Alpine Equipment Epithets

I have been meaning to mention a post that appeared on Johnson, The Economists' language blog, and now seems like an appropriate time as we are in the midst of ski season here in Michigan. The post is about the friendly animosity that occurs between skiers and snowboarders and the names that are used by each to provoke the rivalry in Poland.

According to Johnson, skiers call a snowboard a parapet (windowsill) and snowboarders call skis boazeria (wainscots), thus the title of the post, "Windowsill v Wainscots".

In addition to the brief article, what I found interesting were a couple of comments from readers included this one from AcrossTheStreet:

"Colorado has lighthearted names for its alpine battle of rafters and fly-fishers: Row v Wade."

And this one from Jeremie1:

"In Spain snowboarders are just known as "surferos", as far as I know, but the surferos do use a malicious nickname for skiers, who distinguish themselves by using ski sticks: they are known as "palilleros" - from "palillos", or little sticks, such as toothsticks."

My son, a snowboarder, calls skiers "two-plankers".

So how about you: are you a windowsiller or a wainscotter, a rafter or a fly-fisher, a surfer or a palilleros?

What other labels are out there?

Image Credits

Skiers' Slang Served on a Lunch Tray

With skiing just around the corner - as my boys keep reminding me when asking for new equipment - I felt inspired to look into skiing terminology. In an earlier post I mentioned the term yard sale, which is skiers' slang for when a skier loses articles of gear and clothing while tumbling downhill. While delving further into the world of skiers' slang (after all, I need to keep up with the lingo and be a hip mom), I came across a website written by one Mogul Mick that is devoted to understanding skiers' slang. After reviewing the sizable list of these slang terms, I was surprised to see that many of them involve food items, as follows:

Death cookie: Firm or frozen clumps of snow, usually the result of incompetent snow-making.
Chicken heads: What you get when spring slush freezes.
Chocolate chips: A cluster of rocks poking out of the snow.
Chowder: Chopped-up powder.
Corn: A type of spring snow that forms into small, light pellets.
Crust: Frozen surface covering loose snow.
Hoho: A handstand on the apex of a halfpipe
Lunch tray: a Snowboard.
Noodle: A ski that lacks torsional rigidity, making it unstable at speed.
Poaching: Skiing out of bounds.

Seeing all of these food-related terms got me to wondering if this is what causes skiers to have toilet turns.

Toilet turns: Sloppy turns made in the pooping position.