ABSTRACT
Throughout the pandemic, while many people have “hunkered down” and limited interactions with others as much as possible, many serious nature sports participants have continued to travel and to engage in normal interactions and activities. This chapter makes use of this response to the pandemic to better understand the conception of risk within nature sports. It examines the frameworks through which risk is understood in nature sports and the values and priorities of nature sports subcultures. The chapter argues that the social history of nature sports and the relationship between nature sports participants and mainstream culture leads to a perception that nature sports activities are independent of the concerns of the general population. It also argues that the frameworks for understanding risk in nature sports do not fit the context of the pandemic or the type of risks associated with it.
