Whats harder....true backcountry skiing or park skiing.

Dammit, I need to read people's posts before running my mouth. 

BC, so much more shit to take in and process.  mad respect to park skiers too... shit's real hard and all i just think it's not as hard as landing the same tricks off natural features.

It's all relative.  A switch 7 off of a cliff isn't the same as off of a jump.  Thats why you see 100x more people doing 7s in the park then off of gnar cliffs.  They are way different.  sw 1440 octos are bareley feasable off of a cliff.  You can't compare the two.  You have to say that a sw 1440 octo is like a double front flip off an 80 footer.  thats the only way you can compare.

There's a shitload of arguments that can be made here. Personally, I'm sure big mtn is harder because even I can sorta ski park.

-A given trick may well be easier in the park then off a cliff or a bc booter. Also take into account that a park rat from MN wouldn't even make it to the booter/cliff alive and with enough speed.
-You have to get to the big mountain. Thats what keeps a lot of people from doing it, you don't just get off a lift and go.
-Big mountain skiing takes special skills. The ability to prevent or deal with avalanches, for example, isn't knowledge thats distributed widely across the country. I come from MN, and as sad as it is, I go out west to ski park, maybe a little bit of all mtn but only in bounds. Why? Because I don't want to die, I don't have the skills to take part in this type of skiing that so many claim is ten times better than park.
-Big mountain gear is an additional cost, not everybody wants to throw down the $$ it takes to get some skis that are 100+ at the waist, and the other little things that go along with leaving the resorts.

Now in terms of just the simple act of skiing, mechanics, muscles, etc, its a toss up. Raise somebody in open bowls, deep pow, steep cliffs, tight trees, etc. Now put that person on a rail and see what happens. My guess is that it'll probably be good for a few laughs. That not saying that person isn't in control of their skis, etc, but being able to do pow doesn't mean you can do rails or stalls, and park jumps (while they may come easier) aren't the same as booters. In the same way if you raise a person only doing park, their ability to actually ski goes in the shitter. Put that person at the top of some gnarly line and tell them to make it down. They will most likely die.

So you can ask who is the better "skier" and the answer is probably the big mountain skier. I'm a park rat, and I'll admit that my ability to ski, well, there isn't one anymore. Park skiing, particularly jibbing, is a whole new skill set that really won't help you when you go where the lift won't take you.

very well said
+++ karma

park and bc are different. bc is not nearly as competitive.

Skiing backcountry on its own is hard. but if you try to throw park style tricks into it its crazy. so i'm gona say Backcountry.

backcountry=more balls and really risky
Park=more technique and somewhat risky.

my thoughts exactly, park can be super hard if youre hitting a street style double kink for the first time, and BC can be hard if youre straightlining a narrow ass chute.

It's all relative, neither is harder or easier.

that's what SHE said

although doing a kangaroo flip may seem very hard, it is, but you can perfect any trick in the terrain park and not be scared to try it, look at jon olsson, hes not scared at all to do his kangaroo flips anymore because he has perfected it, he defintley feels the adrenaline and everything.  While on the other side people can perfect doing double frontflips off of 90 ft cliffs, but its always going to be super super scary trying anything off a 90 ft cliff, or at least i know i would freak out, but anyways back to the point, i would say that park is technically more difficult and on the other hand bc is scarier(depending on what you are doing).


this probably seems like a bunch gibberish to you guys but it made sense to me as i was writing it.

Backcountry for sure because in a park everything has been prepared for you packed landing, smooth and sexy, nice jumps, also smooth and sexy. but it the back county your landings, inruns, and jumps havent been plowed over by a snowcat making it just that much more difficult to make a manuiver possible.

It depends on the extreme-ness of the park or the BC.

when your in the Backcountry you have no idea what your going to run into. the conditions can change so rapidly from place to place and over time that what you skied in the morning will be completely different an hour latter. The weather can also change increadbly quickly. While your out there you need to always be ready for anything. As your skiing one turn might be through blower powder and the next is over a boiler plait ice and rock mix.
You obviously have to contend with the fickle nature of snow pack. Avalanches tend to happen most on prime skiing terrain (and jump landings). It does not take a big avalanche to kill some one. A 6 inch deep sluff can knock you off your feet if your not ready for it and carry you into a tree/rock or off a cliff. The snow pack also can change rapidly, and a slope that was safe at 11am might be ready to slide at 1pm.
Then you have to know not only what to do when you get cought in an avalanche, but also what to do when your friend gets cought.

That is just getting around in the BC and skiing with your feet on the ground. Once you start launching it gets more serous.
You rarely know what your landing is going to be like in the BC. there might be a rock hidden an inch below the surface, or what looked like untracked is actually hard pack or a light dusting on ice. Often you cant even see your landing until you jump or commit. and once you take into account that a line can look very different from the top then from across the way it can be very easy to get lost in your line and find yourself over cliff ed out exposure.

Not saying it is harder then learning to kill it in the park, just giving you an idea of how intense it is.

backcountry all the way carving switch, cliffs, landing switch, steepness, speed everything for suuure.

 bc in is more difficult to ski in, keeping your cool when u spot that tree which ur going to land on or the second drop which ur now tearing down at unexpectedly makes the condidtions more difficult, but on the other side if you walk up and eye out ever part of you line then its alot easyier way less fun but less pain happens when u bail. but in the park u can try more difficult trickage as keeping u cool is easy u know what the landings like and no danger of fallin into a crevass or off a cliff. at the end of the day its how hard u tear your lines that makes the place ur skiing more or less difficult. but im definatly sideing with bc more than park.

this is a bullshit argument as both can be made as difficult as you want it to be..

try skiing park at my home mountain, the landings might be worse than some of the ones in the backcountry.

that being said, bc is way harder. i forget who said it, but they were talking about how all the filming companies want to take the park kids into the backcountry and film them doing shit off cliffs and how horrible the skiing was because they have no concept of skiing there. im gonna see if i can find that article later

spot on
also  especially when talking about filming,
you dont get a speed check ect. most of the time first run is the only one youll have to take.