At that time, cross country downhilling was a new sport. Small groups of skiers were making Telemark turns at a few Western resorts. Today the number of skinny skiers on the Alpine ski slopes has quadrupled. At some Alpine areas, cross country downhillers are welcome business and little trouble. At other areas, cross country downhillers are an unwelcome safety harzard.
When cross country downhilling was new, those who practiced this blend of cross country and Alpine skiing were excellent skiers. As the sport became popular, less competent skiers took it up as a diversion from normal Alpine skiing.
Today more and more Alpine areas are requiring cross country to have runaway straps attached to their legs and bindings. Areas like Timberline Lodge, Washington, found that most cross country downhillers had trouble negotiating the tougher unloading ramps, so they redesigned the ramps.
Unlike Timberline, Schweitzer Basin, Idaho, does not allow cross country on their chairlifts, but does let them use the T-bar that serves the bunny hill. Before the exclusionary policy was set at Schweitzer, cross country skiers rode the chairs and more often than not skied over the back side of the mountain out-of-bounds. This led to costly search and rescue operations not only for lost cross country skiers but also for lost Alpine skiers who simply followed the tracks out-of-bounds thinking they were headed off into ungroomed, yet patrolled, powder bowls.
What finally prompted Schweitzer management to close the lifts to cross country skiers were the traffic dangers. Turns like the Telemark can cover a wide arc and beginning Telemarkers often need the width of a slope to make one turn. Cross country downhillers also travel at slower rates of speed than even the beginning Alpine skiers. The radius of the turns and the slower speeds spelled collisions.
Cross Country Skiing Magazine recently surveyed 95 Alpine ski resorts in the U.S. and Canada and found that 50 percent of them allowed cross country downhill skiers on their lifts, but, reluctantly. The reason for the reluctance was that out-of-control cross country skiers were safety hazards.
I’m not sure this is valid reasoning. Just as there are inept out-of-control Alpine skiers, so there are a growing number of cross country downhill skiers who fall into the same category. As this fad grows, the number of reckless beginning and intermediate skiers will grow.
Some compromise is needed. Ski areas are in business to serve skiers, but cross country downhillers are not canoeists or sledders trying to gouge the groomed slopes with their toys, they’re skiers with an interest in skiing. One solution might be to offer cross country downhill skiers the right to ski certain lifts and areas on a mountain and forewarn Alpine skiers of their presence in these areas. This may seem restrictive to the cross country downhillers and yet another burden to the already beleagured mountain manager, but it just may be the only solution until we see where the cross country downhill fad is going.
