As it turns out, robots are pretty mean when it comes to roasting skiers.
(Photo: Getty Images/ Ruslan Shevchenko)
Published July 23, 2026 10:46AM
Skiers share a lot of opinions about the industry: lift tickets are too expensive, gear is too expensive, lodge food is too expensive, lodging is … you get the point.
Since there are so many shared opinions, I love any chance I can get to hear some hot takes—views that may not be as popular, but the opinion-holder is extremely passionate. For instance, one of my hottest takes is that skiing with friends on beginner terrain is more fun than skiing at my own ability level.
So, I decided to ask the internet’s favorite voice of … reason, Claude, to share its hot takes about the ski industry. I was expecting the obvious: skiing is too expensive, après parties are fun, cold hands and toes are not, and so on. Turns out Claude is actually a crotchety old skier giving “somebody come get your grandpa” type vibes.
Which is to say, we’ll save the takes for the actual skiers.
Hot takes on gear
1. If your skis have a waist width over 100mm, you’re a hiker who got lost at a ski resort.
2. If your quiver has more than 3 pairs of skis, you’re a gear collector, not a skier.
3. Rocker profiles were invented so bad skiers could feel good about themselves.
4. Twin tips are a disease that ruined an entire generation of ski techniques.
Hot takes on skills
5. Carving is not a skill — it’s the skiing equivalent of bowling with bumpers. (Ted Ligety would like a word…)
6. Anyone who brags about “charging” bumps on rockered skis has never actually been punished by real moguls.
Hot takes on snow conditions
7. Skiing tracked powder that someone else found is embarrassing. Go find your own.
8. If you’ve never skied a line you had to earn on foot, you’re just a lift-dependent tourist.
9. Powder FOMO is a character flaw. If you need a powder day to enjoy skiing, you never really loved the sport.
Hot takes on resorts and ski culture
10. If you’re using trail maps past your third visit to a mountain, you don’t know that mountain. (Okay, I agree with this one.)
11. Inbounds tree skiing doesn’t count as “adventure skiing.” You’re 40 feet from a groomer.
12. Liftie attitude is a direct reflection of how a resort treats its seasonal staff.
13. Night skiing is underrated, and most resorts don’t invest enough in it.
14. Base area architecture has converged into the same faux-alpine look everywhere, and it’s making resorts feel interchangeable
Hot takes on races and competitions
15. Ski cross is the most entertaining Olympic skiing event, and it’s criminally underexposed. (Hard agree; the sport is wickedly fun to watch.)
16. X Games judging is more subjective — and more fun — than FIS judging, and skiing should lean into that instead of trying to look “serious.”
17. Junior and U23 races deserve real broadcast coverage, not just live-timing pages.
18. Night slalom races under floodlights are better theater than daytime racing and should be the norm, not the novelty.
Hot takes on life in the mountains
19. “Local” is a status people chase way too hard, and it means less than they think.
20. The transplant vs. local divide is mostly about money, not time spent in town.
21. Most mountain town “characters” everyone loves were transplants themselves — nostalgia just forgets that part.
22. The most annoying transplants aren’t the newest ones — they’re the ones from five to ten years ago who’ve fully forgotten they were new once.
