Book Review: Making Meaning out of Mountains: The Political Ecology of Skiing

In Making Meaning Out of Mountains: The Political Ecology of Skiing, Mark Stoddart exposes the contradictions and ‘ecologies ironies’ (p. 5) that lie at the heart of skiing. The modern and popular variant of the sport, we are told, is far removed from its Scandinavian philosophical heritage. Where Norwegians once preferred a form of skiing which combined a love of nature with character-building and personal development, the 21st century skier takes to the slopes encumbered with a paradox: enjoying a sport which is promoted as a benign form of human–nature interaction, but which is hidebound to a global tourist industry dependent on carbon-emitting air travel and the provision of consumer comforts. When confronted by Stoddart with this ambivalence, the skier typically responds with a preference for green tourism, but a demand for ‘all the bells and whistles of a modern ski resort’ (p. 20).