You Betcha! Alta is a great place, and one of my favorite ski slopes, with no kamakazi kids on snowboards to look out for. One of the main reasons to ski Alta, is its lack of snow boarders!! If they think that the Constitution allows them to go where they please, I’d guess that I could also bring my snow mobile and chase them down the hill!
As a skier that has taken snowboard lessons, and has been hit twice this year by snowboarders, there is definitely more danger with snowboarders on the mountain. They see 180 degrees just like skiers, but part of the 180 degrees they do not see is for people right beside them. In both instances i was knocked down, I was in front and to the left of the boarder. In neither instance did they stop to see if I am OK.
The problem is not only snowboarders though. It seems that from the time of 5, ski areas are teaching kids to go fast. When these kids reach ages15 and until at least 30, whether boarders or skiers, they feel invincible and pay no attention to the general rules of engagement. These rules are things like the down hill person has the right of way. Ski under control with the ability to stop if you have to.
It is too bad ski areas have protection under state laws as they do not do a good enough job protecting the masses from these speed demons.
Man, there is so much wrong with this article and this situation, I barely know where to start. Rant coming.
1) It is 2014 and the War On Snowboarding is sooo OVER. (BTW: skiers who dislike snowboarders—and sharing the slopes—lost.) It was over 20 years ago when, by the early 90s, most of the ski areas in the US had granted access to snowboarders; some begrudgingly, yes, but equal access just the same. Even for the mid-90s hold-outs, the new influx of revenue in their stale, no-growth industry made them all feel better pretty quick.
2) Are we really still hung up on an outdated perception of snowboarders as being reckless, loud, obnoxious and dangerous big-pants-wearing street urchins who threaten the country club vibe of the sport of cranky old white guys? For every 17 year old snowboarder you can point at and call a punk or a thug and claim he’s a threat to the slopes, I can find a 57 year old banker drinking a Manhattan in the Alta lodge who is a threat to your mortgage or mutual fund.
3) Are we really still hung up on the stereotype of snowboarders (and surfers and skaters, and all teenagers for that matter) using, or even overusing, the words ‘radical’ ‘gnarly’ ‘dude’ and ‘bro’? Culture has a language and subculture has a language, too. Get over it. For every dude and bro bothering you (uptight skier) on the chairlift by overusing ‘gnarly’ and ‘radical’ I can ride a different chair and be annoyed by some suburban suit-monkey blathering on and on about his portfolio, his Porsche, his house in Cabo. Does it bug me? Yeah, a little. Do I care to make a big deal out of it? Not even slightly. I have powder to destroy.
4) The snowboarder blind spot excuse: LAME. Is there a blind spot because of the sideways stance? Yeah. It matters a little bit when you are learning to snowboard, and you have to learn to be aware of it, and manage it. That learning curve takes about 6 minutes for the average beginner snowboarder. And eventually, it makes you MORE AWARE overall, because it’s always going to be there, and at some point, some RECKLESS SKIER will speed up behind you in that blind spot, and YOU will have to save yourself from getting mowed down. Cars have blind spots, too, and we all drive em.
5) If there are exactly three (3) out of literally hundreds of winter resorts that still do not allow snowboarding on their precious slopes, I say FUCK EM… give your lift ticket money to somebody else. Let the last three little remaining tribes of bitter, fun-hating elitist skiers have their segregated playground all to themselves. In fact, put a big electric fence around it, with warning signs near the entrances that say ‘Asshole Snowboarder-Hating Skiers ONLY’ and then at least we know where they all are, in a corral, and not likely to show up at the places I like to ride: the resorts that embraced the future, two decades ago.
Note: I’ve got nothing against skiers and many of my friends are skiers. Even back in the 80s when it seemed like “us vs. them” I still had skier buddies and good times on the mountain with them. The mountains are for everybody. Period.
You Betcha! Alta is a great place, and one of my favorite ski slopes, with no kamakazi kids on snowboards to look out for. One of the main reasons to ski Alta, is its lack of snow boarders!! If they think that the Constitution allows them to go where they please, I’d guess that I could also bring my snow mobile and chase them down the hill!
As a skier that has taken snowboard lessons, and has been hit twice this year by snowboarders, there is definitely more danger with snowboarders on the mountain. They see 180 degrees just like skiers, but part of the 180 degrees they do not see is for people right beside them. In both instances i was knocked down, I was in front and to the left of the boarder. In neither instance did they stop to see if I am OK.
The problem is not only snowboarders though. It seems that from the time of 5, ski areas are teaching kids to go fast. When these kids reach ages15 and until at least 30, whether boarders or skiers, they feel invincible and pay no attention to the general rules of engagement. These rules are things like the down hill person has the right of way. Ski under control with the ability to stop if you have to.
It is too bad ski areas have protection under state laws as they do not do a good enough job protecting the masses from these speed demons.
This Rant was written by Mike McDaniel:
Man, there is so much wrong with this article and this situation, I barely know where to start. Rant coming.
1) It is 2014 and the War On Snowboarding is sooo OVER. (BTW: skiers who dislike snowboarders—and sharing the slopes—lost.) It was over 20 years ago when, by the early 90s, most of the ski areas in the US had granted access to snowboarders; some begrudgingly, yes, but equal access just the same. Even for the mid-90s hold-outs, the new influx of revenue in their stale, no-growth industry made them all feel better pretty quick.
2) Are we really still hung up on an outdated perception of snowboarders as being reckless, loud, obnoxious and dangerous big-pants-wearing street urchins who threaten the country club vibe of the sport of cranky old white guys? For every 17 year old snowboarder you can point at and call a punk or a thug and claim he’s a threat to the slopes, I can find a 57 year old banker drinking a Manhattan in the Alta lodge who is a threat to your mortgage or mutual fund.
3) Are we really still hung up on the stereotype of snowboarders (and surfers and skaters, and all teenagers for that matter) using, or even overusing, the words ‘radical’ ‘gnarly’ ‘dude’ and ‘bro’? Culture has a language and subculture has a language, too. Get over it. For every dude and bro bothering you (uptight skier) on the chairlift by overusing ‘gnarly’ and ‘radical’ I can ride a different chair and be annoyed by some suburban suit-monkey blathering on and on about his portfolio, his Porsche, his house in Cabo. Does it bug me? Yeah, a little. Do I care to make a big deal out of it? Not even slightly. I have powder to destroy.
4) The snowboarder blind spot excuse: LAME. Is there a blind spot because of the sideways stance? Yeah. It matters a little bit when you are learning to snowboard, and you have to learn to be aware of it, and manage it. That learning curve takes about 6 minutes for the average beginner snowboarder. And eventually, it makes you MORE AWARE overall, because it’s always going to be there, and at some point, some RECKLESS SKIER will speed up behind you in that blind spot, and YOU will have to save yourself from getting mowed down. Cars have blind spots, too, and we all drive em.
5) If there are exactly three (3) out of literally hundreds of winter resorts that still do not allow snowboarding on their precious slopes, I say FUCK EM… give your lift ticket money to somebody else. Let the last three little remaining tribes of bitter, fun-hating elitist skiers have their segregated playground all to themselves. In fact, put a big electric fence around it, with warning signs near the entrances that say ‘Asshole Snowboarder-Hating Skiers ONLY’ and then at least we know where they all are, in a corral, and not likely to show up at the places I like to ride: the resorts that embraced the future, two decades ago.
Note: I’ve got nothing against skiers and many of my friends are skiers. Even back in the 80s when it seemed like “us vs. them” I still had skier buddies and good times on the mountain with them. The mountains are for everybody. Period.