Skiers Remix Classic Childhood Game

Ian Greenwood
·2 min read

Skiing, on its own, is pretty dang fun. I don't imagine that's a particularly controversial opinion.

But just because skiing's already fun doesn't mean you can't make it more fun by infusing snowsports with other popular games.

In this September 14th Instagram upload from Peak Performance, two skiers melded skiing and a classic childhood game: "Simon says."

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In the skiing version of "Simon says," you follow one of your friends closely down the mountain and repeat their every move, be it a cliff drop or backflip. Should you fail to mirror the leader's stunts, you lose. Does it look fun? Absolutely. Is it dangerous? Also affirmative.

This game reminds me of a hypothetical challenge (I don't think we were ever stupid enough to try it) my friends and I used to joke about in college called "train wreck."

The rules of "train wreck" are pretty similar to skiing "Simon says." You gather a posse of skiers, form a line, and ski as fast as possible down a run while remaining as close together as possible. Ideally, the chosen run will include features like chutes, cliffs, and jumps. There are no winners in "train wreck" -- you just go as long as humanly possible.

So, at this point, I bet you're wondering what's up with the name -- why is it called "train wreck"?

Here's why: if anyone in the line crashes on a cliff or jump, everyone behind them also crashes. You and your friends are so close together that avoiding whoever went down ahead of you is impossible without entering a spectacular yard sale -- not unlike a train car derailing all of the cars behind it.

There's a reason "train wreck" was a joke and not something we actually tried. Even a 19-year-old with an underdeveloped prefrontal cortex could tell that it was a bad idea.

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