Letter: Quantity vs. quality on the slopes

I guess this really is a letter to the assistant editor Ross Leonhart in response to the recent article touting your accomplishment of snowboarding 70,000 vertical feet on Beaver Creek Mountain in one day. For me, 30,000 feet in one day is a very good day, leaving me satisfied and tired.  

I admit that I am much older than Mr. Leonhart, but still have the athleticism and spirit to appreciate a full day of skiing. This appreciation stems from the quality of journeying up and down the mountain, not the quantity in vertical feet. Fortunately, I have never subscribed to the hype that the EpicMix has sparked for those interested in virtual awards given for vertical feet and days on the mountain.

Honestly, the quality of my ski experience has been increasingly diminished by skiers and snowboarders who blast down the slopes, as you shared you too like to go fast. I have been cut off and slammed into by those riding and sliding too fast in a quest for speed and distance. When confronted, it is most often met with bravado and slope rage. Then you tout to your readers that they too can perform this feat or even get more vertical feet than you did in one day.  Kudos to your accomplishment, but I am more appreciative that you have made the public more aware of the need for speed and distance by many.  

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Being more aware of those around us who are on this same quest may help in our quest for quality versus quantity on the mountain, especially when striving for safety. 

Bradford A. Austin

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Beaver Creek