Backcountry skiing in Norway: Between global lifestyle sport and national tradition

This article examines the cultural and social dynamics of backcountry skiing in Norway, an activity positioned between global lifestyle sport and national tradition. We investigate the characteristics of lifestyle sports within their specific contexts and highlight the elements of identity politics and social belonging. Utilizing social phenomenology and nature dwelling as theoretical perspectives, we focus on the sensuous experiences of backcountry skiing, the way meaning is created through being in active engagement with nature, and the emotional spectrum in which backcountry skiing unfolds. Through a methodology of embodied autoethnography, told from a skier–researcher perspective, this study generates and presents in-depth experiences through two contradictory in-situ vignettes from the winter mountains, shedding light on the dynamic processes of human–human and human–nature relationships in backcountry skiing. Most importantly, the study shows how the human–human relationship and the human–nature relationship are interrelated and how the perception and experience of nature are highly dependent on social dimensions among skiing partners. Our study demonstrates the potential for embodied autoethnography to enrich the understanding of lifestyle sports as unique experiences. This research contributes to an understanding of how backcountry skiing functions as a medium for both individual expression and communal belonging within the sociocultural context.