At first glance, Alta Ski Area seems like a pretty friendly place. Its website claims “Alta Ski Area welcomes you,” but Alta is segregating the world of winter sports, similar to the segregation by skin color some southern states employed until the 1960s. The website later states that “Alta is a skiers’ mountain. Snowboarding is not allowed.” Doesn’t sound so welcoming anymore.
Snowboarding is one of the fastest growing sports with about 6.6 million riders worldwide, according to industry statistics. Out of total lift-ticket sales from around the country last season, 28 percent were snowboarders, and out of those sales, more than 50 percent were boarders between the ages of 15 and 24.
However, despite its popularity, snowboarding is still outlawed on some of Utah’s mountains. Alta is one of only four ski areas in the United States that remains closed to snowboarders.
The friction between skiers and snowboarders dates back to the beginning of snowboarding. Snowboarders were seen as troublemakers and bad boys, and many of the early snowboards were difficult to control. Snowboarders were banned from ski resorts because of their image and dangerous riding.
In 1985, only 7 percent of U.S. resorts allowed snowboarders. However, as the equipment and skill levels improved, the resorts saw snowboarding as a growing sport and an opportunity to increase profits, so they eventually opened their lifts to boarders. Most ski areas had separate slopes for boarders by 1990, and today about 97 percent of resorts in North America and Europe allow snowboarders.
Alta is one of the few that does’nt.
Alta uses its exclusiveness as a marketing scheme to attract an older generation of die-hard skiers who still see boarders as a danger and a threat to their dwindling lives. These are the people who wish for the days when the slopes were snowboarder-free. Are these the same people who still prefer outhouses and candles to indoor plumbing and electricity as well?
Some young skiers have learned and followed the ways of segregation and hatred from their parents or grandparents, but a majority of the new generation of skiers realize what snowboarding has done for skiing and take advantage of a new side of their sport.
Skis are designed better now because they model snowboards’ shapes and technology, such as twin-tipped skis for tricks or fat skis for powder. Skiers are also riding rails and halfpipes, spinning in the air and doing backward switch tricks thanks to snowboarding. Snowboarders shared their risk-taking and desire for challenges with skiers and, in turn, helped keep skiing popular.
The young, open-minded skiers are also more accepting of different types of people. The majority of them have friends that ski and board. They ride with them either way and the two groups feed off each of other to continue to evolve and progress both sports.
In this day and age, it really shouldn’t matter whether someone rides on one or two boards, or if they face forward, sideways or backwards. Resorts should accept people for who they are and what they choose to ride on — they shouldn’t exclude people who are different than them. Alta refusing to sell a black man a lift ticket is the same as refusing to sell it to a snowboarder. It is outright discrimination.
Snow is there for all to ride on and no limits or restrictions should be in place against those who simply want to enjoy it.
Alta should give up the elitist, closed-minded thinking. Segregation is wrong.
