“Skiing is a dance, and the mountain always leads” (or “Skiing is the ultimate dance, and/but the mountain always leads”) is a popular skiing saying. Jim Bowden, of Colorado, has been given credit for the saying by Tony Chamberlain of the Boston (MA) Globe. In a March 1, 1981 Globe article by Tony Chamberlain, Jim Bowden said:
 
“Feel the mountain and let it show you how you’re going to ski it. Relax and cruise. This isn’t a fight, it’s a dance, and the mountain always leads.”
   
The book Colorado Winterguide (1984), however, stated that “Skiing is the ultimate dance, and the mountain always leads” was an “old saying.”
 
 
1 March 1981, Boston (MA) Globe, “Skiing the West: Confessions of a Ski Bum: Jim Bowden lives for the rush he gets flying down the slopes” by Tony Chamberlain, Sports, pg. 1:
“Feel the mountain and let it show you how you’re going to ski it. Relax and cruise. This isn’t a fight, it’s a dance, and the mountain always leads.”
(Jim Bowden—ed.)
 
Google Books
Colorado Winterguide
By Harlan Feder, Peter Shelton and Mike Kern
Ouray, CO: Wayfinder Press
1984
Pg. 200:
This is reaction skiing at its best, as in the old saying: Skiing is the ultimate dance, and the mountain always leads.
   
Google News Archive
26 December 1986, The Spokesman-Review (Spokane, WA), “Ski Notes: Inland Northwest skiers share hopes and dreams” by Jeff Halstead, pg. 15, col. 2:
My resolution? It relates to a quote a ski partner shared with me: “Skiing is the ultimate dance —and the mountain always leads.”
   
Google Books
High Performance Skiing
By John Yacenda
Champaign, IL: Leisure Press
1987
Pg. IX:
A fully certified PSIA instructor, Brent heads the race department at Northstar and says of skiing, “Skiing is a dance, and the mountain always leads.”
 
13 November 1987, Boston (MA) Globe, ‘Exerciser on the Run” by Tony Chamberlain, pg. 90:
“People don’t begin to learn until they realize that skiing is a dance and the mountain always leads.”
(Jim Bowden—ed.)
 
Google Books
December 1987, Skiing magazine, pg. 6W, col. 2:
As the unknown graffiti artist put it, “Skiing is the ultimate dance, but the mountain always leads.”
 
8 January 1988, Boston (MA) Globe, “Substance and Style” by Tony Chamberlain, pg. 39:
Jim Bowden is one of them. It was this former Buffalo Bill end who coined the phrase, “Skiing is a dance, and the mountain always leads.”
 
The Ski Channel
Great all time ski quotes
Posted By: Glenn Steinbaum on October 13, 2009 5:11 pm
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Skiing is a dance, and the mountain always leads.  ~Author Unknown