i really dont think it demands more respect at all, it gets just as much respect from me as park skiing, racing, mogul's, aerial's, etc.... no single one is harder because each one has different limits and its just as hard to reach them, you will never see people doing kangaroo flips and switch 14's in the backcountry because its much harder to do/land stuff in the backcountry, so an equal trick to a kangaroo flip in the backcountry in terms of how hard it is would be something like a switch cork 7 or something similar.
and the same with big mountain skiing, a really good line in AK would take as much skill as a top 3 x-games run.
and maybe its just because i dont spend as much time in the backcountry as the people who are way into it, but if you would ask me id say i see a much shittier attitude coming from bc skiers than park skiers. you always see alot more people with the tough guy, gotta earn your turns, football player attitude. like last month i was in steamboat and me and my buddies were skiing around the east face area, while we were hiking, me and my friend stopped to wait for my other friend cause he was way behind us, and some guy behind says to us "you can get in other peoples way, but not mine" in a pissed off voice, and this was in the middle of the day on a path cut out by a snowcat, so its like 20ft wide. and there were mabye 5 or 6 people on the whole path.
while in the park i see a much more positive attitude, im always taking laps with people i met that day, people are giving eachother props, etc.
this could be because im more used to it and i simply fit in more in the park than in the backcountry, while a backcountry skier fits in better in the bc, and they arent used to the different vibes.
id definatly label my self a park rat over anything else, but i still do quite a bit of backcountry, ive had a little over 100 days this season and id say 15 were powder days spent entirely in the bc, and like 15 more days where i spent half the day in the bc and half in the park.
and quite a few of the people you would think are total park rats, i ski with in the bc and they kill it.
none of my "park rat" friends would ever ski the park on a pow day. i know those people exist, but i dont let that get to my feelings, if thats what they have fun doing thats fine by me, im not gonna cry over it.
so yeah i do really enjoy backcountry skiing alot, but on a nice sunny non powder day im always gonna choose the park over skiing bc. not cause i have anything against bc skiing, but i just have more fun skiing park on that type of day, and having fun is what skiing is all about so stop bitching.
