I watched a women’s ski-jumping sort of thing yesterday. It wasn’t the “Normal Hill Ski Jumping” listed in the events program. It was a Ski Slopestyle event. They went down backwards, and then landed along the way on these various pipes, everyone looking like they were falling off, then did a few flying bits twisting and turning off jumps.
Here’s the formal description: “approximately 1,700 feet long with six features and a vertical drop of 290 feet. The top of the course will test the athletes rail prowess with three different rail-based features. Then the remaining three "booters will show off their jump skills.”
What is a rail? Is this normal skiing? Sounds definitely in the abnormal range - with straight rails, rainbow rails, kinked rails and transfer rails. Skier “tricks” - that’s their terminology - include grinds, disasters and switch-ups. (I thought the commentators were referring to real disasters.)
And it isn’t finished as an Olympic event - there’s a snowboard slopestyle event.
I found it stressful to watch - every one of the skiers looked like they were falling off the rails and about to land ”splat“ somewhere with the emergency crews out.
This has to be a sport people do. So if you were extraordinarily inclined and likely well-off, you can go slopestyle skiing at the elite level Livigno, Italy, Are, Sweden, Silvaplana, Switzerland, and in Olympic venues like Genting Snow Park, China. For the rest of the skiiers, major ski resorts have terrain parks with various levels of difficulty.
And how many people do this type of skiing? “As a niche within the 200 million total skiers, dedicated slopestyle participants represent a smaller, but rapidly growing percentage of that total, particularly among younger demographics.”
And what are the “booters” along the course where the skiers show off their skills? That’s the name for the large, man-made jumps. They can be called “kickers” as well.
Shouldn’t there be some good jokes? Maybe because it is a recent thing and so scary there is nothing to make fun of. It was in 1979 that freestyle skiing was recognized. Slopestyle skiing was differentiated in the 2000s. This was listed as a joke - I think it is a saying:
The Rail Trick: "Ohhhh, that was a sick unanny two-sev on to pretz 540 off!" (Common sarcasm for when a trick goes horribly wrong).
Here’s a nice meandering incline of snow. This is at Peninsula Ridge Winery.
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