10 years or so ago we were told that quarter to a third of ski resort visitors were snow boarders and that by 2010 half of the ski resort users would be snow boarders.

We were In Les Arcs over the christmas/new year period, a resort that with very few, if any drag lifts, that I thought would be fairly representative of that ratio It just occurred to me that there didn’t appear to be that many snow boarders about. So I set about counting them and skiers from the Grand Col chair lift. The ratio we arrived at was that there were 12 skiers to every border.

Has anyone else noticed a drop in the number of snow boarders about? Does anyone have any explanation for this observation?

Telemark skiing appears to be on the increase.

John

ps being Les Arcs there were still the odd monoskier around.

Hey dude, I’m from Canada and in my limited experience in the Alps have def noticed the same thing.  North America is a different story though.  In Western Canada and the US (esp California) I think that’s where the ratio has really shifted in the last decade.  (Snowboarding in general I think remains the choice of “younger” people, though adopters from the early 90’s like myself arguably ain’t that young anymore!)

Then again all the decent riders could probably just be off in the backcountry because they know where the good pow is!  Show me!  Show me!

Ride safe,
Chris

The demographic of snowboarders in Europe appears to be older. Most boarders appear to be in their 20s or 30s, with the odd smatterings below 20 and above 40. It looks as if the people who took it up 5 or 10 years ago are sticking with it but it appears few new riders are coming through.

The day I did my, not very statistically sound, sample was after heavy snow with lots of soft stuff around, but an avalanche risk factor of 4. The black had a few bumps on it but the red looked in ideal cruising conditions.

What have other people noticed.

John

Just back from two weeks in British Columbia and I can state with some confidence that BC has a much higher ratio of snowboarders to skiers than European resorts.  I would guess a third to half of all lift users in both Whistler and Sun Peaks were snowboarders.

I’ve been noticing the lack of snowboarders on piste for the last 6 years or so. I don’t know if there’s more or less now. But when I’m on a chairlift or gondola I will as a matter of habit count the number of skiers to snowboarders. What I do know, from my last three holidays (at half term!) in Zermatt, Val d’isere and the Sella Ronda is that 12 skiers to 1 snowboarder is on the LOW side. I might well put it at 15 to 1. I have counted 20 to 1 in numerous resorts. Europe is most definately a skiers domain.  It might well be that now editors of skiing magazines or articles in newspapers in the U K wont bend over backwards to ensure that the word ‘snowboarder’ is in every sentence that has the word ‘skiers’ in it!