Bille suggested that we start a separate thread to discuss gliding with a kite. I agree that is a good idea.
Bille you don't wish to compare gliding to paragliding. What we do on the snow is what you would call a "sled run." I agree with you that they are not the same. While it is true that you can fly a kite like a paraglider and actually gain elevation, you would be bananas to do so because of safety concerns (only 4 lines on a kite, one chicken loop line connecting kite to rider, harness that is not designed for flight, etc.). Your point of a sled run being lame makes sense, why unpack a wing, fly down and than have to pack it up again. Only a newbie would want to go through so much trouble for such a short flight. BUT, if you could do a sled run over and over again without packing up the wing and the wing also hauled you back up the hill (often making glorious powder turns) then you have something different. That is what we do snowkiting.
While you may not like comparisons to paragliding with snowkite gliding, there are some obvious similarities. The physics of how lift is generated in the wing is the same.
It is a lot of fun, I would like to encourage riders to do it safely. However, there is not much incentive for kite designers to pursue safer designs. The market is just too small. So, for now I am encouraging my friends to glide low and not to glide when the conditions are less than optimal. It is better to live to ride another day.
It is easy for kiters that have never tried the aspect of gliding to just dismiss it altogether (many dismiss snowkiting completely). It would be like me dismissing wave riding with a kite as being too dangerous to pursue and frankly, wave riding probably IS more dangerous than gliding from a statistical basis. I can already hear the flames