Call it what you Want

Everything used to be better! Really? Is it true? Freeriding did not exist the way it does today. Untracked powder after a snow storm was available and untouched for days and not tracked within a few hours. The snow was whiter, and there were skiers who skied off-piste and others who preferred to ski on-piste to keep the resort business going. Due to the nature of the equipment at that time the community of freeriders was rather small. In the last 25 years, however, it’s not just the equipment that has changed, making it much easier to experience the backcountry in all its white winter glory. Not everything that glitters is perfect powder snow. And not everyone who hikes to the top of a mountain in winter is a ski mountaineer or backcountry skier.

Our Backline writer and photographer Anton Brey has a few thoughts on this. The winter sun shines at a low angle past the peaks and ridges into the valley. Ice crystals buzzing through the cold air are sparkling like little lightning bolts, and there is not a soul around. The skins are already on the skis. Fasten the ski boots, put on your backpack, do the mandatory avalanche transceiver check, and you’re ready to go. The sound of the snow crunching under your skis and the way of moving make your heart beat faster. This gliding motion – it’s simply the most beautiful way to travel. In the past, at least according to the elders, the touring ski season began in February or March and peaked in April and May.

Nowadays, the touring season starts in late October on the glaciers and often already in early November – when the first snow reaches the valleys – on the slopes of the ski resorts that have not yet been put into operation. Then, in mid-November, it’s time for the artificial snowstorms – with a frozen snow cover on the edges of manmade, whitish slopes – and slalom runs around an armada of snow cannons. In my opinion, this has nothing to do with what ski touring used to be. I don’t mean to be judgemental, it’s just how it is. To me, ski touring is a way of life. To others, it’s a fitness activity during the winter months to keep in shape until the next trail run or the first road biking trip.

For some night owls, it has become a social activity to make a pilgrimage to a mountain hut after work, in what I call “chat lanes“ because it’s more important to gossip than to enjoy the beauty of nature. Well, it’s usually dark when they are out, so the beauty is invisible after all. In the end, they all want the same: to keep body and mind in balance. The fact that the number of ski mountaineers keeps growing is not something new. How free is the “freerider“ under the dictate of the ropeways? After all, it’s only a matter of time before you are tired of the chase to be the first to ski the untracked slope. The crowds at the ski lifts and the associated stress.

Consuming the right place for a social media post, and thinking about what your Instagram story will look like at the end of the day. Don’t forget the addiction to everything that goes viral. It is all the more understandable that sooner or later the realization must dawn how little freedom freeriding means, given the way it is practiced today. Whereas, until then, it was alpinists and competitive athletes who set out with skins under their skis to make 500 turns down a slope or complete as much vertical as possible in the shortest possible time, a downhilloriented generation is now populating the mountains that is more creative and leaving the standardized routes to explore new paths.

In the years before 2019, this continuously increasing phenomenon made the old die-hard ski mountaineers whine: “There have never been so many people on Whatshallwecallit Peak! Where do they all come from, is there a new guidebook out?“ No, that guidebook is already 15 years old, but somehow there’s no more snow in the central mountain range, so they just browse through the old libraries and find what they’re looking for. “Everything was better in the old days.“ Yeah right. The grass was greener, and the snow was whiter. After last year’s winter, we know that there is still lots of room for more. No matter how you spend your day in the mountains, the most important thing is the experience. And to be happy with yourself.