Anyone who frequently uses Strava knows the desire to capture as many KOMs or QOMs as possible. For those who don’t know, KOMs and QOMs mark the fastest athlete on a specific route, whether it’s for cycling, running, or, most appealing to us, skiing. Most KOMs are captured in perfect conditions. In skiing, that usually means perfectly groomed or powdery runs with wind at your back and fantastic visibility.
Professional skiers Jim Ryan and Madison Ostergren decided to chase the fastest Strava segments without the perfect conditions, hunting the KOMs on expert, mogul only terrain. With conditions like that, capturing top times would be near impossible, but they still set out to see what they could do.
For those wondering, they did set pretty strict rules for their attempts. They could only hit expert terrain and bump runs, but beyond that were some rules for the sake of safety. For one, they could not ski fast in slow zones. Secondly, they could not hit any blind rollovers, and lastly they had to have someone clear the run before shooting for the speed record. Keeping it safe is vital if you’re going to attempt things like this.
