Freestyle Skier Tricks Frozen Lake

In the past decade or so, skiing has expanded far beyond the slopes where it originated, thanks to a cohort of forward-thinking riders like @sleepy.grill.

At this point, anything that slides, from escalators to grassy fields, is fair game if you're brave enough.

European ski crew BuldozLife took this line of thinking to its logical conclusion last summer as they shredded snowless slopes and zero-spinned off cliffs into narrow canals.

Their video, BPC 2, which garnered hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube, proves that skiing, in some form or another, can exist without snow. However, something tells me that most current skiers might give up the hobby if the only accessible "skiable" terrain was a bare drainage ditch.

Still, BPC 2 and @sleepy.grill's frozen pond skim say a lot about skiing's resilience. 

Here's my take: as skiers, we froth over "perfect" snow and powder, and we find ourselves frustrated when days spent on the slopes don't meet our lofty expectations—ultimately, in a warming world, those expectations are best discarded. 

Now, I'm not asking you to go find the nearest escalator this summer and ski down it, but there's something to be learned from the niche freestyle crowd who endeavor to ski outside the mountains.

Remember this next time the snow conditions aren't quite up to par, and I'll do my best to heed my own advice, too (I'm trying, okay!)—some guy had a fantastic day on skis riding literal dirt. Those refrozen groomers aren't so bad when you think about it that way, right?