Fighting on the Snow — Do Not Do It!

Want to see some fighting on the snow? This video gets close: (not safe for work — NSFW)

Fighting on the Snow — Know the Code

Talk about handling a situation poorly. First, the skier does not understand one of the points of the skier’s code and that is:

People ahead of you have the right of way. It is your responsibility to avoid them.

Downhill skiers do not have eyes on the back of their heads, they can not see and avoid you. The very best you (as the uphill skier) can hope for is they are traversing the trail and pick you up in their peripheral vision.

In this case we are talking about snowboarders down the hill. If you are uphill from someone it is YOUR responsibility to avoid them. The skier’s concern is the boarder may swerve into one of his children, which is not an irrational fear, especially on this narrow trail (aka a cat-track) with the cliff to the left edge of the run. The trail a traversing trail — cutting across a slope to get people who can not ski the steeper main runs down to the bottom of the mountain. Typically, they are narrow and it is a good idea to ride in a tame and predictable fashion. Still, it is no excuse to say the person you ran into unexpectedly turned.

Fighting on the Snow — Does not Play Well (or live) With Others

The skier does two things that are very wrong here and the first thing he does is to take a reasonable case and turn everyone against him and his case. Confess, how many of you were not hoping a ski patroller came zooming in and clipped him? I know, I was hoping for it, or even him eating a phalanges salad (i.e. getting a fist in face) again I was waiting for it. If he would have calmly explained his case to the snowboarders that the cat-track is not appropriate for tricking then things would be very different (of course he would not be the star of the video), and in fact it could very well the snowboarders who were acting out.

The other thing the skier does wrong is to threaten a physical fight. If you are not prepared to take an action then do not talk about it, heck, I would even advise against warning in the event you are willing to carry that action out, just do it as they say. Even in the heat of his obvious anger he should have realized attempting to start a fight is the ultimate of stupidity. Who knows though, maybe he ate lead paint as a child.

Know the code and wisely pick your times and places.

What do you think of this display of manner?