Would you be interested in enduro racing on skis?

clorox

clorox

Active member
Quarantine got me bored as shit watching skiing and mountain bike videos, as well as riding my bike a lot more.

So title says it all. Probably my favorite thing next to linking up natural gaps and hitting the park at my home mountain is sending it through tight trees. Learning where the rocks are, what gaps are worth it etc. Never been into racing unless you count a few years of mogul skiing, but imagine bombing technical tree runs, avoiding rocks and trees with some mandatory drops mixed in.

I think having obstacles such as rocks and trees to avoid would throw a wrench in the FIS standard of retuning skis every run and rich kids going through 10+ pairs of skis a season.

Spice it up by requiring skiers to use the same pair of skis for the season (or incentivize skiers to go through fewer skis with a point system) so you actually have to make decisions for the sake of your gear like most of the people on this site. Would also give more credibility to manufacturers as they couldn't just send their sponsored athletes 50 pairs of popsicle stick skis a season (looking at you amer sports).

**This thread was edited on May 3rd 2020 at 12:13:08am
 
Definitely would be interesting, I'm really big into enduro racing (actually was racing ews this year until it got cancelled /claim) I think it would be a lot harder to pull off on skis though, just because of the hiking up a very tall mountain 4-8 times in a day part. I've never toured though so I'm not sure if that's a normal thing or not.
 
Definitely interested. It would be a challenge but I would be up for it. Where would the events be? Would they be at different mountains?
 
i think this would be dope with a touring element. Same as enduro bike races, don't race on the way up just make it in a certain amount of time. Would require people to make tradeoffs in weight/chargy skis, would end up with runs that looked alot more like what we can lay down, instead of 50 foot cliffs on full alpine setups. Would work well with all of these new hybrid touring/alpine bindings. Every AT race i can think of now is just a glorified running race on snow, similar to xc on bikes but even less fun imo.

My money would be on a pair of corvus freebirds with kingpins. I'd charge the shit out of those.
 
14136769:clindblomskier said:
I think it would be a lot harder to pull off on skis though, just because of the hiking up a very tall mountain 4-8 times in a day part. I've never toured though so I'm not sure if that's a normal thing or not.
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I think it should be a 3-4 stage a day kinda thing, and it would have to be a very different type of athlete than current ski athletes/events. I've seen guys lay down 3-4 big freeride line worthy runs in a day easy on semi-burly touring gear. To deal with avy safety, maybe have people compete in teams of 2? I'm not sure if OP had backcountry in mind or just resort shredding, but i think there's a huge potential for making this human powered with how much everyone's hoping on the touring wagon recently, and with all the new gear around that would be perfect for it.
 
14136769:clindblomskier said:
Definitely would be interesting, I'm really big into enduro racing (actually was racing ews this year until it got cancelled /claim) I think it would be a lot harder to pull off on skis though, just because of the hiking up a very tall mountain 4-8 times in a day part. I've never toured though so I'm not sure if that's a normal thing or not.
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14136782:AsherDonati24 said:
Definitely interested. It would be a challenge but I would be up for it. Where would the events be? Would they be at different mountains?
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14136794:brogoldenhair said:
i think this would be dope with a touring element. Same as enduro bike races, don't race on the way up just make it in a certain amount of time. Would require people to make tradeoffs in weight/chargy skis, would end up with runs that looked alot more like what we can lay down, instead of 50 foot cliffs on full alpine setups. Would work well with all of these new hybrid touring/alpine bindings. Every AT race i can think of now is just a glorified running race on snow, similar to xc on bikes but even less fun imo.

My money would be on a pair of corvus freebirds with kingpins. I'd charge the shit out of those.
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14136795:brogoldenhair said:
I think it should be a 3-4 stage a day kinda thing, and it would have to be a very different type of athlete than current ski athletes/events. I've seen guys lay down 3-4 big freeride line worthy runs in a day easy on semi-burly touring gear. To deal with avy safety, maybe have people compete in teams of 2? I'm not sure if OP had backcountry in mind or just resort shredding, but i think there's a huge potential for making this human powered with how much everyone's hoping on the touring wagon recently, and with all the new gear around that would be perfect for it.
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A touring element would be interesting. The particular terrain I had in mind would be steep tree runs. Lots of turns, relatively low avalanche probability, and events could be held all over. I mostly ski in New Hampshire and a lot of places out here have tree runs of the same length and difficulty of stuff I've skied out west. Lift access wouldn't be out of the question, as it would be more feasible to run more stages in a day, and possibly get more people to enter. Basically there would be a start gate, finish line, and a mapped/taped off boundary.

Haven't really talked to anyone about this other than this thread, but maybe with sponsors I could convince my home mountain to host something.
 
ahaha that sounds perfect for us east coast boys. Lots of eastern resorts have good sustained tree runs, I'd for sure enter if that existed. Backcountry wise the RASTA bc zones here in VT would also be great.
 
Yes, but I don't think we should limit their gear though. If it gets big let atomic hand out a bunch of freeride skis for guys to grind down rock faces etc. Most likely guys are going to have to send on the same set of beat up sticks all season anyways
 
I like the idea of touring up and racing down, like mountain biking, that was mentioned upthread.

Races through the trees sounds like a horrible idea to me. Absolute carnage.
 
14136833:deathcookie said:
Races through the trees sounds like a horrible idea to me. Absolute carnage.
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aha it would be horrible and i think thats why we don't have any glade races anywhere. But i'd love to watch some guys with really good technique ski trees fast, like with anything else there's consequences, certainly much higher in this situation
 
14136833:deathcookie said:
I like the idea of touring up and racing down, like mountain biking, that was mentioned upthread.

Races through the trees sounds like a horrible idea to me. Absolute carnage.
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14136858:brogoldenhair said:
aha it would be horrible and i think thats why we don't have any glade races anywhere. But i'd love to watch some guys with really good technique ski trees fast, like with anything else there's consequences, certainly much higher in this situation
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I mean downhill racing you’re going ~90mph over rollers and b net isn’t always gonna save you, especially if you catch an edge and smack the ground real hard. Maxing out at 35ish through trees doesn’t seem that bad, especially if you have good edge control. That said, I’ve always had a pretty high risk tolerance tree skiing. Never hit a tree.
 
14136821:OregonDead said:
Yes, but I don't think we should limit their gear though. If it gets big let atomic hand out a bunch of freeride skis for guys to grind down rock faces etc. Most likely guys are going to have to send on the same set of beat up sticks all season anyways
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I think there should be some limits - like for a single given event you can only conduct repairs yourself, with what you're carrying in your pack. So you've got some zap straps and bailing wire, maybe a spare toe piece. But if your ski snaps you're out for the weekend and can try again at the next event.

But yeah no requirement for the whole season, if you got unlucky and snapped a ski you should be out for the weekend not screwed for the entire year.
 
This is a great idea. Slalom racing grew out of practice drills for skiing trees. That's literally why race gates exist, so an "enduro" race would be bringing racing back to its roots in a sense.
 
I would be 100% down to participate.

Mt. Roberts in the Red Mtn sidecountry is perfect for this. Redbull Cold Rush actually did a day of skinning in the event one year when it was at Red.
 
14136865:paige. said:
I think there should be some limits - like for a single given event you can only conduct repairs yourself, with what you're carrying in your pack. So you've got some zap straps and bailing wire, maybe a spare toe piece. But if your ski snaps you're out for the weekend and can try again at the next event.

But yeah no requirement for the whole season, if you got unlucky and snapped a ski you should be out for the weekend not screwed for the entire year.
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I really like the requiring skiers to repair their own gear. I feel like more people need to know how to use p tex or how to deal with a delaminated tip.

Maybe have a limit to the number of skis you can go through? Like say limit of 3 skis. You gotta be real unlucky or blatantly negligent to kill more skis than that in a season. Maybe it's different if you're really heavy? I ride everything and never baby skis yet I can usually make a ski last 2 seasons.

Another issue would definitely be liability. Like redbull has ridiculous insurance, that's how they pull off the pond skim at copper with jumps and rails going over it. Most mountains wouldn't dare do something like that on their own. Maybe someone could convince USASA or some group to give it some kind of credibility. I wouldn't want some mountain to get shut down cause some jabroni enters and yeets themselves into a tree, but skiing is dangerous and it's not like the tree runs weren't already there.
 
14136925:finder said:
I really like the requiring skiers to repair their own gear. I feel like more people need to know how to use p tex or how to deal with a delaminated tip.

Maybe have a limit to the number of skis you can go through? Like say limit of 3 skis. You gotta be real unlucky or blatantly negligent to kill more skis than that in a season. Maybe it's different if you're really heavy? I ride everything and never baby skis yet I can usually make a ski last 2 seasons.

Another issue would definitely be liability. Like redbull has ridiculous insurance, that's how they pull off the pond skim at copper with jumps and rails going over it. Most mountains wouldn't dare do something like that on their own. Maybe someone could convince USASA or some group to give it some kind of credibility. I wouldn't want some mountain to get shut down cause some jabroni enters and yeets themselves into a tree, but skiing is dangerous and it's not like the tree runs weren't already there.
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For slopestyle contests at a certain level you sign up to be part of FIS or whatever governing body and that covers the insurance . Even if you're not part of an organization and just sign up for an event, you sign up and pay a fee so you're covered for the day and the resort isn't liable.
 
I did something similar to this with my friends, it was a Chinese downhill through a sketchy tree and cliff zone. we were all on straight skis and it was hellish conditions.
 
14136931:skiP.E.I. said:
For slopestyle contests at a certain level you sign up to be part of FIS or whatever governing body and that covers the insurance . Even if you're not part of an organization and just sign up for an event, you sign up and pay a fee so you're covered for the day and the resort isn't liable.
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Yeah in the states there’s USSA (now USSS) and clubs and competitors are covered by their insurance. Interesting enough, the threat probability is classified under the same category as amusement park workers and circus performers.
 
This is a sick idea. You could try to incorporate different types of skiing in too, say you have a couple of man made park jumps and a rail or two in the mix and athletes get extra points for their tricks and style on these features
 
This is dope. Kinda makes me think about IFSA but with a touring up aspect it would be insane. I think it would test a wide range of skills from strength/endurance to make it up touring, speed in your transition to downhill mode, line choice, and tricks incorporated into the run.

If anyone is serious about heading this up I think it would be amazing and would totally compete.
 
14137159:Screamnski said:
This is dope. Kinda makes me think about IFSA but with a touring up aspect it would be insane. I think it would test a wide range of skills from strength/endurance to make it up touring, speed in your transition to downhill mode, line choice, and tricks incorporated into the run.

If anyone is serious about heading this up I think it would be amazing and would totally compete.
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No promises I could probably convince my home mountain to allow it if the liability coverage was there. Either USSS, USASA or some company like redbull offer to host and we could be good to go.

Another option would be Cannon mtn, since the state of New Hampshire owns it and you can't really sue the state over something like that, so I think you wouldn't really need a third party sponsor to cover the liability. They also have really good terrain for it. I don't know anyone that works there, but I could ask around.

Another idea I had would be to sign up for events using NS (if they were willing to sponsor them). It could really boost membership and would stimulate event specific conversation.
 
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