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Is Skiing or Snowboarding Easier? An Expert Reveals the Truth

Originally posted on Powder | By Ian Greenwood | Last updated Jan 27, 2025 1:46 PM ET

Skiing or snowboarding? It's an age-old question asked by people who find the mountains alluring. They want to try snowsports but aren't sure the easiest way to start. If you fall into that category, you've come to the right place.

Keep reading for a breakdown of the beginner snowboarding and skiing experiences.

Is Skiing or Snowboarding More Beginner Friendly?

“It’s really dependent on the person,” said Chris Rogers, a skier, snowboarder, and PSIA-AASI National Team member who instructs across both snowsports disciplines.

When Rogers is presented with someone who’s never skied or snowboarded, he leads with one question: Have you participated in any board sports before? That list includes skateboarding, surfing, and rip-sticking. The latter, Rogers noted, translates particularly well to snowboarding.

If the pupil has ridden one of these boards in the past, then snowboarding, for them, will be “exponentially easier to learn,” Rogers said.

In the absence of prior board sports experience, though, newcomers tend to pick up skiing faster in Rogers' instructing experience.

Here’s why—skiing, unlike snowboarding, involves a forward-facing body position. Humans run, walk, and bike with their eyes trained straight ahead. Snowboarding, in contrast, forces participants to lead with one shoulder, which can feel less natural than skiing and make the initial learning curve steeper.

Skiing presents another advantage to newcomers—you can move both feet independently and “widen your stance to create balance,” Rogers said. While snowboarding, a participant's feet are locked in one position. Balancing on a snowboard, then, is uniquely tricky, at least for first-timers.

Snowboarders, too, tend to have a bit harder time navigating certain features on the mountain. Without ski poles or the ability to skate, they can become stuck on flat cat tracks or traverses. “Many snowboarders, especially in the beginner phases, really struggle with that,” Rogers said.

But terrain navigation isn't a zero-sum game. As an example, Rogers used the green run Swingsville at Vail Mountain, Colorado. While marked for beginners, the trail is a bit steep and can throw off novice skiers who are still in the snow-plow phase. That run may be less daunting for new snowboarders because, in a pinch, they can lean back on their heel side edge and sideslip the run without making turns.

Ultimately, though, if you’re searching for the gentlest introduction to snowsports—and have never ridden a board of any kind before—reaching for a pair of skis, generally, is a safe bet.

“I think for many people, there is truth in that, day one, skiing is usually going to be, for most people, a little bit easier than day one on snowboards,” Rogers said.

Rogers did couch this sentiment with a caveat. He reiterated that the experience of entering snowsports “all comes down to the individual.”

A person’s athletic experience and build can impact whichever sport they find easiest, and as you surf the web or the mountains, you may encounter individuals who firmly believe snowboarding, without a shadow of a doubt, isn’t as hard to learn as skiing.

Not sure what to do with that information? Try them both.

Is Skiing or Snowboarding More Fun?

Look—you’re reading POWDER. This is a skiing title. I’m almost contractually obliged to tell you that skiing is better—and more fun—than snowboarding in every way, shape, and form.

The truth is, though, skis and snowboards have their own weaknesses and strengths. Some cross-discipline snowsports fans, including Rogers, will say snowboards are better suited to and more fun in certain snow conditions than skis—and vice versa.

For instance, if the snow stake is buried in fresh snow, Rogers almost always reaches for his snowboard. “[Powder] snowboarding is one of the coolest feelings and sensations that I've ever experienced,” he said. “It's like surfing, and yet you don't run out of waves.”

But when the snow firms up and the moguls get icy, skis have the advantage. Rogers compared the differences between the two sports to two-wheel and four-wheel drive vehicles. Skiing equates to the latter. With their single effective edge, snowboards are more like rental cars, spinning their wheels on the ice.

“When you've got that second edge on skis, and you've got just a little bit more grip, and you're able to lay out a carve … that sensation is incredible,” Rogers said.

Sean Pettit, a famed professional freeskier who now skis and snowboards, shared a similar perspective to Rogers during an interview with Hardpack Magazine editor and founder Zach Seely.

“I do treat [skis and snowboards] as tools,” Pettit said. “Which tool is right for the job is based on, you know, what's the conditions today? Is it hard pack? Is it powder?”

Skis, the general snowsports consensus says, are more adaptable and can better navigate mixed, sometimes challenging, snow conditions. While less stable when the going gets rough, snowboards provide an unparalleled powder riding experience.

Should Skiers Try Snowboarding?

In recent years, the barrier between snowboarding and skiing has begun to dissolve. LINE, formerly a brand that exclusively made skis, now makes snowboards. Some athletes, including Sean Pettit, have begun enjoying both sports. Will Wesson, a longtime member of the LINE team, is another member of this crowd.

Wesson’s obviously an expert skier who’s spent hours and hours honing on-snow skills. Snowboarding shakes up his preconceived understanding of snowsports and helps him experience the mountain differently, making note of terrain features that he might’ve ignored while skiing. In some cases, he said he’d realize “there's an opportunity here that I was kind of not seeing before.”

High-pressure systems and periods of lousy snow can make skiing boring, particularly for lifelong participants of the sport who’ve already learned the basics. Conversely, tackling a new challenge, like snowboarding, can make things interesting again. Wesson, for example, tends to reach for his snowboard when the conditions aren’t excellent.

“I kind of use snowboarding as a tool to feel more challenged and also more excited when snow is not so deep,” he said. Wesson also suspects that his background in skiing and warm-weather board sports made learning snowboarding easier than it otherwise would have been.

So, if you’re feeling burnt out skiing, snowboarding a few days a season might be worth a shot—just don’t tell anyone POWDER sent you.

This article first appeared on Powder and was syndicated with permission.

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