MOUNTAIN LIFE - Blue Mountains | Winter 2019

16 ML BLUE WINTER 2019 GUEST ITORIAL EVOLUTION Early winter 1999. I’m part of a crew of public-school elective groms ripping Graduate at Blue in shoddy rental gear. We’ve inched our way over from Easy Street, and now the Badlands Terrain Park is within sight. The romanticism of that run is palpable to my 11-year-old spirit. A slew of rad looking dudes lounge on couches in the sun out front of a makeshift contractor’s trailer, sipping Gatorade or coffee. They’re soaked and their gear is ripped and haggard. This particular crew is clearly set up for the long haul. They don’t have squat to worry about. They’re loud and intimidating. The trailer is spewing tunes from inside, girls are talking to them for some reason—and suddenly I’m hooked. I want in so bad. My crew grows, but we never reach the pinnacle of that contractor’s trailer at the bottom of Badlands. Then one day something feels wrong. The ski bums are gone, replaced by a new breed of live-to-ride lifestyle types with industry jobs, fancy gear, and real homes, rather than a refurbished school bus or Dodge Sprinter. (In Ontario, the term ski bum is fairly universal, chronicling both skiers and boarders.) The ski bum has changed, but this is no reason to be melancholy.The ski bum has evolved.And this is a good thing for the culture of snow sports.While the niche aesthetic of the grassroots ski bum was intoxicating to me as a kid, that lifestyle was perched atop a nest of reverie, dishevelment, and a proletariat aura. These days there’s a renewed sense of responsibility and respect from the ski bum. There’s a constant dialogue around sustainability, authenticity, and the feasibility of snow culture as it exists today. The new ski bum is philosophically and environmentally engaged in a more communal sense, rather than a tribal one. They’re interested in the politics of the resort landscape, they’re into maximizing the health of themselves and their sport. They’re intimidating in an entirely new way. The old ski bum mantra—at least the scene I was exposed to—was a scorched earth policy of sorts; shred now, ask questions later. But the evolution of the ski bum was inevitable and their progression is natural. Culture changes, and ours as winter sports aficionados dictates we’ve got to get involved with the state of our environment. Lose it, and we stand to lose our season. These days, jib park tunnel vision is gone, and the bigger picture seems to be what’s important. The bottom line is: adapt your lifestyle to support skiing and riding as your outlet for creative and physical expression, and do what you can to take care of what you’ve got by instilling this sense of engaged responsibility in others. Today’s ski bum is a hybrid of resort Yuppie and Hippie, peppered with the lingering zest and positivity of an impassioned grom. Protect this house— that’s a vibe I’m sure we can all get behind. —Nelson Phillips Badlands, 1990s. COURTESY BLUE MOUNTAIN RESORT ARCHIVES