I actually fell over again shortly after getting back up. At that point the slope was relatively flat, and I just hit a hard chunk that made me lose my balance. That was my clue that I needed to take a break!
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Your worst crash story
- Thread starter Core2
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I have severely injured my dignity on many occasions, most recently by falling while getting off the lift. I was able to crawl away to avoid getting hit by my chair (nice touch, eh?) and slither around in the snow trying to get my skis more or less lined up, long enough that the liftie stuck his head out and asked if I was okay. But he didn't need to stop the lift. Gratitude for the little things. Alas, I have no pics and the newspaper article about the incident has yet to be published.
Oh, wait!
Oh, wait!
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Nah. I'm fine. But since it was a clinic situation, the other people in the clinic were all pissed off that the person who "caused" the accident skied off -- because that's what their perception was. I'm pretty sure that after having almost been hit and actually hit in clinics this past season, I'm not going to do any clinics anytime in the near future! I mean, I basically went 35 years without being hit...
(this was already posted in the "most memorable fall" discussion)
I was being introduced to Alpental’s amazing and gnarly backcountry in 2008. Stokes Bowl has a medium pitch and well-spaced bunches of trees, so I was hooting wildly and flying stoned through the powder at high speed until I suddenly popped through an opening where the slope dropped away and I was looking down a near-vertical funnel.
My panic stop wasn’t adequate and I was immediately free-falling head first into I-knew-not-what. Just a few moments later I came to a stop, upright, with one ski tip jammed into the wall of an extremely narrow chute, the tail jammed into the opposite wall, and the ski boot suspended in the middle (did I say that the chute was extremely narrow?). The other ski was missing, its leg free to dangle.
Impossibly steep and impossibly narrow, I was wedged in the throat of a chute that, in those days at least, was unskiable. Fortunately, about 15 feet below me the chute started to widen and moderate— so I was no longer in serious jeopardy.
Looking up, I saw that I had fallen about 50 feet. Fifty unclimbable feet. And where was my ski? Where were my friends? No one had seen where I went. There’s no cell reception out there. If the missing ski was above me, would I have to abandon it? I was on my own— no help would be available.
Then I discovered the ski within arm’s reach behind me. But could I put it on? I figured that if I had to, I could clutch the loose ski and tumble my way down to the skiable snow below.
More agreeably, I was able to thrust the ski sideways into the soft walls of the chute and, in spite of the binding being suspended in the air, was able to get my boot in.
A minute later and 150 feet below the cliff band, I rejoined my friends as they traversed by, heading back to the ski area. Looking up through the small opening and trees we were unable to actually see the narrow aperture I had survived. I hoped they would believe my story.
Later, with the help of a home-made website, I figured out that I had fallen down Mushroom Couloir (http://www.alpental.com/mushroom.htm).
And by now, maybe someone has successfully skied down it. Maybe.
I was being introduced to Alpental’s amazing and gnarly backcountry in 2008. Stokes Bowl has a medium pitch and well-spaced bunches of trees, so I was hooting wildly and flying stoned through the powder at high speed until I suddenly popped through an opening where the slope dropped away and I was looking down a near-vertical funnel.
My panic stop wasn’t adequate and I was immediately free-falling head first into I-knew-not-what. Just a few moments later I came to a stop, upright, with one ski tip jammed into the wall of an extremely narrow chute, the tail jammed into the opposite wall, and the ski boot suspended in the middle (did I say that the chute was extremely narrow?). The other ski was missing, its leg free to dangle.
Impossibly steep and impossibly narrow, I was wedged in the throat of a chute that, in those days at least, was unskiable. Fortunately, about 15 feet below me the chute started to widen and moderate— so I was no longer in serious jeopardy.
Looking up, I saw that I had fallen about 50 feet. Fifty unclimbable feet. And where was my ski? Where were my friends? No one had seen where I went. There’s no cell reception out there. If the missing ski was above me, would I have to abandon it? I was on my own— no help would be available.
Then I discovered the ski within arm’s reach behind me. But could I put it on? I figured that if I had to, I could clutch the loose ski and tumble my way down to the skiable snow below.
More agreeably, I was able to thrust the ski sideways into the soft walls of the chute and, in spite of the binding being suspended in the air, was able to get my boot in.
A minute later and 150 feet below the cliff band, I rejoined my friends as they traversed by, heading back to the ski area. Looking up through the small opening and trees we were unable to actually see the narrow aperture I had survived. I hoped they would believe my story.
Later, with the help of a home-made website, I figured out that I had fallen down Mushroom Couloir (http://www.alpental.com/mushroom.htm).
And by now, maybe someone has successfully skied down it. Maybe.
I was 12 in December 1965 when I turned over the tails of a woman on an intermediate slope at Stevens Pass (now Hogsback, then Intermediate Chair). It was all my fault and I took all of the damage. Because I was skiing on wood skis with cable bindings and no anti friction device I had a slow forward, twisting fall and broke both my tibia and fibula. I was in a cast for 3 months (no walking cast because everything was shattered) and didn't completely recover until June. When I think of it now I still have a "yuk" feeling deep down.
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15 years ago, without a helmet (the one day I forgot it), I was hitting the big jump at the local molehill, prepping for our big air contest.
I caught an edge coming off the lip and landed flat on my back, which whiplashed my head into the landing.
Blacked out for a few seconds and wound up with a subdural hematoma.
It was fine, just had to rest for a few weeks, but it could have been so much worse.
I've been good since then!
I caught an edge coming off the lip and landed flat on my back, which whiplashed my head into the landing.
Blacked out for a few seconds and wound up with a subdural hematoma.
It was fine, just had to rest for a few weeks, but it could have been so much worse.
I've been good since then!
My slide on the wall was a fluke as I had skied it numerous times both before and after the injury. A number of dumb things were contributing factors. Powder skis with dull edges, boots that weren't buckled up etc.
Still to this day a bit overcautious on very steep icy stuff.
Easy to do if you're in the habit of tipping your skis to start a turn. That habit works well when your skis are more or less pointed in your direction of travel and you have some momentum in the direction they are pointing. It doesn't help you if you are nearly stopped and the skis are perpendicular to your direction of travel, as I found out one day after stopping to let somebody cross my intended path.
Andy Mink
Everyone loves spring skiing but not in January
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OK, you win!
Not sure........one real bone head move and two broken shoulders. Fortunately no pics that would illustrate my silly moves....am actually laughing at these memories as I write. 
At Camelback I failed to exit the lift because I was talking and getting stuck in the netting as the lift made me drop down, a source of entertainment/aggravation for the people on the lift.....
1. In 1995 was my 20's (long it ago) broke collar bone at Whistler when I dropped a "large" cornice, was 30 feet tall if it was 5!!!!, into chute and slammed into a piece of rock when I TRIED to do my best Glen Plake/Scot Schmidt/Mike Hatrup and bang a slalom turn upon landing. Spent the rest of the trip limping around on the skis, drinking beer and smoking pot.
2. Cracked the ball joint in my shoulder skiing at Camelback with my then 8 year old daughter. Was "hauling" down lower Asp on my intermediate package skis, Rossi Avenger, that I STILL use to teach ski with my youngest, when hit a slick part, and the skis just gave out causing me to fly forward and slam my shoulder on the ground. My daughter watched in horror as we skied down and I had to painfully change and drive home to Hoboken. Worst part, is that it was New Years Eve and b/c I was using old pain killers I couldn't drink and was stuck watch everyones kids.
At Camelback I failed to exit the lift because I was talking and getting stuck in the netting as the lift made me drop down, a source of entertainment/aggravation for the people on the lift.....
1. In 1995 was my 20's (long it ago) broke collar bone at Whistler when I dropped a "large" cornice, was 30 feet tall if it was 5!!!!, into chute and slammed into a piece of rock when I TRIED to do my best Glen Plake/Scot Schmidt/Mike Hatrup and bang a slalom turn upon landing. Spent the rest of the trip limping around on the skis, drinking beer and smoking pot.
2. Cracked the ball joint in my shoulder skiing at Camelback with my then 8 year old daughter. Was "hauling" down lower Asp on my intermediate package skis, Rossi Avenger, that I STILL use to teach ski with my youngest, when hit a slick part, and the skis just gave out causing me to fly forward and slam my shoulder on the ground. My daughter watched in horror as we skied down and I had to painfully change and drive home to Hoboken. Worst part, is that it was New Years Eve and b/c I was using old pain killers I couldn't drink and was stuck watch everyones kids.
Andy Mink
Everyone loves spring skiing but not in January
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Camelback is evil. I was night skiing and on the last run (yeah, I know) I slid off Sphinx or Sullivan Trail, sailed through the air and hit a boulder with my arse. Deep, deep bruise on the right glute. Took quite a while to get back up on the run, then down the hill to the parking lot. By the time I got to the truck I couldn't bend far enough to get my right boot off. Drove home with it on. That was about 1981ish.Not sure........one real bone head move and two broken shoulders. Fortunately no pics that would illustrate my silly moves....am actually laughing at these memories as I write.
At Camelback I failed to exit the lift because I was talking and getting stuck in the netting as the lift made me drop down, a source of entertainment/aggravation for the people on the lift.....
1. In 1995 was my 20's (long it ago) broke collar bone at Whistler when I dropped a "large" cornice, was 30 feet tall if it was 5!!!!, into chute and slammed into a piece of rock when I TRIED to do my best Glen Plake/Scot Schmidt/Mike Hatrup and bang a slalom turn upon landing. Spent the rest of the trip limping around on the skis, drinking beer and smoking pot.
2. Cracked the ball joint in my shoulder skiing at Camelback with my then 8 year old daughter. Was "hauling" down lower Asp on my intermediate package skis, Rossi Avenger, that I STILL use to teach ski with my youngest, when hit a slick part, and the skis just gave out causing me to fly forward and slam my shoulder on the ground. My daughter watched in horror as we skied down and I had to painfully change and drive home to Hoboken. Worst part, is that it was New Years Eve and b/c I was using old pain killers I couldn't drink and was stuck watch everyones kids.
1992, skiing The Chimney, a short but in low snow conditions very awkward couloir at Whakapapa, Mt Ruapehu. Nailed the top section, caught quite a big air (20-30 feet) out of the couloir onto the High Traverse, a bowl under the couloirs....nailed 4-5 fast long turns out the bottom of the bowl but missed the right exit point and hit a massive compression.
I compressed so hard forward one of my ski tips cut open the top of my head (6 stitches), one of my glass lenses cut open my eyebrow (3 stitches), got a decent concussion, broke three ribs and broke a ski.
Being a university student at the time and at the mountain for a 10 day ski holiday naturally I stayed for the duration - codeine and alcohol being my dear friends. The most painful bit came later in the week, rolling over in my sleep and tore some rib cartilage.
(Another incident by no means my worst, but entertaining in hindsight - skiing in a whiteout at the same ski area in the mid-90's.....skied into a nylon boundary rope at reasonable speed. First I knew of it was a high pitched whirring sound and a sudden deceleration. It melted my overtrou, skins and long johns and I still have ~8cm burn scar on my hip flexor to show for that - a slightly different angle of attack and the injury would have been a lot more personal!
)
I compressed so hard forward one of my ski tips cut open the top of my head (6 stitches), one of my glass lenses cut open my eyebrow (3 stitches), got a decent concussion, broke three ribs and broke a ski.
Being a university student at the time and at the mountain for a 10 day ski holiday naturally I stayed for the duration - codeine and alcohol being my dear friends. The most painful bit came later in the week, rolling over in my sleep and tore some rib cartilage.
(Another incident by no means my worst, but entertaining in hindsight - skiing in a whiteout at the same ski area in the mid-90's.....skied into a nylon boundary rope at reasonable speed. First I knew of it was a high pitched whirring sound and a sudden deceleration. It melted my overtrou, skins and long johns and I still have ~8cm burn scar on my hip flexor to show for that - a slightly different angle of attack and the injury would have been a lot more personal!
)
Not my worst...but my best.
First day skiing at Jackson, firm snow, bluebird. Fell on my third run. Took me about ten seconds to realize that if I didn't actively self-arrest I wasn't going to stop until I went over the cliffs below.
First day skiing at Jackson, firm snow, bluebird. Fell on my third run. Took me about ten seconds to realize that if I didn't actively self-arrest I wasn't going to stop until I went over the cliffs below.
Worst fall would probably be Jan 2018. There were no injuries, but similar to @jmeb , if I had not kept my cool and self-arrested things could have been very bad. This was on the Forcella Rossa run in Cortina, near the top. Not my picture, but image below is a fair representation - I fell just over the rise above the two groups pictured and started sliding down head first on my back. I rotated 90 degrees, then flipped my skis over my head to get them below my body and came to a stop.
Definitely put a damper on the rest of the run since I was made acutely aware of how dangerous it actually was on that steep, firm groomed surface. I don't do balance experiments on groomed blacks anymore, unless I have perfected them somewhere else first!
About 2:27 in this video is about where I fell. Could have been much worse. (Not my video).
Definitely put a damper on the rest of the run since I was made acutely aware of how dangerous it actually was on that steep, firm groomed surface. I don't do balance experiments on groomed blacks anymore, unless I have perfected them somewhere else first!
About 2:27 in this video is about where I fell. Could have been much worse. (Not my video).
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An interesting one, because it happened on nearly flat terrain. Was skiing somewhere in Southern CO (I'm not sure where, could have been Durango or maybe Monarch or something, a smaller place with low crowds) and found some fun low angle trees off of a green run. My husband and I zipped into them, but got separated a bit although we were within a few ski lengths of each other. I was skiing along, in the trees just off the side of the trail maybe 15 feet, and my right ski tip goes under a young sapling that is buried under the snow. My weight causes it to spring up, lifting me upside down so that I am hanging face in the snow by my ski. I can't get enough leverage under my ski pole (which I finally dig out) to push directly vertical against my ski release so I'm basically stuck hanging like this. Luckily, while my face is in the snow, its not buried, so I can breathe. I can see people skiing by, just on the green trail, and I'm yelling and yelling but I absolutely can't get anyone to hear me perhaps due to the way I'm hanging. Finally after contorting my body carefully (I didn't want to move too much because I could tell that if I shifted a lot I might have my face fully in the snow and be unable to breathe), I manage to twist my shoulder around and push as hard as I could to eject the ski. For a minute I literally thought I would die there, 15 feet from the side of a green trail.
Found my husband and reamed him out, but turns out that since he was just ahead of me he couldn't hear my calls either and thought I was just behind him until he realized I wasn't.
This taught me that staying together in the trees isn't as easy as people make it seem, and that even seemingly low consequence terrain can be dangerous. Also keep those tips up in the trees especially when there's new snow!
Found my husband and reamed him out, but turns out that since he was just ahead of me he couldn't hear my calls either and thought I was just behind him until he realized I wasn't.
This taught me that staying together in the trees isn't as easy as people make it seem, and that even seemingly low consequence terrain can be dangerous. Also keep those tips up in the trees especially when there's new snow!
That was my big fear when I slid at Kirkwood. Falling hadn't even occurred to me, so I hadn't scoped out the the terrain, and had no idea what i was sliding towards (nor could I see what I was heading towards). I had never practiced self-arrest, but I managed to do it once I rotated around so that I wasn't head-first anymore. I'm more cautious about new terrain now.
That is Slim Slidell's job at Taos. To remind skier about self arrest. His office is at the top of lift #2.
Slim hard at work in his office.
Luckily I had read and heard enough stories about people sliding on Mt Shasta to know what to do. The hardest part was getting my feet downhill.
Andy Mink
Everyone loves spring skiing but not in January
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I tried to self arrest. Every time I got my feet below me and tried to dig in the skis would stop and the rest of me would keep going end over end. Then the skis came off. Lather, rinse, repeat, with boots. Finally came to rest in avalanche debris.
Know exactly what you are talking about.
Had one of those on Silver Fox at the bird during early season 2014. Tripped on some weeds and half tomahawk and half star fished down a good portion of the run. Must be about 500' vertical. Tore the sleeve of my puffy and bruised couple ribs. Not fun.
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