Everywhere we go, we are being told to exert ourselves and strive for adventure in one way or another. Red Bull adverts tell us to find our line, and go beyond it while Go Pro Cameras dare us to be a hero.
It comes as no surprise that extreme sports are on the rise and that back country skiing in particular has soon become the fastest growing sector of the ski industry. The Mountain Equipment Co-Op reported that sales in backcountry ski equipment were up by 40% at the start of the 2013 season, suggesting a floodgate for what used to be a fringe sector of the sport.
With more pressure than ever before to become a member of this unique part of society, it is appropriate to consider the fine line between fun and risk. So what is it that has driven more people to take part in a sport that can so quickly turn into a disaster?
Social media is something that has become a huge part of most people’s day to day lives. It’s easy to stumble across someone shredding some fresh powder or someone doing a triple back flip off a mountain edge. Take professional skier Candide Thovex, whose videos get better each time. Check out his most recent below:
Instagram is also home to plenty of extreme sport partakers who publish photos daily of them doing something epic. Is this kind of thing encouraging the growth? Matt Baydala, a Utah ski resort restaurant owner, and self-certified powder hound, reckons “there are far too many folks out there that make bad decisions because of social media. On the contrary, because of social media those who are responsible have access to so much more information about Snowpacks in almost real time. Social media is a double edged sword.”
Matt is one of the responsible ones. He posts pictures on his Instagram page ISKIDEEPPOW and on Facebook to inform people of the conditions of the snow in Utah so they know what to expect and can play it safe. He says “I believe in showing people the tools they need to be safe. From time to time I’ll post avalanche forecasts when it’s not safe. I do what I can but at the end of the day people can and will do what they want when they want.”
The rise in popularity of GoPro cameras has now given everyone the ability to take the pictures they only ever saw in ski magazines… Nowadays it’s rare to see someone skiing or boarding without a mount on their helmet. What does this mean?
Recent POWDER Magazine feature Untracked explores how social media could be ruining skiing. The idea that skiers are posting exactly where and what runs they have skied, arguably destroying the adventure side of the sport. Instead of trekking to find your own powder like you used to, you can look on Facebook and find all the best spots plastered all over your newsfeed.
John Stifter, POWDER Magazine editor, and author of Untracked explains that “It’s kind of skiing etiquette, almost like surfing etiquette, you just don’t do that. It’s kind of an unsaid rule.
There’s a lot of ego more than ever in our culture and that has crept into skiing and I think it’s led to bad decision making.”
Amie Engerbretson, an avalanche survivor, agrees with this, but also makes the point that these people posting such epic footage know exactly what they are doing. She said “these people who look like they’re crazy dare devils swinging themselves off huge cliffs, it’s very calculated, their decisions and you can tell that by how many of them stay alive for a long time.”
Below is a video posted by Matt on the Ski Utah Facebook Page, showing a perfect powder day earlier this month on the Park City Ridge Line in Wasatch, Utah.