Existentialism focuses on human existence and its conditions, understood as something concrete in one’s skiing and behavior in our environment.
We exist as people and, subsequently, we define ourselves as skiers. Similar to our intention to acquire skiing kills, we are considered “potential” skiers, and when we truly define ourselves as skiers, it is because we accomplish the “act” of skiing. If we are able to execute our mental plan, i.e., our representation or image of movement on skis, it would ultimately result in the existence of skiing.
Although our existence as skiers depends on our will to be skiers and our decision-making, we know that it is inevitable that one day we will stop skiing. The principle of existentialism, in our case, pertains to our own actions. We must choose projects based on how the environment presents itself to us. This allows us to understand skiing as a project of being-in-skiing.
In that sense, our basic existential condition is to be situated in the mountain environment. This environment acquires its being, that is, its existence through observation, as things do not exist until we observe them, and to observe things is already to engage with them. So, why does skiing exist? Skiing exists due to the existence of mountains and snow.
In Sartre’s view, we first exist as being-in-the-mountain, and then we discover our essence as being-skiers. However, our own existence is confused by the presence of others, which generates the condition of otherness. In this initial mere existence, we discover a void between us and the environment, a nothingness that permeates our existence, what Heidegger called inauthenticity.
Selon existentialist philosophy, becoming skiers is essential to being skiers. Kierkegaardian conception considers that existence impels us to “constant effort,” and in Nietzschean thought it may be expressed as “becoming the skiers we are”.
Maurice Merlau-Ponty considered existence through the body, that is, it is because of our bodily existence that we are, that we exist. Occasionally, we become cognizant of our physical existence when a particular part of our body causes discomfort or when we concentrate on enhancing its functionality.
The essence of skiing
For existentialism, essence is preceded by existence: we initially exist as skiers, and then, through our consciousness, we construct our identity, our own values, and determine a significance for our skiing.
According to Heidegger, “Origin means that from where and by which a thing is what it is and how it is.“ Aristotelian philosophy is also oriented in this sense, since essence is what makes things what they are. Our essence as skiers makes us skiers.
The essence of things is the inherent quality that constitutes their fundamental essence. The snowflake exhibits both softness and hardness during its melting, freezing, and transformation into ice. However, its essence is to be wet, cold, and soft. Our essence is invariable, immutable, and absolute, and will always remain in an undefined state until we define it by thought.
We are free because we constantly create and recreate our essence as skiers at all times through our decision-making and actions. We have made the decision to engage in this activity. What we do when we ski, and what we ski, it is so because we have chosen it ourselves, and this choices make us who we are.
As skiers, we possess the liberty to select our intention and define our essence. The Sartrean perspective views freedom in such a way, in that our purpose is not determined by anything but ourselves.
Following this reasoning, essence is determined by the characteristic or fundamental attributes of a thing. What then is our essence as skiers? It is the search that each one of us should make when skiing, in order to find happiness in what we enjoy doing so much. One can express to oneself: “I am the skier I am”, but a more assertive expression is “I am the skier I want to be”.
However, what is the fundamental essence of skiing technique? Skiing’s essence is constituted by the technical concept with which we define our skiing. This concept, as essence, does not change; what it does is to reach a perfection that it did not possess before while it was pure essence, pure concept. This perfection is the existence of skiing itself. In other words, the essence of the technical concept of skiing is transformed into the act of skiing, which is constituted and determined. But here, an additional question arises: will the essence of skiing technique undergo a transformation? It is possible that its next reconversion will originate from technology, as it did with the irruption of radical skis when carving skiing was introduced.
