Topic - Snowmobiles and
cross-country skiing
Date first posted on eCommunity - 29
July 2007
Now is the time of year when activity tour
operators release their
winter brochures, and the current crop shows a continuation of the
trend to offer snowmobiling in the same brochure as cross-country
skiing. (The snowmobiling is sometimes an integral part of a holiday
package, and sometimes promoted as an attractive optional extra.)
A similar trend can be seen among tourist offices. If, for example,
you go to the website of the Norwegian tourist office,
www.visitnorway.com, and search for "snowmobile" you will bring up
48 "travel offers" and 23 "articles". Some of the places mentioned
in the listing are in the country's far north where, it has to be
said, there is little XC infrastructure. But others are important
cross-country ski centres: Hemsedal, Geilo and Hovden. This is in
spite of Norway having relatively stringent controls on recreational
snowmobiling.
In marketing terms the combination of XC skiing and snowmobiling
seems a risky one, as the two activities draw on entirely different
(and contradictory) sets of aesthetics.
Cross-country skiing is about self-propulsion, about independence
from mechanical contrivances, about experiencing nature in a fairly
pure way.
Recreational snowmobiling is about none of that. It's an exciting
activity, but it is noisy and dirty and it justifiably gets a bad
press for its environmental impact. Tour operators who sell it in
the same brochure as cross-country skiing are therefore faced with a
big challenge. The more exciting they make it sound, the more they
will offend the skiing community. But the more they try to convince
us that it is well-behaved, the more they will put off the thrill-
seekers.
The operators seem to realise this contradiction, and they try hard
to have their cake and eat it. One, on its website, assures us
that: "All our snowmobiling trips follow quiet routes well away from
human habitation . . . The wildlife is well used to the snowmobiles
and we cause them little disturbance." Yet the same operator finds
space in its brochure to emphasise "the sheer adrenaline rush of
snowmobiling".
Another operator promises, "You'll find snowmobiles simple to ride
and fantastic fun." It points out sensibly that you'll have a safety
briefing before setting off. But it goes on to say, "We [then] ride
up to Lampivaara Fell in the National Park", a sentence that could
spark a very heated discussion about the proper role and function of
national parks.
CLASHES
Real clashes do occur between skiers and machine drivers. A major
example in USA is reported in Cross Country Skier magazine : (http://www.crosscountryskier.com/2005-06/jan-feb_06_nordic_news.html).
The report tells how, in March 2005, a leading snowmobile
manufacturer staged its annual dealer show at the same time and
place as the Yellowstone Rendezvous race, an important cross-country
ski event. The dealer show was a large jamboree with concerts and
snowmobile races. "Participants in the snowmobile events had to pass
the start and finish areas of Rendezvous race with the accompanying
noise, pollution and traffic." The upshot was that participation in
the ski event was 20 percent lower than normal levels. Many skiers
just did not want to be in the presence of such a number of
machines.
(Admittedly, there is an especially raw nerve among skiers in
Yellowstone. Throughout the 1990s the National Park authorities
studied the level of pollution and other environmental damage caused
by snowmobiles, and as a result ruled that they should be phased out
of the park. The ruling was supported by the Environmental
Protection Agency and the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration. The Bush Administration, however, overturned the
decision, to the great upset and annoyance of the environmentalist
lobby - and the skiers.)
The example just cited involved a large number of snowmobiles. But
the number does not need to be large before conflicts occur. An
experimental study (by a joint Norwegian/Canadian research team)
showed that even a single encounter with a snowmobile whilst out
skiing significantly reduced the skier's "affective quality"
and "had an effect on participants' beliefs about the extent to
which noise from snowmobiles disturbed the quality of ski-touring in
general". Which is to say: it spoiled the immediate experience and
left a bad impression overall.
(The study is reported in "Recreational Conflict Is Affective: The
Case of Cross-Country Skiers and Snowmobiles", Leisure Sciences, Vol
26, No 3, 2004.)
PROCEED WITH CARE
In view of this clash between skiers and machines, tour operators
should be careful about lumping the two activities together -
whether in the same resort or in the same marketing material. The
risk is not just that skiers will be deterred from travelling with
the offending tour operator (I'm quite relaxed about that!). The
real risk is that skiers or potential new skiers will be deterred
from travelling at all. The "brand image" of cross-country skiing
can be a fragile thing, and we should handle it with great care.
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