Imagine, you have ridden the chairlift up and now you are standing on top of a snowy mountain, looking down as people speed down the hill before you.  Adrenaline is pumping, your heart is thumping, the cold air is on your face and you have butterflies in your stomach. You’re at the top, ready to zoom downhill following those in front of you. The thrill of sliding, swooshing, and having a blast on snow is what skiing and snowboarding is all about. Both sports take balance and courage and the two are the most popular winter sports.

Snow skiing is older than snowboarding. Skiers use two long skis with metal edges and lightweight metaal poles. Archaeologists have found evidence of skiing from thousands of years ago. Long ago, prehistoric people in places like Scandinavia and China used skis to travel across deep snow to hunt and explore. At one time skiing was the only way to travel during the winter. Over time, inventions made travel easier. Skiing became part of the very first Winter Olympic Games in 1924. While skiing is thrilling, it can also be dangerous. Skiers can fall at high speeds, hit icy patches, or collide with other skiers. Today, most downhill skiers wear helmets to protect themselves from head injury.

Downhill skiing and cross-country skiing may both use skis, but they feel like totally different adventures. Downhill skiing is all about speed and excitement—you ride a ski lift up a mountain and then zoom down steep slopes, making sharp turns as gravity pulls you along. It feels a bit like a roller coaster on snow. Cross-country skiing, on the other hand, is more like hiking or running on skis. Skiers glide across flatter land, gentle hills, and forest trails using their own strength to move forward. There are no ski lifts, just lots of steady motion and endurance. Downhill skiing is fast and thrilling, while cross-country skiing is calm, challenging, and great for exploring nature—one is a rush, the other is a journey.

Snowboarding is the younger cousin of skiing and started in the 1960s, when people mixed ideas from surfing and skateboarding and brought those ideas to the snow. In fact the first commercially sold snowboards were called Snurfers, a mix of the words snow and surfer. At first, many ski resorts did not allow snowboarding because the athletes were seen as reckless and they caused a lot of accidents. Snowboarding first appeared in the Olympics in 1998, in Nagano, Japan, after twenty years of trying for acceptance. One of the most well known snowboarders in the world is Shaun White, who became famous for his big air in the half-pipe, and three Olympic gold medals. Shaun has red hair and earned the nickname “The Flying Tomato.” At the X games in 2021 Shaun caught 21 feet of air.

Big competitions have helped make both sports popular around the world. Snow skiing and snowboarding are heart pounding adventures but they are not easy. Competitors train for hours every day. Which of the two sports would you choose?