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Extreme skiing
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Extreme skiing is skiing performed on long, steep (typically from 45 to 60+ degrees, or grades of 100 to 170 percent) slopes in dangerous terrain. The sport is performed off-piste.
The French coined the term 'Le Ski Extreme' in the 1970s. The first practitioner was the Swiss skier Sylvain Saudan, who invented the "windshield wiper" turn in the mid-1960s and made the first filmed descents of slopes that were previously considered impossible. The Frenchmen Patrick Valencant and Anselme Baud were among those who further developed the art and brought notoriety to the sport in the 1970s and 1980s. Extreme skiing as an English term has changed since the 80's when the term "extreme skiing" was coined to now be classified under Big Mountain skiing and/or Freeskiing which encompasses all aspects and methods of descending off-piste terrain.
Because of the extremely long, steep slopes, and dangerous terrain, a single mistake at the wrong moment by some extreme skiers have led to their deaths. This distinguishes true extreme skiing from the spectacular and dangerous but not usually deadly.