I patrol at a mountain that allows uphill traffic on specific routes before and after operating hours. People do all kinds of wild stuff like ascend avalanche paths the morning after a significant loading/wind event, kick in cabin/lift shack doors because they’re cold and unprepared, etc.
There is an absolute phenomenon of people who cannot ski even a little bit going out and spending thousands on DPS skis, tech bindings, scarpa boots, skimo spandex suits (or just your typical REI Joe arcteryx setup).
We start turning people around as we are headed out for mitigation work/trail check/mountain setup and I’ll watch people on 10-20 degree groomed slopes absolutely knock kneed, wedge turning, hunched/ass behind their tails, one ski wiggling around begging to catch an edge, and it’s honestly terrifying.
I totally get that touring/skinning is a great way to get in shape and exercise but i don’t get this breed of people who really don’t ski picking this particular version of exercise. Especially since most of these people don’t live in true mountain communities but rather a city or suburb removed where there’s plenty other stuff to do be it biking, climbing, hiking, swimming, whatever. I understand if you move to a mountain town and aren’t a skier and it’s sort of the only option you have that’s outside.
Like, why not spend a year or two skiing at an area getting to a base level competency before going that route? Furthermore, if you can ski a little bit, why in the world would you want to “tour” in bounds at a ski area where there’s cats, snowmobiles, tons of people and equipment buzzing by you constantly.
Especially where I live, there’s so much easily accessed low angle, highly traveled BC terrain available that other than mountain employees just exercising before work, why do it at the ski area?
And to clarify, I don’t care what people do, I’m glad they’re buying ski gear, I just think it’s funny and strange.