Your worst crash story

[surfsnowgirl]

Hit and runs are absolute asses. My roommate reminds me that if he is ever hit to chase down the offender if he (roommate) isn't in need of life-saving assistance.

I'm glad you weren't physically hurt and hope you can recover your confidence and return to the slopes soon.

Thank you. Grateful I wasn't hurt also. Hit and runs are absolute asses. I'm working on recovering my confidence and have had 2 successful ski days since them so I'm on my way. Your crash was unbelievable. I didn't want to like your post but what a story and recovery, wow. I don't blame you for retiring after that. Glad you are still enjoying the sport all these years later. I like your roommates philosophy.

 

[PisteOff]

Hit and runs are absolute asses. My roommate reminds me that if he is ever hit to chase down the offender if he (roommate) isn't in need of life-saving assistance.

I'm glad you weren't physically hurt and hope you can recover your confidence and return to the slopes soon.

I would definitely run someone down if I witnessed a hit and run. How dare you not assist the person you took out!! I've seen plenty of collisions but everyone is always helping each other up, making sure they're ok, etc.....

 

[Don in Morrison]

I think I've told this story 3 times on Epic and at least once here, so here's the short version. I got hit on the head by my Heads because my Heads were tethered to my feet. I remember seeing the word HEAD heading toward my head; then I saw stars. Stars everywhere. People afterward told me they could see the lump on my head through my hat. I don't think I ever tried to go that fast again.

 

[Tricia]

I think I've told this story 3 times on Epic and at least once here, so here's the short version. I got hit on the head by my Heads because my Heads were tethered to my feet. I remember seeing the word HEAD heading toward my head; then I saw stars. Stars everywhere. People afterward told me they could see the lump on my head through my hat. I don't think I ever tried to go that fast again.

Don't get aHead of yourself.

Re: going that fast again.
There have been times when I'm going fast, thinking, "if I crash at this speed I'm gonna feel it!".
But the times when I've really felt it were those times when I'm barely moving and have a slow motion fall, like last week on a cat track. I went BAM! on my right shoulder and I'm still feeling it.

 

[Burton]

My worst crash was on my 13th or 14th birthday at Pajarito Mountain near Los Alamos, NM. I was taking some warm up runs before a USSA race on a pretty steep trail under the chair. On the ride up, I thought I'd counted two catwalks that crossed the trail; alas, there were three. Skiing down after I crossed the second catwalk, I started cranking really fast, long turns. Saw the last catwalk way too late and launched off it. Furious rolling down of windows ensued and I landed, apparently on my butt with my arms braced behind me then bounced. What I remember was looking over at the chair AFTER the bounce and thinking I was damn near level with it. Eventually I came to a stop and realized I hurt all over. I slowly climbed back up to gather my gear, though never found one pole which I assume I drove straight into the snow, lost till Spring. Skied down and sat in the lodge for a bit until a coach finally sent me off to the ER, where I discovered I had a compression fracture of a vertebra, badly sprained elbows, and all sorts of other minor sprains. I have a gold medal from a race at Pajarito, so unless my memory fails, I came back the next year and had a much better day.

The best part of this crash is that 3-4 years later, a buddy was at college at NMSU, talking to some guys from Los Alamos, and they told the story of the worst ski crash they'd ever seen, and my buddy immediately realized they were talking about me--they claimed I flew as high as the chair and they could not believe it when I got up.

 

[K2 Rat]

Mine was back in the mid '70's when I was about 14 years old on what was going to be my last run of the season. Mt Snow has a lot of rivers that cross the trails. These give us "water bars" in early season until they are filled by snow and potentially openings in the snow by the undermining rivers in the Spring. This was a April Spring day and, on one trail, the river become exposed on the skier's left half of the trail. They put a crossed pair of bamboo poles in the middle of the trail, but to me it looked ok to ski on the left had side. I was with a ski racing team mate and, of course, we needed to have a race from top to bottom on our last run of the season-- bragging rights for the entire off season !! As we approached the "X", I went left and he went right. My skis stuck into the river and I flew like superman while dragging my K2 Fours, now with broken tips, by my Look Nevada leather safety straps. I snapped my collar bone in half and I can remember the nice clean break on the x-ray. What I remember most is that I must have torn muscle and it burned so much that I thought I was on fire. I kept asking my friend if my shoulder was on fire and he kept saying "No, no fire yet". Anyway, the Doctor at the base first aid gave me some nice pain killers !!

 

[Pequenita]

As a teen I got some pretty nasty ice rash on my cheek and forehead while jumping through trees on a pretty mellow switchback trail here at one of the bumps in NE PA. I tried to come down on the transition on my right edges to keep it moving but hit a patch of ice, edges slid out and I came right down on my face. This was in the early 90's so no one wore a helmet. No concussion or anything, just some serious pizza face.
Not so bad... until the scabs started to dry later that day. The cracking when trying to smile/talk sucked...

Oh, that reminds me of a time in the '80s when a friend stopped himself at the bottom of the hill by falling on his face and did the same thing. We were all freaked out and telling him he needed to go inside and check out his face --- I remember the skin at the corner of his eye was bloody-- and not having a mirror or anything, he kept insisting he was fine.

 

[Pequenita]

I would definitely run someone down if I witnessed a hit and run. How dare you not assist the person you took out!! I've seen plenty of collisions but everyone is always helping each other up, making sure they're ok, etc.....

There is actually a strange grey area with this, and I'd love to get people's thoughts (maybe in another thread if not appropriate here). What is your role/responsibility if someone comes close to colliding with you but instead skis over your tails and completely wipes out (and you go spinning, too), and then the less injured person goes over to see if the person who fell is okay and then gets waved off because no one realizes that you were involved in the incident and thinks you are interfering with the response? Because that happened to me as the person who got skied over (and truthfully, if I didn't get out in front of the other skier, I would have been creamed, and so I was pretty pissed off, too).

 

[PisteOff]

There is actually a strange grey area with this, and I'd love to get people's thoughts (maybe in another thread if not appropriate here). What is your role/responsibility if someone comes close to colliding with you but instead skis over your tails and completely wipes out (and you go spinning, too), and then the less injured person goes over to see if the person who fell is okay and then gets waved off because no one realizes that you were involved in the incident and thinks you are interfering with the response? Because that happened to me as the person who got skied over (and truthfully, if I didn't get out in front of the other skier, I would have been creamed, and so I was pretty pissed off, too).

What did Mr. T used to say......I pity the fool Camera phones and GoPro's are great tools. I will use either to inform SP about an asshole if need be. I'm not one to promote "snitching" but when you are endangering people my stance on that quickly changes......

 

[jmeb]

Worst from an injury perspective is when I was a little kid and got hit from behind in ski school. Completely ripped my left knee apart.

Worst from a scary-oh-shit perspective -- Last year I finally got to CB in relatively soft conditions. I had been pushing it all day with half a dozen full laps of the North Face. Decided to "dial it back" a little bit, and headed up to the high lift for a couple Headwall laps.

Skied one lap and conditions and I were still feeling great. So second lap I skied this line.

Felt awesome.

Went back for another round, except decided to air it out right below the last sharp turn to the skiers left/viewers right. Ate it on the landing. Fell another 100' feet sliding down the mountain. Full yardsale. Big bruises on my sides, hip, and ego. Blew out an edge on one of my skis. Ended my ski weekend on Friday afternoon, regulated to watching the dog, sitting in a hot tub, drinking beer and taking a lot of Vitamin I.

 

[Dave Petersen]

My worst crash actually happened in the Midwest on a narrow, icy trail off the chairlift. There was a beginner slowly wedging back and forth the complete width of the trail. I thought I would pass on the far left edge of the trail (all I need is about a 24" wide path to go straight by), but she just kept coming and coming and ran me off the trail into the frozen dirt (which was about a 2 foot drop down). I had a big bruise on my back from it and felt pretty twisted up for a week. I was really going to be bummed if I screwed up my back skiing the Midwest, but after a week I was fine.

That, and once I was skiing Loveland above treeline on some windpacked snow not really paying attention when I hit some nice, soft snow and went head first into it. Kept waiting to hear my neck crack but I came through unscathed.

 

[Doug Briggs]

Trees.

This was the awesome winter of 2010/2011 when we got 200% of average snowfall. I learned that the vertical space between the snow and trees gets reduced. A few stitches set me right.

Just a scratch. I took the photo to check myself before resuming another epic powder day.

 

[Wade]

Mine was 5 years ago at Alta.

I was heading out to Snowbird for a final fling before my daughter was born - four days of skiing my favorite mountain before scaling things back for the rest of the season. My 7.5 months pregnant wife told me to go and have some fun for a few days and she'd take care of our 2 year old son while I was away. Looking back at it, I feel like a bit of an ass for even going at that time. Maybe the injury was karma.

I was meeting two friends in SLC. Independently, they both wound up having to delay their flights for a day because of work. I didn't want to change my flight, and don't mind skiing by myself, so I went as scheduled, I figured I'd take the opportunity to ski Alta seeing I wouldn't get to ski it while I was with my friends (they're snowboarders).

The day started ominously. I was staying at a hotel in Sandy, and while walking to my car, slipped on some black ice and hit the ground pretty hard. No real injuries, just a bit sore. I got myself and my gear back together, loaded up and headed to the mountain, getting there around 8.30am. I booted up and went skiing. The snow was fine, but nothing special. It hadn't snowed in a few days, but everything was still pretty soft. The light conditions weren't great though. Super flat light, and difficult to see nuances in the terrain.

I skied for a couple of hours, taking it pretty easy, and was planning to make one last run before taking a break to get something to eat. I wasn't skiing fast (maybe 20mph) on fairly mellow terrain about halfway down the mountain, when I hit a snow covered ditch a couple of feet deep running across my line. I had no idea it was there until I hit it, and I got absolutely launched by it. I went straight over the handle bars, through the air, and tomahawked a couple of times. I'm not sure if it was after the initial impact or after one of the tomahawks when I heard a loud pop as I was in the air. It turned out the pop was from my right leg. I tried to get up, and couldn't stand on it. I had hit my head pretty hard too, and looking back at it, may have had a mild concussion, because it took me a while to figure out what had happened and what was going on.

I got a sled ride down to the clinic, and the doctor had a look at my leg / knee. Right away he diagnosed a torn ACL. My trip with the boys was over before it really started, and I now had to figure out how to get home. Driving down Little Cottonwood Canyon in slippery conditions using only my left leg to operate gas and brakes was not fun. I made it though, and flew home on a red eye that night to a less than sympathetic reception from my heavily pregnant wife. I assured her I'd be fine to continue to help out at home, that I wasn't going to be able to further damage my ACL, and I could delay surgery so I could take care of everything I needed to at home. She held me to it, and I wound up making the half mile each way walk (limp) with my son to pre-school each day for the next week.

I had an appointment with my orthopedic surgeon who was also pretty sure it was a torn ACL. She booked me in for an MRI about a week after the accident, and called me the next day with the results. The good news was my ACL was only partially torn, and I wouldn't need surgery. The bad news was that my MCL was completely torn and I had a tibial plateau fracture. Fortunately, the fracture hadn't displaced, so no surgery was required, but I needed to keep weight off it as there was a risk of it being a much worse injury if something moved. Good thing I'd been walking all over the place on it on the snow and ice covered, pot hole filled streets of New York for a week!

After six months of physical therapy and a ton of gym work, I was back to maybe 90%. The amount of muscle that wasted on the injured leg was shocking. It was probably 18 months to 2 years before my legs looked essentially the same. 5 years later, I have no lingering effects from the accident and I have to consciously think about which leg I injured.

 

[Dadskier]

Kinda lame compared to some of these others.

1st 19/20ish on a trip to Tahoe when I was in the Army, goofing in around on a runout going a little to fast. Got set on my tails after a roller and lost control. Took out a ski school (of adults) domino style. No one was hurt ... instructor wanted my pass and Patrol was more "meh" no one got hurt. So I skied on.

2nd last night of race league 9 years ago, free skiing after the races were done. Skiing fast and feeling good, came into the base area a little hot. A group of snowboarders came out around a corner, saw me and most went right, so I went left along with one of the other boarders. I tried to give the guy a bear hug to minimize impact, not sure what happened next but I ended up on the ground with my left knee hurting. I could put a little weight on it and scooted the rest of the way in. Hit the bar for dinner and a drink. Drove my 5 speed home thinking I just bruised the knee. Took a week and nothing was improving so went to the docs. Fully torn ACL, strained MCL, torn meniscus and bruised bones ...

 

[Pequenita]

What did Mr. T used to say......I pity the fool Camera phones and GoPro's are great tools. I will use either to inform SP about an asshole if need be. I'm not one to promote "snitching" but when you are endangering people my stance on that quickly changes......

But I'm not sure who you think was endangering whom in my scenario: me, who almost collided with someone (we were both coming around a tree at the same time) but instead evaded the skier, who then went over my tails and broke her arm, or her? And then after I picked myself up and went to check on her, people waved me off. And no one checked on me.

 

[Jim McDonald]

I'm not "like"ing any crash stories, because it doesn't seem appropriate, but I certainly appreciate them and the lessons therein.
Have a few of my own, including a spiral tib/fib at the boot-top, a slow slide into a tree from a standstill that put a hairline fracture in tib plateau, head-down slide on my back down most of Jupiter bowl, any number of sudden face plants on catwalks, and damn near slammed into a large concrete structure right in front of Tricia & Phil, a NOT

But I think the all-time winner was a couple of years ago in Sapporo, walking back to my hotel after dinner with a plastic shopping bag of beers & snacks, slipped on some ice, came down hard on my tailbone (that left a mark) and the plastic bag swung up and landed a good left hook that left me with a spectacular shiner and a split lip, scrabbling around on the ice trying to retrieve my purchases (bag of course split, dumping everything out) and getting soaked in beer from one can that had burst open. Meanwhile, I was getting some odd looks from passing locals who couldn't quite figure out just what event I was practicing for.

 

[PisteOff]

But I'm not sure who you think was endangering whom in my scenario: me, who almost collided with someone (we were both coming around a tree at the same time) but instead evaded the skier, who then went over my tails and broke her arm, or her? And then after I picked myself up and went to check on her, people waved me off. And no one checked on me.

I wasn't necessarily commenting directly at your experience. I was speaking more in general. If you were equally at fault, which "kind of" seems like you're saying, and the other person was being cared and you were fine then I see no problem with skiing off. I completely understand your being upset at the whole situation but I don't necessarily know that there is a prescribed way to handle it. So many variables. Hope you're doing fine and are able to enjoy yourself on the slopes.

 

[Bad Bob]

Probably the worst to watch happened at a place called Arctic Valley outside of Anchorage, AK (taught there for many years). I was a newly minted young Full certified instructor (Level 3 in today's world). I was feeling my oats and flying off of the cornice below the top, catching bigger and bigger air as it became more comfortable. See the attached picture below; you can see the cornice to the right of the top of the T-Bar/Platter. It was maybe a 6' lip with a bump we would use for a kicker. By the last jump was getting maybe 100' out and getting maybe 20' off the ground.

Started a little higher and hit the kicker a little faster going for the big one' while springing off the lip I heard a "CLICK" as I markered out of the right binding. The boot hit the snow on the lip and the world went many directions. Landed on my left side with the arm extended up. I was instantly headed into shock, the patrol could not figure out how to immobilize the arm and put me in a sled, they booted over to the top of the chair and downloaded; then it was off to the hospital.

Orthopod came into the room with the x-ray and asked if I liked martinis? Told him no and he felt that was too bad since he was going to give me the equivalent of about a dozen tn the hypodermic he was carrying. It was badly dislocated, broken collarbone, and fractured ball joint; other than that no damage.

End of season!

 

[luliski]

To say that I skied it, is generous. Every turn was deliberate and slooooooow.
Clem said, "You can totally ski that, you just got back on your heels. Don't do that and you'll be fine."
I'm pretty sure that I did it immediately after I crashed because I figured that I'd never do it if I didn't do it then.
During the fall, I'm really not sure but I feel like I was spinning as I slid.I do remember bumps, lots and lots of bumps, thankful that I wasn't hitting rocks.

I haven't been back to KW since the slide, and I'm pretty sure I'll avoid the Wall unless the snow is soft.

 

[Tricia]

I haven't been back to KW since the slide, and I'm pretty sure I'll avoid the Wall unless the snow is soft.

I hear ya. I'd probably be in the same situation with Wipeout chute if I hadn't been encouraged to dot it immediately.