Welcome to The Brave New World of Skiing

As the saying cheekily goes, may you live in interesting times.

And do we ever.

From the devolving culture war to the internet-bound polarization of our politics, it seems the spiral drains ever downward. That’s why so many of us turn to things like skiing, right? Many before have taken to the mountains as escape. Our own forebearers, the post-Woodstock ski bums, did the same in the face of Watergate and nuclear annihilation, swearing off the straight and narrow in favor of the ski life. Recent generations have in their own right often eschewed the wider discourse, leaning into blower pow, skiing-as-art, and backcountry solitude over the muck. 

But while the underbelly is all too easy to see anymore, it’s not all darkness out there. In nearly every facet of the human experience, schisms are coming and going, boundaries are being pushed, and new revolutions are emerging. And though it often seems insulated–even isolated–from these broader tides, our sport–our lifestyle–is unavoidably affected by wider shifts and evolutions.

And I hope to capture the depth of skiing’s new age in my new column, The Brave New World of Skiing, set to run bi-weekly here on POWDER.

In this series, I hope to meaningfully delve into our subculture’s pressing topics, especially matters on the bleeding edge of innovation and evolution, like what rising disciplines are poised to add their flavor to the skiing palate, how the ski industry plans to meaningfully adapt to climate change, and how our ski towns are evolving and changing. It surely won’t be fodder for escapism and stoke, but these topics are ones that beg to be discussed and given their moment. And in that lies the true goal of this column; to spur discussion.

In doing so, I plan to look at issues that matter not just to skiing, but to the fabric and foundation of the snowsports culture. I want to bring to light topics that matter to you, the reader, and that you want to engage with. Yes, hopefully because they are appealing and well-written, but, in large part, because they are important.

Part of that discussion will be examining polarizing topics in our communities. While the ski discourse has long avoided ideological debate, I will choose to see it head-on. Topics imbued with a political nature will unavoidably find their home in this new column. Issues like affordable housing in mountain communities and individual perspectives (not to be confused with broadly agreed upon science) on climate change are inevitably charged by that. Regardless, I will strive to give a truthful, balanced approach to these subjects in the hope that bringing these viewpoints to light can add positively to the discussion on how our culture is evolving, and where we want it to go.

This project has unavoidably been inspired by a range of skiing and outdoor sources. Core entities in the outdoor canon like Lou Dawson’s blog WildSnow and the works of Jon Krakauer have long influenced me as a skier, outdoors-person, and writer. But more so, the thoughtful, researched work I have come across in decidedly non-outdoor specific entities– like The Atlantic, The New Yorker, and especially John Branch’s articles in The New York Times–have given me the push to try, ever so modestly, to bring that kind of breadth and depth to the reporting on skiing; this time, from within the culture itself.