From: david@postman.gr.osf.org (David George)
Subject: Into the future on the cutting edge
Organization: OSF RI Grenoble
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1993 17:25:19 GMT


		Into the future on the cutting edge


		    Doug Sager/Financial Times
	

Will you still be skiing in the year 2010 ?  We are all getting older
but demographic research indicates that by the first decade of the 21st
century the majority of the skiing population will be over the hill.

Statistics compiled by the United Ski Industries Association indicate
that while most skiers are currently between 25 and 24, by 2010 the
largest group will be veterans between 45 and 55.  No one knows whether
hordes of young snowboarders will make the transition to two skis or
give up winter sports altogether.

These veteran skiers will be fitter and better off financially.
Furthermore the end of the cold war will allow winter resort development
to spread to huge areas previously untracked.  Already, helicopter skiing
in former Soviet republics is drawing rave reviews.

Even so, growth in the ski industry is predicted to continue at its
current glacial pace.  Global warming, recession and even the ecological
backlash have all helped slow the schuss which began in the 1960s, when
the masses were introduced to package skiing.

In the past few years ski and boot manufacturers have suffered enormous
losses.  Sales of skis in Britain are running at less than half their
peak in the 1980s.

The travel market has responded with unheard of bargains and price
breakthroughs.  Ski the American Dream recently advertised a full week
of skiing in California, with non-stop flights and unlimited mileage car
hire for less than 400 pounds.

Skis will continue to evolve in materials and design towards the perfect
carved turn, initated by the skier simply pressing foot down flat on to
the ski.  Bumps and bunions will be eased by foam and silicon injected
ski boots as comfortable as carpet slippers.

Skis and boots are already "interactive" in the new Marker Selective
Control binding, which can be adjusted for varying snow conditions.
Electronic bindings are expected on the market within five years.

Gizmos have always attracted skiers.  Gadgets such as the Ortovox
electronic mouse which allows one to home in on a ski buried in powder
snow should not distract attention from the single most important
development in skiing, the parity between comfort and performance.

Skiing gear, both hardware and clothing, is becoming so non-intrusive
that you hardly know it is there.  Yet the ordinary skier is able to
float through deep powder (on the new Atomic wide body skis) or carve
rails through sheet ice (on a slalom ski such as the Volkl P10) with
more authority and security than an Olympic champion of any previous
generation.

Once they have been let loose in thigh high powder snow, skiers are
reluctant to return to the piste.  Skiing is splitting into fringe
disciplines.  Surf and telemark are the most visible trends.  The future
is in adventure skiing; off piste excursions, ski safaris, snowcat and
heliskiing.

Good skiers are abandoning groomed and crowded pistes for transalpine
ski safaris, which offer more varied and extensive skiing in a week than
many resort skiers experience in a lifetime.  Wilderness siing by snowcat
or helicopter allows the committed skier, for whom time is more scarce
than money, into the kind of untracked heady snow which is available
in resorts only once or twice a season.

Ecological awareness has encouraged more skiers to invade the wilderness,
seeking the 'natural' experience of snow structures untouched by piste
machines and far from the irritating crowds.  But it has also brought moves
to curtail unrestricted off piste skiing in the Alps. The future for such
'free' skiing is in Canada, where authorities still welcome development
of resorts and helicopter operations, and in previously unexploited terrain
from Kashmir to the Caucauses.

-- reproduced without permission.