How Much New Snow Counts As a Powder Day? (Poll)

As skiers, we pretty much live for powder days.

There’s truly nothing like the sensation of skiing powder, and few things in the world are as magical. In fact, we love it so much that Dave and Jake Moe named our publication after it and have been writing about it since 1972.

However, part of the magic of powder days is that they don’t happen all the time. What you consider a ‘powder day’ might change year to year or geographically, depending on how much snow your local mountain gets in a given year. For instance, over the 2020/2021 winter in Jackson Hole, by mid-February, I only woke up early to ski if it snowed more than 8″ overnight because there were a few weeks where the average was about 8″ a day. In contrast, over the 2021/2022 winter, 6″ overnight was unreal, and worth celebrating for a week to come.

So, what do you consider a powder day? How much snow does it take for you to get your snorkel out and slough off all other responsibilities in favor of skiing? Vote in our Weekly Powder Poll below and keep reading for more.

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Poll: How Much New Snow Do You Consider To Be a Powder Day?

Classifying a powder day is not an exact science, but there are definitely things that might influence your decision to call in sick to work. The aforementioned seasonal context is definitely a factor.

Big snow years can spoil us and skew our vision of powder days, as can a few big storm cycles. Conversely, in a season like the one most of the American West is currently experiencing, 3″ of snow would have us running to dust off our powder skis.

Location can also play a role in what you consider a pow day. For instance, skiers in the west might not blink an eye at 6″ of snow, but for those in the east and midwest, six inches might be their deepest day of the year.

There’s also the logistical factor of what counts as a powder day. If you’re lucky enough to work a job with a ‘powder clause,’ that lets you take the morning to ski when it does snow, that clause likely has a snowfall amount qualifier.

My first ski industry job gave us a powder clause when 6″ of snow fell overnight, and we didn’t have to be in the office until 11 a.m. Additionally, what if it only snows 4″ overnight, but snows 2″ an hour throughout the day? Free refills on top of a solid, fluffy base definitely count as a powder day in my book, but you might not get enough to call out sick or use your powder clause.

Lastly, there’s the question of snow quality, after all, they don’t call it a ‘mashed potatoes’ day. A storm might drop 7″ of snow on a mountain, but if that snow is more like cream cheese and you’re not really getting much of a floating sensation, does it really count as a powder day?

Snow is snow, and we’d be pretty excited about 7″ of cream cheese right about now, but there’s no denying that those deep, low-density days just hit differently.

About the POWDER Weekly Poll

We launch our weekly polls at 3 p.m. EST every Monday. They remain open until 12:00 p.m. EST the following Friday, with the results dropping on Sunday at 9 a.m. EST. You can participate and see the results right here on our website or by visiting our Instagram page. While you’re at it, drop us a line or leave an Instagram comment if there’s a poll you’d like to see next. Skiers have plenty of opinions and preferences, and we want to know which ones might land on top of the heap.