"Boy, am I ever embarrassed. Several days ago on this website, I was all Ski mountaineering is the hot new thing at the Milan Cortina Games! and You're gonna love skimo! and Skimo! Skimo! Skimo! (That last one is a direct quote.) I was rambling on about bootpacking and hyping up Jon Kistler's Instagram (now up to 1,476 followers!) and basically making myself into a ski mountaineering influencer."
"Then, over the last few days, I actually watched Olympic skimo, which consists of people sprinting up a mountain with skis on, changing out of their skis, sprinting up the mountain without skis on, ripping off something called "skins," putting their skis back on, and skiing back down the mountain, all in around three minutes. It gives me no joy to inform you that, as it turns out, Olympic skimo is boring and bad."
"The races were confusing to watch. The course layout seemed arbitrary. As unfun as it was to watch the competitors scoot uphill, it was even less fun to watch them fiddle with their equipment. Then, the downhill skiing part of the course was so unprepossessing that it looked like something I could complete without incident. And I stink at skiing!"
Initial enthusiasm for ski mountaineering shifted to disappointment after watching Olympic skimo. The Olympic format compresses uphill skiing, ski changes, bootpacking, skin removal, and downhill skiing into roughly three-minute races. The races proved confusing to watch with seemingly arbitrary course layouts and visible, tedious equipment transitions. Downhill sections appeared unremarkable and approachable even for an inexperienced skier. The events invited novelty-sport comparisons and failed to generate excitement despite energetic broadcast attempts. NBC color analyst Max Valverde tried to enliven the coverage but did not make the races compelling. Overall, the Olympic presentation of skimo felt unengaging and underwhelming.
Read at Slate Magazine
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