‘I was here first’
Strap two skinny boards to your feet, wait in a lift line at any local resort and see how long it takes to feel like a fossil in snowboard-crazy Southern California.
Skiers appear to be a dying breed because their numbers have dwindled compared with snowboarders over the last 15 years. In Southern California, as many as 60% of the people sliding down the slopes are boarders -- and the majority are younger than 25.
The ski industry likes to tout the detente between skiers and snowboarders, but in reality there is often a clash between the traditionalists and the upstarts.
“Knuckle draggers” is the endearing name skier Scott Benton, 37, has for snowboarders. Benton, a Santa Monica resident who considers himself an expert on the slopes, says many boarders fail to practice such common mountain etiquette as watching where they’re going -- leaving it up to skiers to avoid collisions. He dislikes the “punk culture” of snowboarding -- the loud music on what used to be quiet runs, and the “I’m-hipper-than-you” attitude. He also believes the presence of snowboarders riding aggressively is why fewer people are getting into skiing.
Beginning skiers tend to become particularly unnerved when they hear that unmistakable low-pitched grinding sound -- of snowboard scraping on snow -- coming from behind. And raise your hand, skiers, if you’ve ever had to take evasive action when a boarder pops onto a trail from the trees or suddenly plops down in front of you.
Many skiers, and to a lesser extent the ski industry, have been grappling with how to broker peace on the slopes. For the most part, the best solution so far seems to be segregation.
Separate terrain parks have become enormously popular with snowboarders, and about 70% of resorts have them. The parks can work to a skier’s advantage because they siphon snowboarders from the ski runs.
By avoiding terrain parks, skiers can leave the snowboarding masses to their half-pipes and jibs, and stick to regular ski runs. And skiers with little tolerance for snowboarders should try larger resorts, where crowds tend to congregate at the same popular runs, leaving other parts of the mountain relatively empty.
For example, snowboarding is huge at Mammoth Mountain, one of the largest resorts in the nation. Yet even when weekend crowds swamp the runs in the middle of the resort, there’s often ample elbow room for skiers and boarders at the far side of the mountain, reachable by chairs 12, 13 and 14.
Another way to feel more comfortable around snowboarders is to improve your ski skills. Learn how to stop on a dime and make a sudden turn to avoid trouble. Don’t assume snowboarders can see you -- or are even looking. If your paths cross too closely, don’t be afraid to give a verbal heads-up warning to passing boarders.
Skiers fed up with the mere presence of snowboarders can shell out a few bucks and hit the slopes at one of the three remaining resorts in the West that still deny entry to riders. The holdouts -- for now -- are Alta and Deer Valley, both near Salt Lake City, and Taos Ski Valley in northern New Mexico.
Even Aspen caved. In what some skiers must have thought was an April Fool’s joke, Aspen Mountain resort started allowing snowboarders on April 1, 2001. It was “a mountain-friendly decision,” says Jessica Weber, an Aspen Mountain spokeswoman. The rule change was aimed at attracting the snowboarders the resort was missing out on -- participants in a sport that grew by 1 million that year.
At Taos, sales director Bret Helenius says the decision to keep the resort ski-only is rethought every year. The consistent feedback from skiers? “Please don’t change your policy.”
The words, perhaps, of an endangered species with a shrinking habitat.
To e-mail Julie Sheer or read her previous Outdoors Institute columns, go to latimes.com/ juliesheer.