I cannot do a video about skidifferences between Europe and the USwithout talking about hey guys what’s upit’s Kelly again and welcome back to mychannel for today’s video I’m going totalk to you guys about ski culturedifferences between North America andEurope now up front I want to say that Idid not grow up skiing in fact the firsttime I actually learned to snowboard waswhen I was 27 years old in Turkey of allplaces with some friends I immediatelyfell in love with it despite how

since snowboarded in Austria and CanadaWashington State Colorado Oregon IdahoI’ve done a lot of snowboarding in thepast five years and then this pastChristmas I decided that I wanted tolearn how to ski and Schiavoni France bywatching YouTube videos because I amjust too cheap to pay for lessons so Isay all of this to make a point that Iam very much an outsider coming intothis culture and I have noticed somevery interesting and stark differencesbetween skiing and boarding in Europe

is it more expensive to ski in theUnited States and North America than itis in Europe about a month ago I went toBreckenridge Colorado and for a one dayski pass it was $200 I could not believewhat I was seeing on the sign listingout the prices in contrast when I was inShamu knee this past Christmas for oneday of skiing it was only about 60dollars that’s a 140 dollar pricedifferenceI haven’t been to Whistler Blackcomb inCanada for a couple of years now but

curious about how much it would cost fora one-day ski passed thereand I found that it was a hundred andeighty dollars compared to Albin Dorfosteo which is where I would go when Iwas snowboarding in Austria it’s veryclose to Salzburg where their price waslisted at about $60 now if you startfactoring in lodging and food expensesyou’ll start to see some discrepanciesdepending on when you book and where youbook and where you’re eating how muchand so on but in my personal experience

roughly about the same between Europeand North America I’ve also never havedone ski school because I’m too cheapand I don’t have children so I’m notreally familiar with ski school pricesbut it’s my understanding that skischool is also cheaper in Europe than itis in North America in fact a few yearsago when I was boarding in Austria I wastalking to a guy who had his wholefamily with him for a week-long skivacation and he told me that it wascheaper for him to fly his family from

renowned places to ski and snowboard inthe US so from Colorado all the way toAustria and to put his two children inski school and by lift passes foreveryday for he and his wife then it wasfor him to just drive the two hours toBreckenridge Vail and all of the otherski resorts that are in Colorado in theRocky Mountains because of the ski liftand ski school price differences that’scrazythe second big difference that I noticedjust with a quick cursory look at the

more snowboarders in North America thanin Europe now I have no idea whysnowboarding is more popular in NorthAmerica than it seems to be in Europealthough I will say it seems like Europeis starting to embrace snowboarding moreand moreum but that’s just the way it is I meanI could get into different stereotypesof skiers vs. snowboarders and try tomatch them up with Europe and NorthAmerican culture but I still don’t thinkthat would really get into the root of

big difference is the lift line protocolEurope it is a bit chaotic it feels likeeveryone is just cramming themselvesinto the lines they’re running theirskis over top of each other you’re luckyif you’re able to keep with your groupor even just your one skiing partnerbecause of how everybody is just shovingtheir ways to the lift chair whereas inNorth America it is much more organizedand managed for example at most lipsespecially the busier ones the barreones that are at the bottom of the hill

lanes that separate singles from doublesfrom groups of three and so on and thenyou move forward as such and then whenyou get to the point where you need tomerge to get on to the ski lifts youalternate and you group together to makefour or six or however many this skilift seats and at more crowded chairsit’s common to even have someone thatworks for the resort standing therehelping to manage this process bypairing up these different lines to geton to this ski lift and to me it is much

chaotic free-for-all like it is inEurope but even with this difference inlift lines where it seems like Europeansare just rushing to get onto the liftchair I would actually say that in NorthAmerica it feels like people are muchmore aggressive about getting as manyruns in as possible during their ski daythey’re already in line when the liftsstart running they’re hesitant to takebreaks the might not even stop for lunchand they’ll often gravity- whatever lifts have the shorter lines

love doing they’ll still go to that liftjust because they don’t want to have towait in line and they want to get in asmany runs as possible in fact there’seven an app that works at a lot ofdifferent resorts in Colorado and someother places that tracks how many runsyou’ve done and how many miles or feetor meters you have skied or snowboardedthroughout the day which i think justkind of speaks to this idea thatAmericans are often trying to get in asmuch as they can I didn’t get this same

it seemed like it was much morelaissez-faire people were taking theirtime to get to the lifts in the morningand once they got to the top they wouldtake their time to get ready get alltheir stuff on they would take numerousbreaks for hot cocoa or schnapps and soon they would have a nice leisurelylunch now maybe this is because lifttickets are over twice as expensive inNorth America as they are in Europe andso maybe Americans are a bit encouragedto try to get as much as they can out of

example of this classic American cultureof having a much quicker pace where weget our coffees to go where we have avery quick lunch before we run back toworkcompared to our European counterpartswho I feel like take life at a bit of aslower pace they stop to have theircoffee at a cafethey aren’t hesitant to relax and enjoythe scenery and the company they’resharing their time with I actually had areally hard time adjusting to this

skiing in Europe with my friends becauseI am someone that wants to go go go andget in as many runs as I can and sotaking a lot of breaks just isn’t my jamspeaking of shops though this seems tobe a huge thing in Austria and I imagineit isalso in parts of Germany and Switzerlandbut it is not a thing in the West soschnapps of course is liquor that’s beenflavored oftentimes with fruit and herbsand spices and it is usually taken asone shot I’ve seen schnapps take on many

boarding in Austria it was common forthe group I was boarding with to want tostop and share a round or two ofschnapps throughout the day in the u.s.schnapps in general just aren’t reallypopular and it’s not a part of ourculture so I’m sure it’s unsurprisingwhen I say that people aren’t stoppingto take schnapps breaks in fact I don’teven think you can buy schnapps at thedifferent resorts that I’ve been in inNorth America but also not even shotspeople aren’t stopping to take quick

that I have seen Americans bring a flaskwith them or their ski day and have aquick nip whenever they’re on the liftgoing to their next run because againgetting in more runs is favored overtaking breaks another contributingfactor to this difference could be thatin the West the mountain is set up quitea bit different compared to Europe inthat one corporation owns the lift andall of the restaurants and thoserestaurants are typically located ateither at the top or the bottom of the

the restaurants offer the exact samefood in fact there’s usually quite avariety from sushi and ramen to barbecueribs and burgers they’ll even serve beerthat’s mainstream and mass produce likeCoors Light and then they’ll serve craftbeers from the local or regional bikerbreweries but these restaurants sort ofgive you the feeling that your cattlebeing quickly herded through whereas inEurope there are huts everywhere dottingthe mountains at the top at the bottomand everywhere in between and each of

so they all have a bit of a differentfeeling to them the huts often havetheiron menus and specialties and then inaddition to beer and wine they may alsohave schnapps I guess I should add herethat it’s obvious but of course thedrinking age in Europe is much lowerthan it is in the US and so it wascommon for me to see what looked likeyoung teenagers drinking in Europewhereas in the u.s. there are coursesigns everywhere he was saying that you

drink and then the waitress or thebartender will be checking your ID ifyou order alcohol speaking of signsthere are of course on the runsdifferent yellow signs in both Europeand the US telling you to slow down incertain zones or letting you know thattrails are about to merge but it feltlike in the u.s. there were so many moresigns like to the point where it justfelt egregious and I don’t know if it’sbecause Americans just have a hard timefollowing the rules or if it’s because

is it is a very noticeable differencealso as an example of how Americansdon’t like to follow rules I havenoticed that in the US people may or maynot lower the restraint bar in fact I’vebeen on many many chair lifts wherenobody has cared to lower the bar at alland on the chair lifts where people dowant to lower the bar they will actuallyask do you mind if I lower the restraintbar as though they’re doing everyone onthe chairs some sort of inconvenienceand then they will slowly lower the

Europe in Europe when you get on thelift it seems like there is this madrush to lower the restraint bar as soonas humanly possible I cannot tell youhow many times I have been hit on thehead thankfully with a helmet on by therestraint bar because I have barely satdown before someone on the chair isalready aggressively yankthe bar in front of us like I get thatit’s a safety precaution but good lordanother big difference between Europeand the u.s. is the color coding of the

Blue means intermediate a single blackdiamond means expert and a double blackdiamond means extremely difficultwhereas in Europe green means very easylike learners easy with a very low gradeand then blue is the next level up ofeasy and then red is intermediate blackis for expert and orange is forextremely difficult I actually havenever seen an orange not that I’mseeking it out because I cannot do thatI’ve also noticed that terrain parks arefar more popular in the US compared to

chances are there will be some sort ofterrain park I will also add that itfelt like the runs themselves were muchmore groomed in Europe compared to inthe US and Canada and also the sceneryand the landscape in Europe was muchmore spectacular than in North Americawith the exception of Whistler Blackcombthat’s very beautifuland then in Washington State if you canget a clear shot of Mount Rainier that’sbreathtaking but in general I felt likeEurope’s views of the Alps was much more

for the culture differences on themountain but that’s not where thedifferences end so after a day of skiingor snowboarding Americans tend toretreat to their rentals and hop intothe hot tub or hot springs to soothetheir sore muscles in fact it is a majorselling point for the different lodgingoptions available near a ski resort ifthey have a hot tub so you’ll always seethat be advertised whereas in Europesaunas are the popular thing to go to infact I don’t think I ever saw a hot tub

only ever saw one sauna the whole timethat I’ve been boarding in the US andthat was at some random Airbnb I stayedat in Oregon near Mount Hood and if youwatch my video on sauna culture inGermany then you know that I hate saunasbecause I do not like being trapped insuffocating heat so I much prefer hottubs because if you get too hot you canjust sit outside of the hot tub or evenkeep your feet still in and continue toenjoy the time with your friends whereaswith the sauna you’re either in it or

video about ski differences betweenEurope and the US without talking aboutapres ski apres ski essentially meansafter ski party and it takes on manydifferent forms but the essentialelements are loud music alcohol and funwith dancing now traditionally I’ve seenpeople go straight to apres ski rightwhen they get off the mountain and allthey’ve done is take off their skis andtheir snowboards so they’re stillwearing their boots and their snow suitsbut I’ve also seen it where people go

change and then go apres ski but eitherway I would venture to say that apresski is taken much more seriously inEurope than it is in the US which makessense given that apres skioriginated in Europe alright guys that’sall I’ve got for you today I hope thatyou enjoyed this video I’m interested tohear if I missed anything that you’venoticed skiing or boarding in bothEurope and North America or if youprefer to ski or board in Europe versusNorth America what your favorite ski

comments below I love to read them ifyou enjoyed this video don’t forget togive it a big thumbs up if you haven’tsubscribed to my channel yet go aheadand hit that subscribe button thank youso much to all of my patrons for thesupport you’ve given me and I will seeyou guys nexttime by[Music]