Steep is overrated.
I know, I know. The dream is earning your way onto the biggest, nastiest line on the map. That’s progression. That’s what strong riders do. That’s how you prove you are good.
Cool.
Then you stand at the top and watch it play out.
Sideslipping.
Survival turns.
Loads of people concentrating on getting down. Not many actually riding.
I’ve lost count of how many times I have taken students there because they were desperate to say they had done it. I get it. I wanted that too.
What I do not buy anymore is the idea that this automatically equals a better day.
Half the time the best riding on the mountain is happening somewhere else.
I cannot tell you how many lift rides I’ve had where someone talks themselves into it. You hear the rehearsed confidence. You can see how much it matters to them to be the person who rides that run now.
Then the pitch hits and everything tightens up.
They’re not looking for good snow or fun shapes in the hill. They are managing speed and trying not to blow it in front of their mates. If they get to the bottom upright, job done, high fives, everyone agrees it was massive.
But ask yourself this. Did anyone actually enjoy it?
I’m not innocent in this. I’ve chased plenty of lines because I liked what it said about me. Most of us have.
I just reached a point where I started caring more about the quality of the riding than the reputation of the run.
Which is why I love blue runs.
Because when I look back at days that felt really good, the best moments happened on terrain where I could move (like Source). Where I could try stuff. Where I could relax enough to let the board run a bit. Where you can flow naturally without hard braking every 100 yards.
You see it if you pay attention.
The riders with proper flow, the ones who make it look easy, they spend a lot of time somewhere they can actually express it. They dip into steep terrain when it is good or interesting. They’re not there simply because it exists.
Meanwhile people will queue for a scraped, crowded face purely because it sounds impressive.
I used to do the same.
But let’s take the blue run above. You can cruise on and off piste easily, hitting the little natural kicker each time. It’s the perfect place to dial in spins and flat ground tricks.
At the junction, choose left or right and you’ve got side-hits on either your toeside or heel side edge (depending on stance). Sidehits are one of the most fun parts of snowboarding – something I’ll argue to the death!
There’s also some natural rollers through the woods and even a sort of hip jump that’s built up on a fallen tree.
Add all those things to the side of a black run and they’ll go mostly unnoticed.
Of course… you could argue it’s just a case of getting better. But very few riders will ever be comfortable messing around with butters and spins on super steep pitch.
That’s why blue runs are the best option 99% of the time.
Nobody likes saying this out loud because it feels like admitting you’re backing off.
I don’t see it like that anymore.
If I finish a lap wanting to go straight back up, that’s a win.
If I finish it relieved, I probably picked wrong.
Make sense?
