01-22-2025, 04:58 AM
It seems not a week goes by anymore where I don't read something about someone dying while skiing. What's up with that?
I skied for over 35 years, was a ski instructor in college, and skied some of the nastiest tight-treed vertical terrain in the world in search of deep powder. We never wore helmets; heck, helmets weren't even an option then. Just went out there and skied. But this isn't about me; I provide my experience only for background context. At first I thought the reason we hear about these deaths is because there's more media everywhere these days, but that's not it. Back when I was a skier a skiing death was a big deal, and it always got press, and it got huge press inside the skiing communities, regardless of where it happened.
Today, it seems like skiing is one of the most hazardous sports on earth with all the recent deaths. I do have some theories though. A large number of these recent deaths are from collisions with trees (which was always a risk) and/or skiing off of something like an unseen drop off. I don't really count avalanche deaths unless they occur in-bounds at a ski area. Out of bounds / back country skiing always carried with it the risk of avalanche (I've even been through a small one myself). There are, however, a couple things which are quite a bit different from when I was a skier.
The first big (major actually) difference is snowboards. The percentage of snowboarders on ski slopes today is often upwards of 30-40% of the attendance at a ski area anymore. I snowboarded once...once. Never again! Why? Because the amount of control you have is orders of magnitude less than that of a skier. It's just the nature of the beast; you have a wide board which displaces a lot of weight over a much larger area meaning less 'grip' or edging ability. I don't have anything against snowboarders, but when I watch them ski the fall line I can visually see their ability to execute tight turns is a lot less.
The second thing which is different from when I skied, much like snowboards, is the geometry of the new ski's. Modern ski's are much wider than the ski's of old. And, the geometry of the ski is much different with the new hourglass shape and wide shovel tips. This geometry does give the ski the ability to carve a better turn, and it definitely improves the performance in deeper snow, but I wonder if the additional surface area is also resulting in incremental loss of control compared to the older narrower ski's. I certainly notice a difference in the edging capability. I regularly speak with other skiers and they inevitably state their fear of ice. Ice was just a regular thing for me, and I attribute this increased fear with decreased ability for the ski itself to edge properly on ice. Less edging capability equals less control, and less control equals higher risk.
Those are all physical factors, but here's the part I really don't get. With experience came the knowledge of knowing when you were on the edge of control. If I was out of control, I knew it ahead of time and I was already looking for a way to bail out of my situation. In some cases this meant intentionally crashing to avoid something like hitting a tree. In other words...just sit down / dump your momentum. 'Skiing the trees' was always a little bit unnerving experience until you got the snow conditions down and the tree spacing understood, especially in the steeps. Even then though, we were usually in the trees for a reason, and that reason was deep un-tracked powder. In deep powder you're going a lot slower than on a groomed trail, thus more control and more time to make decisions.
I write this because even though my back and knees (and shoulder) prevent me from doing much skiing anymore, I still absolutely love the sport. I love everything about it, and I love all of the great experiences skiing brought me. And, I feel like all these skiing related deaths are giving skiing a bad name. It's not that dangerous provided people remain in control.
I dunno, maybe people are just taking more risks these days, but the recent reports of skiing related deaths have mostly been in-bounds at ski areas. I could understand a little better if all these deaths were 'rope-duckers' (as I used to be), but they're not. I find it hard to believe that ski areas are intentionally opening up 'more' dangerous terrain, when the trend of society anymore is to "nanny-state" just about everything.
I'd love to hear your thoughts.
I skied for over 35 years, was a ski instructor in college, and skied some of the nastiest tight-treed vertical terrain in the world in search of deep powder. We never wore helmets; heck, helmets weren't even an option then. Just went out there and skied. But this isn't about me; I provide my experience only for background context. At first I thought the reason we hear about these deaths is because there's more media everywhere these days, but that's not it. Back when I was a skier a skiing death was a big deal, and it always got press, and it got huge press inside the skiing communities, regardless of where it happened.
Today, it seems like skiing is one of the most hazardous sports on earth with all the recent deaths. I do have some theories though. A large number of these recent deaths are from collisions with trees (which was always a risk) and/or skiing off of something like an unseen drop off. I don't really count avalanche deaths unless they occur in-bounds at a ski area. Out of bounds / back country skiing always carried with it the risk of avalanche (I've even been through a small one myself). There are, however, a couple things which are quite a bit different from when I was a skier.
The first big (major actually) difference is snowboards. The percentage of snowboarders on ski slopes today is often upwards of 30-40% of the attendance at a ski area anymore. I snowboarded once...once. Never again! Why? Because the amount of control you have is orders of magnitude less than that of a skier. It's just the nature of the beast; you have a wide board which displaces a lot of weight over a much larger area meaning less 'grip' or edging ability. I don't have anything against snowboarders, but when I watch them ski the fall line I can visually see their ability to execute tight turns is a lot less.
The second thing which is different from when I skied, much like snowboards, is the geometry of the new ski's. Modern ski's are much wider than the ski's of old. And, the geometry of the ski is much different with the new hourglass shape and wide shovel tips. This geometry does give the ski the ability to carve a better turn, and it definitely improves the performance in deeper snow, but I wonder if the additional surface area is also resulting in incremental loss of control compared to the older narrower ski's. I certainly notice a difference in the edging capability. I regularly speak with other skiers and they inevitably state their fear of ice. Ice was just a regular thing for me, and I attribute this increased fear with decreased ability for the ski itself to edge properly on ice. Less edging capability equals less control, and less control equals higher risk.
Those are all physical factors, but here's the part I really don't get. With experience came the knowledge of knowing when you were on the edge of control. If I was out of control, I knew it ahead of time and I was already looking for a way to bail out of my situation. In some cases this meant intentionally crashing to avoid something like hitting a tree. In other words...just sit down / dump your momentum. 'Skiing the trees' was always a little bit unnerving experience until you got the snow conditions down and the tree spacing understood, especially in the steeps. Even then though, we were usually in the trees for a reason, and that reason was deep un-tracked powder. In deep powder you're going a lot slower than on a groomed trail, thus more control and more time to make decisions.
I write this because even though my back and knees (and shoulder) prevent me from doing much skiing anymore, I still absolutely love the sport. I love everything about it, and I love all of the great experiences skiing brought me. And, I feel like all these skiing related deaths are giving skiing a bad name. It's not that dangerous provided people remain in control.
I dunno, maybe people are just taking more risks these days, but the recent reports of skiing related deaths have mostly been in-bounds at ski areas. I could understand a little better if all these deaths were 'rope-duckers' (as I used to be), but they're not. I find it hard to believe that ski areas are intentionally opening up 'more' dangerous terrain, when the trend of society anymore is to "nanny-state" just about everything.
I'd love to hear your thoughts.