With the snowy seasons of the Northwest rapidly approaching, cost is a major barrier that keeps many students from joining winter sports. Gear, transportation, training, and information/safety costs add up to create the perfect snowstorm of inaccessibility, resulting in a smaller, more exclusive community around winter sports.
“Equipment can be really expensive, like skis and snowboards and a lot of winter sports require a lot of equipment that is unreasonable and inconvenient for a lot of people,” sophomore Eleanor Weir said.
This issue is especially prominent when first breaking into winter sports. For example, an average set of beginner skis normally costs upwards of two-hundred fifty dollars on top of other equipment expenses, and they don’t seem to be much cheaper when buying them in used condition.
“If people want to do winter sports or any activity that requires a lot of equipment there are a lot of places where you can rent and it’s a lot cheaper. You can always rent them for the season and get day passes whenever you want to,” Weir said. “It’s definitely still very expensive.”
Equipment, however, is only one part of the cost.
“I definitely know people who have given up ski passes because they’re too expensive and it can be hard to make lots of trips up to the mountains and make that big a financial commitment to something that happens once a year,” said Weir.
For this reason, some people opt to do their winter sports in the backcountry. This is most common among snowshoers and skiers. Backcountry eliminates the need for any passes, but often the barrier to entry is much higher because of the hardware and experience necessary. Anyone doing backcountry skiing must be very familiar with the terrain and be with another person in case they get stuck.
Another big risk for backcountry winter sports is avalanches, which are the most deadly natural hazard. The Northwest Avalanche Center (NWAC) provides in depth information about avalanches. According to their website, “if there’s enough snow to ride, there’s enough snow to slide.” NWAC begins publishing avalanche forecasts in mid to late November, when the snow sports season finally begins. In order to practice winter sports safely, training is very important.
“Training is also really expensive,” sophomore Davon Kees said.
When it comes down to it, winter sports are plain expensive. Some things, like training, are an essential part of safety but can also be very pricey. However, there are ways it has become a little more accessible, such as the ski bus. The ski bus is a way to get students to and from good skiing locations, organized by Garfield parents, which costs two hundred fifty dollars. You can get forms for the ski bus in Mr. Johnson’s class and the deadline to register is December 5th.
