π΄ββ οΈ "Skimo" means racing. π΄ββ οΈ
As the name implies, skimo has had most of the mountaineering taken out of it. And that's a good thing.
β Scott Semple
Ski mountaineering races started in the early 1900s as military training exercises in Europe. But even old-school ski mountaineers have never referred to their pursuit as "skimo." That label originated because "ski mountaineering racing" is too much of a mouthful.
- "ski mountaineering racing" β‘οΈ "skimo racing" β‘οΈ "skimo"
No one with experience says, "Hey, you wanna do some skimo on the weekend?" Racers don't even say that.
Skimo is not ski mountaineering.
Ski mountaineering combines backcountry skiing with mountaineering. Touring skills are combined with basic climbing skills in order to access maybe-too-steep-to-ski terrain that most backcountry skiers have no interest in.
As with any mountain pursuit, efficiency is important because it reduces the participants' exposure to external hazards. It's only one component of risk, but the shorter the time spent in the terrain, the less chance that something bad will happen.
But speed in ski mountaineering is only useful if it increases efficiency; maximizing speed for its own sake is rarely a focus.
Skimo has had most of the mountaineering taken out of it.
In contrast to ski mountaineering, skimo is only about speed, primarily uphill. Downhill speed is a distant thirdβbehind skimo transitionsβbecause the tools that would increase downhill speed aren't worth the extra time and metabolic cost of dragging them uphill. (No one can ski fast enough to compensate for the extra weight.)
The original military races were backcountry events, and many historical races still are, especially in Europe. But today the vast majority of skimo races are a mix of on-piste, frontcountry skinning and slackcountry descents (at a resort, just out of bounds).
In a typical race, most of the external hazard has been eliminated so participants can fully focus on performance.
For someone like me, that grow in a sport that cherished mountain skills, itβs sad to see individual races where those capacities are no longer required and that it elongates more and more from the activity that most of the people who go ski touring does in the mountains.
βKilian Jornet, βThe evolution of competitions in mountain sports"
And that's a good thing.
With the danger almost eliminated, racers can solely focus on speed. Here are two benefits:
- Equipment becomes ridiculously light. (The minimum for skis plus bindings is 750 grams; boots, 500.) Skinning with such light gear teaches how important it is to reduce weight to the extreme. That's not a new lesson for mountaineers, but experiencing the skimo extreme of it often is;
- Track-setting maximizes forward and upward progress. Ski guides have long known that a modest incline provides more vertical gain per ounce of sweat than a steep one. But an unguided skier's ego almost always assumes that a steeper track means a faster climb. Not so.
Because there's a big benefit.
What makes a backcountry skier fast often makes a skimo racer slow. But what makes a racer fast almost always makes for a better, faster, and happier skier.
β¦as someone who believes that disciplines like the sprint, like the vertical are giving a lot, into the visualization of the sport, to bring new people into it but also to develop skills that can be applied then in the mountains.
βKilian Jornet, βThe evolution of competitions in mountain sports"
So although the gear is strange and fragile, and the clothing is tight and ego-challenging, and the venues no longer represent their origins, the education makes racing is well worth the pain.
What racers learn racing makes their backcountry skiing much more efficient. And that efficiency translates into more terrain in less time which is not only faster, but often safer and way more fun.