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.
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.
