The Freeride World Tour has thrown down the gauntlet to alpine ski racing, suggesting that freeride skiing takes more guts than the discipline’s high-speed, gate-to-gate counterpart. In an Instagram collaboration with the Audi FIS Ski World Cup, the freeride circuit raised a question that’s sure to spark plenty of debate among skiers. What’s harder, ski racing or freeride skiing?
Both disciplines push athletes to the limits of what is possible on skis, but they do so in very different ways. One involves charging down a carefully prepared course at tremendous speeds, while the other requires athletes to navigate steep, natural mountain terrain filled with cliffs, rocks, and constantly changing snow conditions. So which discipline actually serves as skiing’s biggest test of courage?
The Case For Freeride Skiing
Freeride skiing isn’t just about pointing your skis down a steep face and hoping you make it to the bottom. Athletes competing on the Freeride World Tour choose their own lines down intense, complicated mountain faces, combining speed and technical difficulty with airs, tricks, and a need to avoid hazards.
Unlike an alpine racecourse, a freeride face features natural obstacles and variable snow conditions that make every line its own challenge. There’s no practice runs, and competitors must judge the terrain, commit to their decisions, and execute their routes under serious pressure. It’s seriously hardcore, with plenty of room for error, but is it really more gutsy than alpine ski racing?
The Case For Alpine Ski Racing
Unlike freeride skiing, alpine ski racing is done of a planned, groomed run, with conditions more controlled than an untouched face. However World Cup downhill racers hurtle down icy courses at speeds over 80 mph, dealing with jumps, compressions, and extremely high-speed turns all while trying to shave fractions of a second off their times. The smallest mistake in body position or timing is enough to have some serious consequences.
Additionally racers are constantly balancing a fine line between skiing aggressively enough to win and maintaining control. Hesitation can lead to a loss, but pushing too much can lead to a devastating crash.
The Other Disciplines
Freeride and alpine ski racing aren’t the only disciplines in competitive skiing, and just about every one is hardcore. Mogul skiers are throwing wild tricks before landing in mogul fields, freestyle skiers are jumping over massive features and risking falling on very solid ground, and ski jumpers are literally flying through the air for hundreds of feet.
The scariest discipline is certainly up to the individual rider and what they feel comfortable doing. A freeride skier would probably be terrified trying to reach the speeds of an alpine ski racer on an ice-covered course, while a ski racer might have a hard time jumping massive natural cliffs. Personally I think halfpipe is the scariest discipline, with the risk of falling onto the edge of the pipe.