Are you experiencing the same thing at your local moutain? Too many people doing what you love, skiing your lines and doing your favorite activity? I am of the concern that skiing has become too mainstream and too popular. It isn’t all bad but it most definitely mostly bad. Your secret spot is not so secret, all your pow is now everyone else’s pow, tracked up snow is way shittier than fresh. And the peace and quiet you used to experience and search for at the mountain is replaced with a bunch of A-holes talking about all the good turns and backcountry zones that make your life complete. The internet is good for blowing up your soul turns. You have to go further and farther for the lines your looking for. The same old, same old just doesn’t cut it anymore, people are just too eager to get their powder fix. The fun is being lost, and the art of a good pow day with friends has become a frantic rush for “an hour of skiing.”
That shitty job always makes sense at the mountain, being broke, creditors calling non-stop, is always worth it when you lap your favorite run over and over without speaking a word. Everything goes away when you are just there riding the lift, nobody around and the peace and quiet of the mountains.
With 13.5 million to 20 million people skiing and snowboarding in 2010. I am very interested in seeing the new stats talking about the recent two years when the sport has exploded. In my opinion I think we are seeing a total number of people staying the same, but more snowboarders are transfering over to skiing. So the skiing population is growing. What will 2013 bring? More skiers, more backcountry enthusiasts, more of everything.
