Cortina Inverno

Why make things
so difficult on holiday?
52
W
hether it be the stress
and frenzy of modern times
or fast food and speed dating,
we need to slow down,
not on ski runs, but in our
lives. Be it that we tired of
queuing for lifts or of ski
tracks as crowded as a mall on Saturday afternoon. Of
going up with the first chairlift ride and of ski teachers’
lessons. Of getting up at ungodly hours in freezing
temperatures… After a whole week at work, why should
we make so many sacrifices at weekends?
Be it that traditional skiers, trying to work on their
edges and mimic steering, were fed up with watching
enthusiastic freeriders having so much fun in snowparks
or on powder.
Be it for all that, a new, freer way of experiencing
snow has been spreading for a few years now. The
trend is known as freeride and freestyle which means
less style, less competitive spirit and less technique on
the ski runs and much more fun in the backcountry
and snowparks, to the detriment of alpine skiing, which
is too expensive and unaffordable in times of financial
crises This accounts also for all the zero (or nearly
zero) cost disciplines practised in close contact with
the wilderness: snow-shoeing (+22% compared to last
year) ski-mountaineering (+12%), cross-country skiing
(+4%), snow-kite and Nordic walking (+3%).
Unlike well groomed pistes, snowparks are bursting
with health and in Italy the new “free riders” keep
growing in number (+7%). On jumps and “rails”,
more and more freestylers are seen among baggy
trousered snowboarders, jumping, doing aerobatics
and landing smoothly with their twin-tip skis. Many
of them are ex-snowboarders, tired of the board, who
want to play on among jumps and half pipes.
Professional figures have been created in snowparks
and even ski teachers have kept up with the new
trend. Today, beside teaching the style on the runs,
they also accompany their clients in the backcountry
to let them experience the thrill of floating on powder.
The goal is that of teaching less and having more fun,
even if the technique is not exactly that of Svindal or
Von, freeriders have only one rule: the absence of rules.
Yet there is a difference: once the motto was freeride is
not a fashion, today, instead, the world of surfers and
snowboarders — with woolen hats and goggles on even
in the restaurant — is trendy indeed! Branded firms
have detected the good deal and produced a wide range
of multi-purpose equipment for on- and off-piste skiing,
technical, ultralight, eco-sustainable, and above
all brightly colored, in line with the new school.
Ski areas also have adapted their facilities and offer
special initiatives and even ad hoc ski passes for
freeriders. The latest and most adrenaline producing
among the new disciplines is skicross, which has become
an Olympic sport: headlong rides through moguls
and parabolic curves side by side with other riders
and trying to finish on your skies not belly down.
Pista!
Una prima tutta italiana per la quinta edizione ampezzana
della European Cup Snowboardcross: al suo debutto la
Nazionale italiana di Simone Malusà. Per non perdere nemmeno
un’evoluzione dei 130 atleti in rappresentanza di 25
nazioni, la kermesse avrà una copertura live delle gare, visibili
in streaming su Pc, Smartphone e Tablet. Sport e competizione,
ma non solo. Premiazioni della Gara I in pieno
centro a Cortina, dove gli atleti scenderanno da un “pistino”
di neve; a seguire Cross Party con musica e spettacolo Surfing
between snow e rock. Per la Gara 2 podio al parterre di
arrivo. Appuntamento dal 21 al 23 dicembre 2012.
© www.stefanozardini.com
www.snowboardclubcortina.com