Five Tips for Better Skiing Etiquette

Skiing through the trees.

When you hear the word “etiquette,” you probably think about table manners and gentlemanly gestures. That’s a much more reasonable association than to think about ski hills. But etiquette still applies on the slopes, unless you have your own private ski hill – in which case, you don’t have need for articles like this. For the rest of us, we’ll probably be skiing with strangers around, and there’s no getting past that. Since we’re going to be sharing the hill, it will help to know how to get along.

Skiing Tip #1: The people ahead of you – or further down the hill – have right-of-way. When someone has right-of-way in an automobile traffic situation, you yield to them. The same principle applies in skiing, where you don’t want to clip ahead of people, cut off their route, or get in their way. You can pass other skiers, sure, but you don’t want to do it in an intrusive way. If there’s not enough space to pass them, give them the right-of-way.

Skiing Tip #2: Don’t ski recklessly with other people around. Doing so puts them in danger and makes people downright uncomfortable. If you can ski fast, under control, and don’t get in anyone’s way, that’s fine, but if you’re not at that skill level yet, you’ll want to avoid this kind of behavior.

Skiing Tip #3: Yield to oncoming traffic. If you’re on a trail that’s merging into a slope with other skiers on it, yield to them, as if you were turning onto a highway. The people with the speed have the right-of-way here, so make sure you look uphill and see who’s coming. Enter when you can do so safely both for you and for other skiers on the hill.

Skiing Tip #4: Let more talented skiers go ahead of you. More talented skiers can generally handle faster speeds, so it makes more sense to let them go ahead of you. You won’t be hampering them, and letting them go ahead of you should create more space for you to enjoy anyway.

Skiing Tip #5: Make sure you’re always in control. If you can’t control yourself while you ski around other people, then you put them at risk, as well. Make sure you don’t take a hill that will make this too difficult for you.

Photo Credits: bhenak

Originally posted 2009-12-17 03:23:17.

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