Glad to see the second season of Ascent Backcountry Journal hit the racks! Fun to see the diverse mix of articles about skiing coming from skiers.
The good folks at Ascent said I could write whatever I wanted. It’s early season and I was skunked on my last big missions, so I wasn’t sure what to contribute. After way too much coffee and thumbing through some ski mags the following rant started developing and I just let it roll out. May have gone too far on this one, but you don’t know where the line exists until it’s been crossed. It’s a bit over the top, but I had a lot of fun writing it. Enjoy!
THIS IS NOT A SPORT
Backcountry skiing is blowing up faster than you can deploy your shiny new avalanche air bag. More and more people are discovering it’s the most fun you can have in the winter with your clothes on, or off. You get to go wherever the hell you want and literally fly down mountains. But the allure of untracked powder is not the only reason folks are heading off-piste.
Social media and marketing campaigns aimed at the adventures of the backcountry may also be a culprit. Open any ski magazine today and behold how the major ski companies and manufacturers have jumped on the backcountry growth bandwagon and are pumping out ad after glossy ad featuring new, sexy, “must-have” gear for this latest, greatest sport. But herein lies the issue, or the issue is the lie. Backcountry skiing is not a sport! Tromping out into powder with fresh cut climbing skins and the new brightest 6 layer Gore-Tex shell could get you killed in the backcountry, even if you do have one of those cool air bags or beeper thingies.
What we do in the backcountry is not a sport. Sports are where you keep score, high-five, focus hard on staying within the lines and playing by the rules of others. There are timers, judges, fixed courts, flat fields, and goals. You get jerseys. They even have your name on the back so you don’t forget it. Maybe you get a coach to yell at you and tell you what to do. In sports, grown men, getting paid millions of dollars fall down on purpose hoping to draw a foul or a colored card. WTF?! In all my years of skiing I’ve never fallen down on purpose. My one main goal is to remain standing up.
The liability of outfitting folks and sending them into the big bad dangerous backcountry is understood by manufacturers, but the sick images and amazing adventures being promoted more than overshadow the fine print warnings of “education” and “inherent risks of avalanches”, or whatever wording the legal teams approve. Just as lacing up shoes doesn’t mean you’re ready to play for the NBA, however, showing up for one class on avalanche safety doesn’t mean you’re ready to start dropping steep powdery slopes while rubbing out a selfie on your Go-Pro pole.
It’s a slippery slope with skiing because the consequences are real. The majority of people being converted to the backcountry are resort skiers. Skiing in a resort area with its manicured runs and marked hazards falls deeply into the “sport” category. Don’t get me wrong it’s a gay old time, but once you’ve left a gate, or ducked a rope and outrun your friendly ski patroller, the game has changed significantly though the gear has only changed a little. Boundaries and definitions are what define us so let’s be definitely clear, this is not a game, and the backcountry is not a sport. For many reasons, bros everywhere have escaped the resort pen and are coming in droves seeking more wild and untracked descents. Perhaps they’ve grown tired of paying a hefty sum to ride on the hamster wheel all day. Welcome brethren! However, getting rad on controlled slopes does not instantly give you permission to fulfill your big mountain wet dreams of riding dirty like Jeremy Jones in a Coors Light ad.
Backcountry skiing is free from all that sport nonsense, but it does require that you use all of your senses. It isn’t rollerblading or fucking racquetball. A headband and short shorts will get you onto any court where you can suck all you want with little to no consequence. In the backcountry there are no bleachers, no fans getting fat on overpriced beer and hot dogs while they hope that their prayers and face paint will alter some action and give meaning and significance to their lives. For the most part nobody will ever know you were out there getting after it in the mountains. The next storm will wash away your insignificant tracks.
It’s not a sport, so what is it? Backcountry skiing is more of an art form. You must become an apprentice. It must be mastered and earned. It’s a lifestyle to be submersed in. It’s a world of weather, frostbite, avalanches, exhaustion, navigation, and decisions that can be a matter of grave consequence, even life and death. Each year dozens of people die in this pursuit in the U.S. alone. This is the reality of backcountry skiing that needs to be acknowledged. We can’t gloss it over even with the glossiest of ads. Please don’t try and compare this to activities that are at their basics just arguing over an inflatable ball.
Do I have a solution? Hell no, I’m just a ski bum off on a coffee fueled tangent trying to keep myself sane by spewing inflammatory content while I wait for winter. But I pray to Ullr that a new snow trend, or actual sport will soon rise up and redirect the focus of the outdoor industry and save our backcountry from being “cool”. (Park skiing anyone? Can we please bring back park skiing?) Until then can we treat the wilderness with the awe and respect that it incites and deserves?
Sure, buy the gear you need to have in order to get that tits deep banger photo for Instagram, but know that it’s a slow and patient process to safely get there and more importantly, get back. Take the time to actually practice with that “safety” gear. Attend avalanche classes. Read all the great books out there and become truly snow educated. Check local forecasts often and become a weather geek. Partner with a seasoned backcountry veteran (they are the ones with duct tape on their clothing) and go out in mountains with them again and again and again. Start mellow and slow then build into it. There is a time and a place for all things to be shredded. Know how to choose when that time is. This is zen shit. Tune out the hype and listen to the mountains. And if this sounds like too much work, and make no mistake, it is a lot of work, then maybe just find a fun sport to play instead.
Check out the full magazine online, or pick up a copy at your local gear shop.
Fair enough, that’s your rant. How about an alternative,though, an answer? If it’s not a sport then what is it? It’s fun enough to bag on newbies and all the marketing that creates them but how about turning that frown upside down and telling us what backcountry ski touring is, exactly, if not a sport. A job? A pastime? A hobby? A recreational activity? And please don’t describe something with the word “soul” in it.
And what’s with the focus on the clothing and gear? What does that have to do with BC skiing as a sport or not? Don’t kid yourself, as a sponsored ski dude, you have cheap and ready access to plenty of high-end gear and fashion options. I know. I’ve seen pictures.
No, it’s not about the accoutrements; it’s about an attitude, yours, mine, all of us involved. I’ll take a hunch and say that you’d like this, let’s call it a “thing,” to be special, limited, and rarified: ski-touring like it used to be in the 1940s and 50s, only with the kick-ass gear. And, you know what, generally this is all true: it is special, and limited, and rarified, especially for people like you who are given money and free gear to do it. But it’s not like being, say, an astronaut; now that’s a rare person. To be an astronaut takes real smarts and skill and they not subject to marketing and this year’s new line of beanies to wear on the inside of your sunglasses. So while we’d all like to be pioneers of some sort, in terms of BC skiing, those days are pretty much gone, that’s why we have Go Pros, and marketing departments, and, well, blogs about BC skiing.
So, no, it’s not so rarified anymore that few people do it. More and more people are interested in the opportunity and more and more people are taking the time and money to see what it’s all about. Not unlike buying a headband, shorts, and racquet and giving racquetball a go for a time. Most of these people will dink around a while and give it up because it requires a little more work and attention than they’re used to. Some will stick it out and become better skiers for it. Some, sadly, but very few, will die because of their inattention. You are not responsible for that and neither is the marketing machine that told then that BC skiing is so cool. Don’t worry about it. It’s says nothing about how soulful (sorry) you find BC skiing. This is what separates the hobbyists, the recreationists, from the more dedicated. It’s a process that occurs in not only the most beautiful, stimulating, and privileged activities in life but in life in general.
Hemingway said there are only three sports: bullfighting, motor racing, and mountaineering. “All the rest are merely games.” If you believe him (and why not?) then BC skiing is a reasonable few steps away from mountaineering. It’s a sport. Don’t fret over semantics. And in the same way you don’t fret over those 16 year-old bullfighters in Mexico and Portugal who take up the sport because it’s a sure path to fawning women, please don’t fret over those Go Pro’d, window display skiers who are certain that the way to soulfulness is through a credit card. It’s not your fight to fight.
So tell us, if not a sport, then what is it?
Your old friend Randy here, indulging in one of my rare insomnia “sports”. While you know I didn’t bother reading over any trip reports, I was immediately intrigued and clicked “read more” as soon as I saw that you had labeled something as a rant. As you know, I’ve always been most impressed by these types of blog posts from you and I have to give you an honest head bow of pride on this one. Despite a few moments of thinly veiled disdain (Katie! Where are you?) -for the hapless fools coming behind you into the world of backcountry- sneaking through to distract from your message, (but then, you didn’t Ask for an edit on this one from me..(: it was another moment of truth coming from one of our few (vocal) seasoned great Uncles of backcountry skiing. Thank you for the reminder to put on the skins with an attitude of deadly seriousness and to find elders for training. Please keep tearing yourself away from admiring your Strava stats to keep giving us blog posts like this.
And to my dear Mr. InDeep, as one of Noah’s greatest critics I must say: Thank you for some of your points. I had to high five you for the truth in pointing out the contradictions in some of Noah’s actions verses his words and I agree that there ARE quite a few holes in his “sport” analogy.
However. Before you indulge again on another spree of anonymous vitriol, might I give you a pointer so you can actually be a voice of reason in the maddening sea of ego stroking admirers to the Noah’s in our culture– read the captions under his pictures that you seem to so carefully study and scroll down for further blog posts. I know of very few other people in this industry that so publicly caution for prudence and respect for the dangers of the backcountry. The movies that you credited, with their constant meadow skipping and exhausting slo-mo powder sprays, as well as profiling of some of the worlds MOST uncool people, don’t exactly sell this hobby to the crowds of newbies wanting to be insta-famous to tracks of bad-ass music accompanying go-pro edits. One might argue that we need sponsored “athletes” (sporty!) to be in positions of popularity in order to spread some sort of intelligence to the rabid folks looking for another cool lifestyle hobby to photograph. Thankfully there ARE a few conflicted Noah “types” who are willing to take unpopular stabs at the status quo, despite, indeed, being paid by companies that make money from this “sport” in order to try and spread some sort of doctrine of questioning to the regular sales pitching of most media. I can promise you that he’s out there infinitely more than his social media might display. There are few in his position, that I know of, who show more humility and prudence in the backcountry- an opinion backed by many of his peers. We SOOO need people like you to call out people like Noah! But please. Try to make your criticism a little more valid and relevant to the topic next time so that we don’t all just roll our eyes at another faceless internet bullying session.
for those unfamiliar with Noah’s unique brand of humor, i’ll save you the 5-minutes of internet searching.
google search -> noah howell
Voile sponsored Athlete: ✔
Mtn Hardwear sponsored Athlete: ✔
Gnarly Nutrition sponsored Athlete: ✔
Brand sponsors sell athlete profile in general terms of Webster’s definition of athlete: ‘a person proficient in a sport.’
claimer of ‘backcountry touring’ being his favorite sport (Mtn Hardwear blog): ✔
Producer of 10 films exploiting our beloved backcountry environment (to which the Outdoor Industry Association cannot thank him enough for doing so): ✔
Participant in the fast growing lycra-clad sanctioned winter sport here in NorAm, Rando/SkiMo racing: ✔
this which by the way, is a subset of ‘backcountry touring’.
User of Strava: ✔
curious as to if you are in possession of all the pertinent avy tools when skinning preseason laps for time/vert up at unpatrolled brighton/alta/snowbird? photos of you/your friends that have been posted up on social media in the last few day seen quite contradictory to the article above.
Writer of published hypocritical bovine scatology: ✔
heres irony in the eye of the beholder: you are your own problem.
you’re welcome
Interesting reply InDeep. Not sure you actually do understand my humor, or got the point of the article either. This feels more like you have a personal issue with me? Pretty sure folks that visit this site know who my sponsors are, they are all on the home page, no need for google. Skimo is clearly a sport. Skiing without avy gear is fine when there’s no avy danger. Everything you said is “correct”, but has nothing to do with the article. Did I wrong you in another life, or snake your line? Maybe you should come up for air clearly you’ve been InDeep too long amigo.
The words and acronyms “First descent”, “FKT”, and the like make it a sport. I think for folks like Athey and many others, it is not a sport. But I think many of us turn it into a sport on a semi-frequent basis.
Agree Derek, that stuff falls into the skimo category, which is definitely a sport.
Spot on! It’s a way of life, you don’t learn things like route finding from a book or on the inter-web, you Earn it from time spent in the mountains and from the people that were doing it before you.
Something I struggle with quite a bit in my line of work, Noah.
Just picked up the hard copy and read this last night. Thank you for the rant. Eff em if they can’t take a joke – good thoughts and a good read in my opinion.
Right on! Sounds about right. Keep saying it.
but at the end of the day – I know I am now gonna see some guys in brand new Scandinavian outfits with duct tape applied directly after purchase. Being “core” is just another product.
Awesome. Great words. Reality-hammering reminder of what is at stake. Well done.
Rad….well said, Noah. Thanks for that.