Watch out for those untracked powder fields with tracks around them, they could be flat or uphill.

My 2p. Not necessarily in agreement with the above...

(a) First off, you need to ride balanced.
People will tell you to weight your rear foot, but that's a really, really bad idea. First off you'll burn your back leg away in one run flat; second, you can "weather vane" the board, but that's about it. You need to ride balanced on the board or you won't be able to turn it.

(b) Ride a powder board.
Don't ride a board designed for a half-pipe or a park: you'll sink and everyone will laugh at you. A couple of weeks ago I saw a kid who'd managed to get into a helicopter with a park board. He was flying stand-by, and the operator screwed up and didn't check his board. Of course he couldn't make one turn in bottomless powder. The tail guide had to walk this guy down through 1,000 vertical meters of waist deep. That cost him the best part of a thousand dollars... it's cheaper to buy or rent a powder board, and a lot less humiliating.

(c) Don't over turn.
Ride the fall line, don't be afraid of speed.

(d) Read the terrain.
You can't walk in bottomless powder. You can maybe paddle your board if you have the technique, but it's exhausting. So look where you're going before you go and never walk. If you don't know what you're doing, let someone else ride it first. That way you'll have their track as a reference, and you'll find it much easier to avoid the flats. Worst case, ride their track to help keep your speed up.

(e) Learn how to paddle.
Take one foot out of the binding, and use it as a paddle. Nothing else works, unless you like crawling through waist-deep.

(f) Stances.
What works in the park or pipe doesn't work in the back country. Most people who ride back country don't use park stances; it's a different deal. Think hard about duck. Start with the board's defaut stance and only move it back if you're actually perling. Good riders can and do ride centered on powder boards (which have default stances that are in any case slightly back).

(g) Don't look down.
Don't know where the nose of your board is? Good, it doesn't matter. In any case different boards ride at different heights. It doesn't matter, just don't look down.

(h) Don't sit down or fall.
No really: these are the most exhausting things you can do, especially if you do them in the wrong place. Sitting down is like taking your goggles off... never, ever do it. If you really must sit down, then do it on a steep slope and gently ease your body into the slope. That way you can get up and off again without using a lot of effort. Better is to just lever the tail of the board into the slope and rest on that. If you must fall, do it somewhere steep so you can easily get going again.

(i) Don't stop.
If you stop you have to get going again. If you must stop, do it somewhere steep (ok, bear in mind avalanche risk etc etc of course).

(j) Fall creatively.
Well fall so you can get up. It's easier than it sounds... you have a fair amount of momentum when you crash, use it to get your board where you need it to be to continue. Maybe you can probably ride straight out of a crash anyway, but even if you can't manage that you don't want to burn effort wallowing about in deep snow.

(k) Obviously watch out for tree wells.
Easier than it sounds.. shape your turns so you're not going to crash into a well, and if you do crash, make sure you go in board first.

(l) Banked turns
I'd be very wary of thinking about this as a technique. I think you're best riding centered on your board; if you try deliberately to bank then you may well get your self out of position.

(m) Face Shots
Breathing can be an issue if you're getting a lot in the face. Rhythm is the key. You may well need to slow down if your wave blocks your vision. This can be dangerous near trees, so try to break when there's plenty of room.



Um, what's a "scorpion"?

Riders rarely enjoy their early powder runs. After crashing, burning and finally mastering the piste, powder has its own set of new rules.
We've all been thru it, the nosedives, the digging, the exhaustion, harbouring private thoughts of "this powder stuff is rubbish...."

You've got to learn it, just like hard-pack riding, or slush riding, or park riding.

Once you get it though you will love it, you can smile smugly to yourself and look at the piste with mild contempt...

if your just dropping off the edge of the piste and riding in bounds powder like 95% of people will be then just ride whatever board you own

Find a steep hill. The steeper the better. Speed makes powder easier. Steep hills make speed easier, and its easier to get up on one than a flat bit if you've fallen over.