Extreme skiing on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
Extreme skiing is performed on long, steep (typically from 45 to 60+ degrees, or grades of 100 to 170 percent) slopes in 
The key North American skiers who popularized the sport include: Doug Coombs,
Extreme skiing is performed on long, steep (typically from 45 to 60+ degrees, or grades of 100 to 170 percent) slopes in mountain
A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually highe ...
ous terrain. The French coined the term 'Le Ski Extreme' in the 1970s. The first practitioners include Swiss skier Sylvain Saudan, who invented the "windshield wiper" turn in the mid-1960s, and in 1967 made the first descents of slopes in the Swiss, French and Italian Alps that were previously considered impossible. Saudan's 'first descent' in America was at Mt. Hood March 3, 1971. Early American practitioners include Bill Briggs, who descended Grand Teton
Grand Teton is the highest mountain in Grand Teton National Park, in Northwest Wyoming, and a classic destination in American mountaineering.
Geography
Grand Teton, at , is the highest point of the Teton Range, and the second highest peak in t ...
on June 15, 1971. The Frenchmen Patrick Vallençant, Jean-Marc Boivin
Jean-Marc Boivin (6 April 1951 – 17 February 1990) was a French mountaineering, mountaineer, extreme skiing, extreme skier, hang gliding, hang glider and paragliding, paraglider pilot, Speleology, speleologist, BASE jumping, BASE jumper, filmmak ...
and Anselme Baud and the Italians Stefano De Benedetti and Toni Valeruz were among those who further developed the art and brought notoriety to the sport in the 1970s and 1980s.
The key North American skiers who popularized the sport include: Doug Coombs, Shane McConkey
Shane McConkey (December 30, 1969 – March 26, 2009) was a professional skier and BASE jumper. He was born in Vancouver, British Columbia and eventually based himself in Olympic Valley, California. Due to an itinerant childhood, he never identi ...
, Seth Morrison, David W. Kraft, Glen Plake and Scot Schmidt, known as The Extreme-6 and all considered among the top extreme skiers in the world during their prime.
Because of the extremely long, steep slopes, and dangerous terrain, single mistakes at the wrong moment by some extreme skiers have led to them being seriously injured or killed.
Extreme skiing in the U.S. took off in the mid-1980s after the movie ''Maltese Flamingo'' came out in 1986, and John Cummings’ book, ''Hallowed Be the Extreme'', documented the lifestyle of extreme skiers.
References
{{skiing