Still plenty of snow at 12,000ft
Took out the Wing on skis in inconsistent wind, 0-15kts, gusts to 25. Got plenty of speed in the gusts, not much drag on packed snow!
Very fun, huge potential with the right conditions.

Heaps less friction than getting up on a foil, but not use here in OZ unfortunately

Nice..

Do you have enough power to push you up much of a slope? If so you could be on to a winner

People been kiting up slopes mainly in Colorado since the early '90's. The Summit snowboard team has tons of video of guys riding up, across, and then down while kiting on ram air kites. Speeds down are limited, of course, by up flowing wind and speed potential of the kites.
Most ram kites can stay ahead of riders going up to 20 mph, if the headwind is less than 15mph.
Summit snowboards were longboards ridden in the 180-210 cm range, retailed at around $650, and wood core carbon laminates.