Not sure why so many continue to take such risks.
John, I don't follow extreme skiing very much, but it's pretty hard not to take in some of what's going on in that segment of the industry, because it's so prevalent in all the ski media. Even in mainstream resort-focused magazines like Ski, and our equivalent up here, Ski Canada, you see photo after photo of backcountry big mountain skiing, cliff jumps, super-steep chutes, tight trees, helicopter drops....the imagery is everywhere and impossible to avoid. Then there is the advertiser's obsession with "ski celebrities", the great majority of which are twenty-something freeriders -- you don't see too many ads selling goggles or gaudy-coloured freeride boots featuring Ligety or Miller, do you? If the best that WC superstar Vonn can do in Ski Magazine is promote ski tubes, then you see how this industry is skewed. Add to that all the sponsorship money being focused on extreme skiing, you get an industry that is a pressure cooker for guys like Pierre, McConkey, etc., to take greater and greater risks just to get noticed and stay on top.
My point is that I think the industry has to take a lot of responsibility for this behavior. They have created an environment where extreme risk-taking is promoted and expected, with the end goal of selling product and gaining market share. And, the young skiers with dreams of cashing in just by doing a sport they love, fall into the whirlpool, chase the big bucks, and then far too many of them push the envelope. They take one risk too many without considering their own safety or mortality, and pay the ultimate price.
I wonder what other professional sport or industry would tolerate this? Pro football? Hockey? I honestly can't think of one. World Cup skiing? Possibly....but even they have made progress in way of safety, although still have a long way to go, and seem to regress at times. But at least there is a whole army of support and aid at a World Cup race, to treat and whisk away an injured skier. No such backup on an Alaska mountain.
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