Talk:Extreme skiing

History, Steepness

I edited this page to reflect the development of extreme skiing in the late 1960's through the 70's and early 80's. Skiers on the American side of the pond are mostly unaware of the history. The first widely-seen extreme skiing films in the U.S. were filmed by Americans in the late 80's. I grew up in Geneva (1957 to 1986) and skied for years in the Chamonix valley where many of the first extreme skiers lived and trained. Several of them, like Valencant (RIP), were Chamoniard mountain guides; some of the best alpinists in the world. Those guys deserve due credit. This information is the best of my recollection from that period. I am not and was not an extreme skier; mostly just an awestruck spectator skiing during awesome times. Monoskis, and the "Raid" style of mountain climbing were other developments centered in Chamonix during that era. If you have documentation, refinements, pix, etc. please let's all develop the page together, nailing down the details.

Note: One commentator stated that 45 degrees is not all that steep. It all depends. A short wide slope of 45 degrees with no dangerous rocks or crevasses and a long run-out is not extreme. A run of several hundred meters on hard pack snow descending through a narrow 'couloir,' or gulley, where you can barely turn, that in turn leads to a snow bridge (called a 'rimée' in French) over a glacier's 20-meter deep head-end crevasse can be deadly. Been there, done that (in 1979, decided right then and there to never do it again. Very scary.) I'm not trying to start an argument, I'm just saying that it's really dependent on the conditions. If you fall on a 45-degree slope, on hardpack, you're unlikely to stop. Someone also claimed 65 degrees. I've only heard of 60 degrees, so I put 60+. Do you have any details on that 65 degree run?

Le Menhir — Preceding undated comment added 17:51, 6 March 2006 (UTC)

To Lou Dawson, 45* and complicating terrain features are extreme skiing. Hard to argue with him.

https://www.loudawson.com/rating-ski-descents-d-system/ 2601:280:4200:2DA:4475:F150:E7D2:741F (talk) 21:20, 30 May 2025 (UTC)

Stub classification

Shouldn't this article be classified as a stub? HaLoGuY007 02:47, 25 April 2007 (UTC)

Big mountain skiing

I redirected big mountain skiing to this article, even though they may not be equivalent, because the article that the term used to redirect to, freestyle skiing, seemed like it was a much worse destination. Perhaps it could be mentioned in this article, or maybe it could get its own article. I just wanted to make a note about it. If you want to contact me for some reason, please use my user talk page rather than replying below. -- Kjkolb (talk) 13:53, 1 March 2015 (UTC)

Is this not ski mountaineering

Isn't this article really part of ski mountaineering? Aszx5000 (talk) 17:41, 2 June 2023 (UTC)

Not necessarily.

Extreme skiing can happen anywhere where the slope angle is sufficiently steep and the line is dangerous or technical. The mode of transportation to the line does not matter for extreme skiing. The emphasis is on the downhill difficulty. For example, you can travel to the line via helicopter or snowmobile.

By contrast, ski mountaineering typically requires uphill travel on foot or skis. The emphasis is on terrain management, route reading, and skillful travel both uphill and downhill. For many, it may involve a summit. There is no requirement that the downhill skiing be particularly technical, difficult, or dangerous.

Skinning up a volcano, and skiing down a 35* slope, all while navigating crevasses: likely ski mountaineering, but not extreme skiing.

Getting a helicopter ride to a 60* couloir: likely extreme skiing, but probably not ski mountaineering.

Skinning up to a 50* couloir, boot-packing up to the summit, and skiing down the same couloir: probably both. 2601:280:4200:2DA:4475:F150:E7D2:741F (talk) 21:18, 30 May 2025 (UTC)