Understanding the 9 Different Types of Skiing

1. Freestyle Skiing

Put simply, freestyle skiing is skiing that involves tricks. Backflips? That would qualify. Throwing off-axis spins in a halfpipe? This is freestyle skiing, too.
 
Historically, the term was initially used to describe disciplines like mogul skiing and aerials, which spawned during the hot-dogging movement, but newer categories, like slopestyle and halfpipe, still technically fall beneath the freestyle umbrella.
 
Here’s a brief overview of the major freestyle subcategories:

• Slopestyle: Competitors follow a course with jumps and rails, competing for the best score.
• Big air: Competitors hit one large jump, throwing off-axis tricks like corks, rodeos, and mistys.
• Halfpipe: Competitors jump back and forth in a large, sculpted ditch.
• Moguls: Competitors race down a bumpy mogul field, hitting jumps and throwing tricks at specific intervals.
• Aerials: Similar to big air, aerials competitors hit one large jump, spinning and flipping to earn points.
• Streetstyle: A newer discipline, streetstyle (or called a rail jam, in some cases), involves a course with only rails and jib features.

2. Freeskiing

Synonymous with: New school skiing

Freeskiing adds a wrinkle. Slopestyle, halfpipe, and big air are considered “freeskiing”—moguls and aerials aren’t, really.
 
Why? Freeskiing emerged as a response to the officialization of mogul skiing and hot-dogging. Originally, these sports were wild and loose with few rules. As they became more popular, governing bodies clamped down, creating dense rulebooks.

A few skiers didn’t want to be told how to ski, so they rebelled and fashioned the freeskiing movement. They threw off-axis tricks, hit rails, and jumped off cliffs.
 
As the years passed, freeskiing—at least in the realm of competitions—became almost as rules-oriented as moguls, though. Contemporary slopestyle, halfpipe, and big air competitions—all planks of freeskiing—are regulated Olympic sports. Still, the freeskiing name remains.
 
In casual conversation, freeskiing functions as an umbrella term that describes the kind of action you see in ski movies or the X Games. That segment of Kai Jones shredding Alaskan spines in the latest Teton Gravity Research film qualifies, as does Jesper Tjäder hitting rails in the streets.

Most modern professional skiers who don’t compete in racing or moguls would probably describe themselves as freeskiers. Creativity and self-expression, within freeskiing, remain treasured values.

3. Alpine Skiing

Synonymous with: Downhill skiing

Alpine skiing is the big box that almost everything—aside from cross-country skiing—falls into. When you strap into a pair of skis and head downhill, that’s alpine skiing. If you’re talking about competitive disciplines, though, alpine skiing can refer specifically to ski racing.

4. Cross-Country Skiing

Synonymous with: Nordic skiing, XC skiing

Cross-country skiing occupies its own niche. In this sport, you use thinner skis with free-heel bindings, schussing across mostly flat terrain. Cross-country skiing is similar to running in that it’s a challenging cardio workout.
 
There are two primary types of cross-country skiing: skate and classic. In classic, skiers push their skis straight ahead. In skate, which is considered more challenging, skiers push off at an angle to generate momentum.

5. Ski Touring

Synonymous with: Backcountry skiing

Ski touring, as a discipline, is all about getting away from the lifts and general craziness of major resorts by entering the backcountry. For the most part, this form of skiing is foot-powered. To reach their desired line, participants affix grippy “skins” to the bottom of their skis and walk upwards.
 
For ski tourers, avalanche safety is paramount. Participants in this discipline—at least those who know what they’re doing—only enter the backcountry when they’re equipped with the right equipment. The most basic and necessary form of this kit includes an avalanche beacon/transceiver, shovel, and probe.
 
The bindings used by ski tourers have two modes: walk and ski. In walk mode, two pins in the front of the binding (usually, excluding frame bindings) grasp the skier's boot while the heel piece remains unattached—this makes tromping uphill easier. In ski mode, the skier clicks into the toe and heel of the binding, just like a normal alpine binding.
 
There are three main types of touring bindings, with some wiggle room and crossover between the categories.

• Hybrid bindings: Generally, these have a toe piece with pins that, after being converted into ski mode, resemble their alpine counterparts—see the Salomon Shift.
• Pin or tech bindings: Pin or tech bindings are lighter than hybrid touring bindings. They feature small toe and heel pieces. With these bindings, the toe piece grasps the user's boot with pins, even in ski mode—see the Dynafit Speed Radical.
• Frame bindings: The heaviest category of touring binding, frames consist of an alpine binding attached to a rail. This way, in walk mode, the entire binding—not just the toe piece—pivots—see the Marker F10 Tour.

6. Ski Mountaineering

Ski mountaineering describes a form of touring focused on expeditions and technical ascents that require alpine climbing skills.

On these adventures, ski mountaineers rely on harnesses, ice axes, and belay devices to navigate complex high alpine terrain. Professional skier Cody Townsend is a well-known member of the ski mountaineering community, popular for his web series The Fifty. In ski mountaineering, the goal is often climbing and skiing a specific mountain (or multiple mountains).

You may have also heard ski mountaineering abbreviated to “skimo.” This abbreviation can be distinct from traditional ski mountaineering, often referring to a form of racing that, in a few short years, will be an Olympic event. In skimo races, competitors don tight suits and, while using lightweight pin bindings, attempt to ski up and down a mountain as fast as possible.

7. Freeride Skiing

Synonymous with: Big mountain skiing

Freeride skiing is all about riding and tricking big, unmanicured mountain faces. It can also be called big mountain skiing. Imagine a scary mountain. Then, imagine someone skiing down this mountain with style, grace, and backflips. That’s freeride.
 
These days, “freeride” mostly refers to competitions like the Freeride World Tour. In these judged events, competitors ride down a hand-picked venue, scored by judges on criteria like technique and fluidity.
 
Unlike slopestyle, these venues are unaltered aside from avalanche control. Freeride, as a discipline, is all about maintaining a pure interface between skiers and the mountain.

8. Street Skiing

Synonymous with: Urban skiing (this term has mostly fallen out of vogue)

Street skiing borrows elements from skateboarding and snowboarding. In this subcategory, skiers scout the streets of towns and cities, looking for features like ledges, rails, and stairways.

Once they find their target, they spend hours perfecting their planned trick or tricks on the chosen feature, sometimes in pursuit of creating a video project. Street skiing and filmmaking are deeply intertwined. For a primer, try watching one of ON3P's videos, like ON3P 7.

Street skiing is one of the most technical skiing disciplines and, therefore, is mostly undertaken by professionals who really, really know what they’re doing. Still, plenty of amateur skiers head out when their hometown receives snow, searching for rails and other features to hit.

9. Telemark Skiing

Synonymous with: Tele skiing

Free the heel, free the soul. That’s the central promise of telemark skiing. In telemark skiing, skiers use bindings with affixed heel pieces. With each journey across the slopes, they drop one of their knees, executing a move that is anachronistic or timelessly beautiful—depending on who you ask.

Something about telemark skiing—we're honestly not sure what—has garnered a hippyish, cult-like following. These members of the ski community are regularly unbothered nonconformists, content with living in their own little world.

Therefore, if you'd like a break from the ski culture at large, we recommend you find and ride the lift with the nearest telemark skier. They might not have the newest Gore-Tex jacket, but they should be able to tell you a tall tale or two.