Is skiing an individual activity that excludes others? What happens when, having freedom of choice, we encounter others who also possess freedom? This leads us to the problem of the “other,” of otherness.
Sartre’s famous phrase regarding otherness is “Hell is other people.” However, what was the intended meaning of his statement? With this phrase, he implied that the freedom of others destabilizes our own. The fact that others can freely occupy spaces on a ski slope restricts our freedom to move through those same spaces.
In reality, there is an ethical-moral issue in the coexistence among skiers. The nature of our relationship with others determines the framework of our freedom and that of others. Now, is it possible for the freedom of others to impede our own? In Sartrean skiing, it is impossible to respect the freedom of the other because we always invade it, as sharing a ski slope with others means invading, but also being invaded.
We say that others threaten us due to the fact that, while skiing, we must secure our own spaces to maneuver and move, while others are occupying those same spaces. The Sartrean conception of otherness points out that our relationship with others on the slopes causes us anguish and can limit our autonomy. This relationship with others can be a source of conflict, but, on the other hand, it is essential because we learn from it.
Sartre argued that the ambivalence we experience in our relationships with others has several causes. The first is that others can pose a potential obstacle to our freedom, which would trigger negative emotions in us. Without the interference of others on the slopes, we would be fully immersed in our own existence and would achieve our aspirations. We would find ourselves so absorbed in our own experience that we would act almost without reflection, and then the appearance of the other would surprise us and be, in a sense, a threat.
It is well known that the Self is a permanent construction of our psychic instance, which we regenerate with each of our decisions. The presence of other individuals perturbs the relationships we have established around our “skier-Self,” given that they break into our immediate surroundings.
Our skiing space is formed by “others” with their own spaces. The manifestation of others forces us to reinterpret our own space because, before perceiving it, the space was there “for us,” but now it is also there “for them.”
Another reason for the relationship with others is that some people reduce us to the condition of mere physical objects—bodies with properties. They reify us, ignoring that we are thinking and emotional beings. The gaze of others is a potential source of anguish, as it transforms our being-in-itself, turning us into objects, and neutralizes our quality of being-in-motion.
Sartre firmly maintained that hell is other people. When we consider others as if they were entities, we act in bad faith. The same may happen when others only pretend to be what their role dictates. For example, if an instructor limits themselves to transmitting knowledge about skiing technique while casting aside empathy, solidarity, and other values, they are also acting in bad faith.
It is important to keep in mind that Sartrean bad faith refers to our conduct, particularly in this postmodern era, with the goal of freeing ourselves from guilt by holding others or the environment responsible for the actions we have failed to perform. This “freeing ourselves from responsibility and evading ourselves” would be a lying-to-oneself.
An additional cause of otherness while skiing can be identified with the offensive gazes and expressions of others; for example, when they look down upon our way of skiing, they remind us that we are sensitive beings because their contemptuous attitudes may affect us.
A final cause would reside when others break into our skiing space, in addition to not sharing our beliefs about what traditional skiing is, interpreting it in an opposite way, as could be the case with the “freaks.”
So, does imitating others harm us or benefit us? Sartre points out that others hinder us, but Heidegger emphasizes the sense of unity with others. Although other skiers may cause us anxiety and worry, as individuals, it is necessary for us to relate to them in order to improve our technical or tactical abilities through imitation.
Others can inspire empathy or disagreement in us, but our tendency is to oppose rather than to commit. However, when we face challenges, it is essential to bear in mind that others can serve as a source of strength—for example, in the practice of social catharsis following a tragic event, such as an avalanche with casualties.
Furthermore, observing others is already, unconsciously, interacting with them by imitating their attitudes and behaviors. Imitating is the first form of learning, and this provides us with new opportunities that allow us to expand our potential. In this sense, we know skiing through our capacity to nourish ourselves from the ways others ski—ways that express the sense of skiing reality unique to each person.
Our desire to ski alongside others is also our greatest challenge, since the nature of otherness is always in conflict. Conflict exists when another person approaches us, when others step on our skis, when there is a considerable number of “others” in the same lift line, or when an “other” cannot board or disembark as expected, leaving us stranded on a chairlift that cannot move forward.
