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We called it backcountry skiing in the mid-90s. It was a common name. Euros probably called it randonnee. But out in Lake Tahoe, California, we called it playin
by taude 7y ago
We called it backcountry skiing in the mid-90s. It was a common name. Euros probably called it randonnee. But out in Lake Tahoe, California, we called it playing in the backcountry, sometimes with touring, etc. Backcountry.com definitely didn't create the word.
- CPLX 7y agoI moved to Colorado in the early 90’s and backcountry was already a super common term. It certainly predates these guys. I have no idea what this guy is talking about. I’ve never heard the term randonee until today, and at least in Colorado the term wilderness has always had a very specific jargon type meaning as referring to designated wilderness areas, like the Big Blue Wilderness, for example. The term is clearly defined by the US Forest Service.
- ISL 7y agoI definitely didn't intend to argue that Backcountry.com had created the word, only that my recollection was that the common usage of the term in the context of ski touring was roughly correlated. I just checked the earliest (2001) Internet Archive record for Turns-All-Year.com, and it also includes the word 'backcountry', so I'll stand corrected.
- saiya-jin 7y ago> Euros probably called it randonnee I guess you already know it, but in case you don't, shining a bit of light on ignorance never hurts: We have 24 official languages in Europe, in reality more than 200 distinct ones. Randonee, or most probably 'ski randonee' is french term for ski touring and its variants (randonee itself means rather hiking). No other language here uses this term, we have our own phrases for this beautiful, but sometimes dangerous activity. Other variant would be 'ski alpinism', but that's for more hardcore technical stuff (crampons, ice axes, harness, ropes, skis on the backpack type of experiences in very steep places)