This is a real thought provoker....I've had to ski with people who are staying with my parents, they are normally super-gapers, they are either skiing for the first time or had very little experience.
But most are all willing to try stuff cut off piste, little jumps and some of the kids really improve and could probably be quite good given the chance. They guys that are enjoying it, trying new stuff, learning and improving. This is the 'best' kind of gaper.
Because we've got a stash here we get a fuckload of gapers cutting through it. THese guys are the worst. They think they're good so show off by hitting boxes straight on, jumping the kickers on boxes and rails and not abiding by any park ettiquette whatsoever. It's dangerous how some of them ski, they cut up people, stand on landings and generally just cause a nusance (sp?). A friend of mine was stopped at the side of the run suddenly one of these gapers flys innto her and she was in a pretty bad way, nothing broken but it took her a while to get up. So while she's rolling about in pain on the floor i walk up in front of the feature to stop anyone else crashing into her. I put my skis in a cross( at this point we thought she was injured badly) 4 different gapers either went into me or my skis. I think people who don't really think or understand park or even piste ettiquette are the worst.
I've started to think that being a gaper isn't about how many X's there are before your L, (if there even is an L) or whether you can or can't ski very well, but instead it's more about not blasting about completely out of control putting other safety at risk, cutting people up and skiing in places way to hard for your ability, i.e park, off piste, stash etc...
Gapers are people who don't understand skiing or snowboarding and people who are Gapers on the Mountain, are normally 'Life Gapers' too.
