We consider a mountain space as an amplitude of motor interaction that influences our behavior during skiing. It is the place in which we place ourselves, move, and perform our maneuvers. We move because we have space, which we can occupy with different postures, movements, and actions. These movements are executed from a starting point to an arrival point, and our trajectories, whether rectilinear or curvilinear, originate from distinct and continuous spatial states where time is the determining factor. It is commonly believed that imagining a point in space entails imagining the movements required to attain it.
A mountain space is composed of a system of objects, both fixed and mobile, and a system of actions performed by those of us who experience it. These form an indissoluble whole that, in turn, makes up a unique context. We must emphasize that there are not ‘many spaces’, but only one, and when we speak of different spaces, we are actually distinguishing parts of a single one.
Both systems, namely those of objects and those of our actions, interact with each other. The system of objects conditions the way in which our actions are performed. The system of actions leads to the creation of new objects or modification of the existing ones, that is, to re-configure the slopes of a ski space, which leads it to find its dynamic transforming itself.
Initially, the mountain space was composed only of natural objects, but throughout the history of skiing, more and more manufactured and mechanized objects had been incorporated, making the ‘nature’ of a ski area cease to be ‘natural’ and become artificial.
Lift system towers in all their forms, snow grooming machines, buildings, artificial snow cannons, snowmobiles, signage, artificial bridges, and snow parks, among others, are all artificial objects. In recent years, off-piste skiing has emerged as the variant that has gained the most followers because its practitioners seek to get away from this artificially mechanized space with artificially treated artificial snow slopes.
In the beginning, everything was made up of things, such as trees, rocks, and slopes. In this era of postmodernism, where manipulation is prevalent, things tend to transform into objects, as everything we employ and manipulate with specific objectives becomes an object. In this manner, the skiing space becomes a system of objects. From the recognition of objects in space, we are prepared to understand their relationships.
As far as the system of action is concerned, we have become individuals of action, since we act not only on ourselves but also on others who, in turn, act in that same space.
We may ask ourselves: what does it mean “acting”? What is the definition of an “act” or an “action”? An act is considered to be a directed behavior that occurs in certain situations and implies motivation and effort, while an action is the execution of a projected act.
An action is a movement, a displacement in space that causes an alteration, a modification of the situation in which we find ourselves. Action constitutes a process towards the purpose of modifying something, in which, as ‘actants’, we transform ourselves. Our actions are guided by a system of biomechanical rules, but it is always through our corporeality, as an instrument, that we participate in the process of skiing actions.
