Daily Routine Ep.#10 OBER GABELHORN / Jérémie Heitz 

Il vole en Advance PI3 de 16m^2

What nonsense. They are just using the best tool for the job.

@@flyinglife2184 you don‘t get my point. With your ‚best tool for the job‘ argument you could also justify heliskiing or the use of oxygen on a 8.000m peak. Don’t get me wrong: I‘m not against ebikes altogether. It‘s a cool invention that enables old or injured people to visit places they otherwise simply wouldn‘t be able to. On the other side of the performance scale there are sponsored pro-athletes. They get payed basically because of their athletic abilities and/or technical skills. At the same time they are role models for ,normal‘ people by showing us what is possible if you‘re willing to put in the work and time. From my point of view they should promote the ,by fair means‘ approach. It should be cool again to work hard towards a goal. If everything is achieveable for everyone at any time simply by buying the ,best tool‘ the achievement itself will lose all of it‘s value. Or to pur it in other words: Real adventures shouldn‘t be easily consumable.

@@nobody6454 no I understood your point. But riding an ebike on a boring fire road for 30 minutes to get to the start of a climb doesn't diminish the overall achievement in any way. It's just time efficient.

​@@flyinglife2184 obviously you didn't get my point at all. I dislike the fact that sponsored pro-athletes are promoting a "tool" that is leading to the loss of quiet and pristine places once this tool hits the mainstream and is used by everyone. For this to happen the use of this tool must be socially acceptable. Two or three years ago an ebike was considered "cheating" by many of my fellow mountain buddies. This is changing rapidly. When now even the uber-fit sponsored pro-athletes are using them it's becoming cool over time. Whether they like it or not: Sponsored pro-athletes with their huge fellowship on social media act as role models and as such they do have responsibilty. They are influencers basically. If steep skiiers for example promote heliskiing (which with your point of "time efficiency" is absolutely fine, right?) and portray it as something cool, this will send out a wrong message to their big fellowship (I hope we can agree on this at least!). Now you might say that comparing heliskiing with ebikes is ridiculous. Well - I live in the mountains (german alps) and i can already see the effect of an ever growing use of ebikes on the long and steep valley roads that act as a "gate" to the real wilderness up there. Once quiet places are overcrowded now and thus are in danger of being banned completely by hunters or nature conservationist. You have to look at the bigger picture to really understand my point. I think promoting the "by fair means" approach is not only more sustainable when used by the mainstream but will eventually lead to a bigger satisfaction afterwards. The whole "higher!faster!MORE!"-message is basically capitalism in a nutshell and just like consumption it will lead to nothing but big emptiness inside. Just like the common "bucket list"-thing... it's always just "CONSUME CONSUME CONSUME" Pro-athletes often justify their posting on social media with the phrase "I want to inspire others" - well, then please use your great reach to inspire others in a way that doesn't harm the environment and will lead to more conscious follower. Fortunatelly there are also positive examples that we can aspire to like these two guys who crossed the alps on (bio) bikes to ski some of the biggest faces: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-AzyK5qr-WC0.html

@@nobody6454 I assume you use Crampons? They were once considered cheating by the purists of the time [1] ;-) I appreciate your message a lot, and it did give me pause for thought. We may have more in common than you imagine. I agree that the consumer culture in the mountains robs us of fulfilment. I have a love/hate relationship with mountain influencers, on one hand it's super inspiring what they do, but on the other hand sometimes the social clout becomes more important and that's sad. I do also understand your comparison between heli-skiing and e-bikes, but I think it's a flawed one. I'm also extremely opposed to heliskiing, but fortunately it's a fringe sport and will remain that way due to the costs, and environmental impact. It's not how I or many wish to face the mountains. I do see your point, normalizing using mechanical aids carries responsibility. Although I was also dead against e-bikes until I rode one, it made me feel like I did when I was a young child riding a bike for the first time. It's not bad to have some type one fun [2] now and then. In this specific case, I don't find the use of e-bikes problematic. I find it really cool that they arrived by public transport and covered the distance from Täsch in a relatively eco-friendly way. But I take your point that they may be normalizing their use, and that has many factors to consider. One thing I do find quite upsetting and probably more important than e-bikes, is that I see all the time an army of middle-aged weekend warriors riding solo in their Skoda Octavias, proudly displaying their "POW protect our winters" stickers on their cars and skis, driving to the mountains. No sense of irony apparently. That's probably an efficiency choice, and a more harmful one I'd argue. Also delighted to hear you still have quiet places in Germany, here in Switzerland not so much :) Thanks for the thought provoking discussion. [1] grivel.com/blogs/grivel-stories/the-engineer-the-crampon-and-the-beast-by-marina-morpurgo [2] www.rei.com/blog/climb/fun-scale