s goodbye snowboard for this season.

Secondly, once you do try and strap back in, the binding will be so clogged up with snow you’ll want to hurl you stick at the nearest tree.

Oh, and definitely don’t try and tighten your loose bindings while sat in powder. That never ends well.

10) You Will Never Look Back With Regret

So this last one isn’t a mistake, but many people would be forgiven in thinking riding off-piste is just….. OK.

Those people have never tried it before.

That feeling of getting first tracks of the day, floating on top of the snow, whooping in the sunshine with your mates. It doesn’t get better than that.

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