Icy crevasses, monster moguls, soaring cliffs, and avalanche risks: for some skiers, these are all part of the fun.
To nonskiers, just the idea of standing atop a sharply pitched slope—any slope—while attached to a pair of slippery boards may seem frightening. But even among serious snowhounds, a few fast-paced spins down a gnarly black-diamond trail are often thrill enough.
For a certain sort of skier, though, the garden-variety moguls and steeps of most expert trails are just boredom on ice.
“Some people just seem to have different stuff coursing through their veins, at least once they strap on their skis,” says Samantha Berman, senior editor at SKI magazine. “I don’t know if it’s an adrenaline thing or what…but they just need something more.”
