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How Long Has It Been?

miatamarty

Getting on the lift
Skier
Joined
Jan 9, 2023
Posts
41
Location
Chiloquin, or
Had a huge crash on my first run . Flat light with some weird grooming ribs that I couldn't see until I hit them at a speed that was in hindsight a bit excessive for a first run. I was feeling my oats because I was on my new Peak 88. Well, next thing I know is one leg is flailing in the air then I hit another bump which spun me around landing on my back then started tumbling and rolling then ending with a long slide with my face in the snow. Lost both skis and a pole. A true garage sale. I was thankful for people who gathered up the carnage for me. It had been many years since I had such a spectacular crash. My shoulders have been sore for about a week now slowly getting better with exercise. I'm 72 so I try not to get to carried away with things. I'm thankful for all the heavy weight lifting I've done over the years. The extra muscle mass I think saved me from a worse outcome. The most damage was to my ego. I got back on the horse and continued skiing until lunch time when I called it done for the day. Thank goodness for Advil!
 

Andy Mink

Everyone loves spring skiing but not in January
Moderator
SkiTalk Tester
SkiTalk Supporter
Joined
Nov 12, 2015
Posts
12,910
Location
Reno
Had a huge crash on my first run . Flat light with some weird grooming ribs that I couldn't see until I hit them at a speed that was in hindsight a bit excessive for a first run. I was feeling my oats because I was on my new Peak 88. Well, next thing I know is one leg is flailing in the air then I hit another bump which spun me around landing on my back then started tumbling and rolling then ending with a long slide with my face in the snow. Lost both skis and a pole. A true garage sale. I was thankful for people who gathered up the carnage for me. It had been many years since I had such a spectacular crash. My shoulders have been sore for about a week now slowly getting better with exercise. I'm 72 so I try not to get to carried away with things. I'm thankful for all the heavy weight lifting I've done over the years. The extra muscle mass I think saved me from a worse outcome. The most damage was to my ego. I got back on the horse and continued skiing until lunch time when I called it done for the day. Thank goodness for Advil!
Glad you're OK. I managed a double eject faceplate in bad light earlier this year. It happens SO fast. The bloody nose stopped pretty quickly but the sore hand took a few days.
 

crgildart

Gravity Slave
Skier
Joined
Nov 12, 2015
Posts
16,324
Location
The Bull City
Been about 5 years since the last one that scared me a little.. Dropping in to a steep face, crust on dust.. Tips broke through the top frozen layer and grabbed sending me over the handlebars. Lost one ski
 

Andy Mink

Everyone loves spring skiing but not in January
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Nov 12, 2015
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12,910
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Reno
Well, you know how in post #2 I said it was earlier this year? Now it's earlier this morning! JSA (just skiing along) and then had only one ski which apparently wasn't enough. Slapped down hard on the low angle groomer, of course within view of the lift. Yard sale, glad I had my helmet on as smacked the right side of my head, and my right elbow is very unhappy. I'm not sure if I hyperextended it or whacked it with a ski or pole. There is a slight discoloration in the shape of a line above the elbow. Conditions were really good so I hiked back up and got my stuff and kept skiing. Ice and ibuprofen when I got home.
 

Nobody

Out of my mind, back in five.
Skier
Joined
Nov 13, 2015
Posts
1,272
Location
Ponte di legno Tonale
Fell twice in January. Two consecutive days, same run, same spot. Have a lightly bruised thumbnail because I did not let the pole go and hit the hard snow with the finger. Now almost gone but still owe beers for it to the coach and to the class.
 

Crank

Making fresh tracks
Skier
Joined
Dec 19, 2015
Posts
2,626
I fall too much...Usually not a big deal.

Day 2 day this season skiing bumps all day the day after the 26" storm that hit VT a week or so before Christmas I stuck my ski into a hole in the snowpack that I did not see. Released one ski that was absolutely buried, had to dig that sucker out. Came to a very abrupt stop and slammed down on my shoulder.

Shoulder is ok, but I am still feeling my knee, twesked something in there for sure.. Still skiing on it though so it gets better and then I'm feeling it again. Sure hope it survives JH next week. I'll be careful.
 

Oily Bee

Booting up
Skier
Joined
Jan 30, 2023
Posts
33
Location
Arizona
I'm 50, and while I skied daily until 2006 when I moved from Alaska to AZ. I recently moved to eastern AZ and there's a resort nearby. I've only had two days on the hill this year, I was up once in 2019 and that's it since I left AK.

Long story short I was cruising through the terrain park, skipped the kicker and took an easy air off the first knuckle, then I took a little more speed of the next knuckle and cleared about 3/4s of the landing! That popped a ski on impact. I did a front tumble and I slid out a bit but nothing too bad! I took it easy the rest of the day over those hits but my next time up I'm going to get comfortable on them.
 

noncrazycanuck

Out on the slopes
Skier
Joined
Apr 27, 2017
Posts
1,462
Rarely fall but now two bad ones in the past 4 years. First took out a knee and a season. While I try to blame that on some questionable vis this last one was my screw up in a no fall zone.

Resulted in a long slide, on my back, head first, while bouncing through and over a lot of rocks. Easily my most spectacular in decades.
At 70 I was surprised be able to ski away. Next day I felt like someone had been kicking me all night.

A buddy who caught the last of it later told me said his first thought was he was going to have to make "the call" to my wife. I was thinking on the way down should a tip, tail or head catch skiing is over.
So after 50 years at the same setting contemplating turning the bindings down a 1/2 notch, may have been better if the skis had come off
 

Bad Bob

I golf worse than I ski.
Skier
Joined
Dec 2, 2015
Posts
5,843
Location
West of CDA South of Canada
3 years ago, was arcing shortish turns on a well groomed black run under the chair not going at hyper speed but moving. Torqued out of a toe pieces in the bottom 1/2 of a turn, and it immediately turned into a yard sale. I had parts and pieces scattered for 50 yards. Had no idea there were that many patrol on the hill at that time but they must have all been there. No harm other than the ego. Thanked them all and bought a pitcher for them in the bar when the day was done.

Worst injury of the last decade was not even a fall. Last year Feb 27th tore my bicep loose.
You know how you drop an outside hand to get more weight on the outside ski? Well, I raised the inside hand to get weight off of the inside tail at the end of the turn by instinct (do not recommend doing this). Must have had everything in the body blocked up, and felt a popping sensation; it hurt a little. When I looked at home while changing I was a very colorful bruise from the neck to the hand and part way down the side. Showed the wife she almost passed out. Next morning, under orders, was into the doctor who confirmed the torn muscle and ended the ski season.
Ironically it happened a year to the day before my upcoming open heart surgery this year. Think I will just stay in bed and read from now on on Feb. 27th.
 

François Pugh

Skiing the powder
Skier
Joined
Nov 17, 2015
Posts
7,615
Location
Great White North (Eastern side currently)
Rarely fall but now two bad ones in the past 4 years. First took out a knee and a season. While I try to blame that on some questionable vis this last one was my screw up in a no fall zone.

Resulted in a long slide, on my back, head first, while bouncing through and over a lot of rocks. Easily my most spectacular in decades.
At 70 I was surprised be able to ski away. Next day I felt like someone had been kicking me all night.

A buddy who caught the last of it later told me said his first thought was he was going to have to make "the call" to my wife. I was thinking on the way down should a tip, tail or head catch skiing is over.
So after 50 years at the same setting contemplating turning the bindings down a 1/2 notch, may have been better if the skis had come off
Don't you know you're supposed to get injured at the end of the season, so you have all summer to recover? ogwink
It could have been worse; if the skis had of popped off you would have had less drag and slid farther faster with more, and more punishing, hits.

When taking a looooong slide head first, I used to roll onto my back stick my feet/skis in the air like a dead horse and get the feet downhill to absorb impacts. Sometimes I would get the skis alongside, replant the skis and keep skiing, but the last time I tried that (about 4 years ago IIRC) I dug in a tip and got catapulted high up off the slope and came down hard on the ski with my arm. The fall onto the ski broke my humerus at the shoulder, but it was the last day of the season, so no skiing days lost. :ogbiggrin:
 

Wade

Out on the slopes
Skier
SkiTalk Supporter
Joined
Nov 19, 2015
Posts
929
Location
New York
I had what I’m pretty sure is the most spectacular crash of my skiing career on Tuesday of this week.

Skiing Mineral Basin at Snowbird with a few friends and a guide. Mineral had been closed the day before and it had snowed 20” since it was last open. We caught the rope drop for Powder Paradise and the rope drop for the Bookends. At the Bookends, we traversed out to a nice looking line and skied deep untracked pow for a long way. Pausing near the bottom of the pitch, the guide reminded us it was a long, slightly uphill run out to the lift and we needed to keep our speed up.

I took him at his word, and the Ikon app said I topped out somewhere in the lows 40s mph on the runout.

I didn’t see the transition from deep untracked pow to a cat track until it was too late. It was an abrupt transition - maybe a 5 foot steepish drop, with a slight depression before transitioning into the cat track.

The tips of my skis hit the depression in front of the cat track, and I double ejected. The first thing that hit the cat track was my head and the next thing I knew I was in deep powder on the other side of the cat track.

I’m not sure if I was knocked out for a few seconds, but it took me a bit to mentally get myself together and piece together what was going on. My head felt wet which I thought was weird. I reached up and it was wet because of snow - my helmet and goggles were gone. They were about 15 feet away separated from each other. I would later find out that the reason my helmet came off is because the strap stripped out of the buckle which was still attached to the other part of the buckle. That was the scariest thing to me. After threading it back through I tried pulling it out manually and couldn’t. I guess that is an indication of how much force was involved.

My poles were relatively close by, but I couldn’t see my skis. I decided to worry about that later and take a quick inventory of what hurt. My left ankle, right knee, right thumb, neck and tongue all hurt a bit. I spat out some blood - turns out I had bitten a small piece off the end of my tongue.

I finally felt ready to get up which wasn’t easy because of all the snow, but I made it back up to the cat track just in time to see one of my friends go down in the same spot (less violently than I did, fortunately). I checked he was ok and we unsuccessfully looked for my skis for about 10 minutes, during which time three more people went down in the same spot.

I made the quarter mile walk of shame back the lift and rode up with my buddies to rest and have some lunch. I was hurting, but it wasn’t terrible which I would later learn was probably adrenaline because it sure as hell all hurt that night.

At lunch, one of my friends figured out that while he was taking video of someone else, my crash was in the background. It was a really small part of the frame, but we could zoom in pretty closely and although it was heavily pixelated, he thought he could see where my skis wound up. We could also see that I rag dolled twice across the cat track before I hit the powder on the other side.

After lunch, my friends went back down to take another look for my skis based on what the video showed. I thought it was a long shot, but they texted photos of them holding up my skis about two minutes after they got to the site! I couldn’t believe it, and was pretty relieved to not have lost the skis and even more relieved not to have to take the tram down and rent skis for the rest of the trip.

I skied the rest of the day and took it pretty easy. By the end of the day I was hurting. My knee had swelled up and was pretty stiff, my thumb was like a balloon, and my neck was so stiff that I couldn’t really turn more than a couple of degrees.

Two days later, I’m still pretty sore, but I don’t think there’s any major damage. I took a lot of ibuprofen and applied lots of ice which mostly got the swelling under control. I took the next morning off, but was able to ski that afternoon with a compression sleeve on my knee and not much pain. I skied again today. While I didn’t go quite as hard as I usually would, I still skied 17k feet of steep off piste mostly bumped up softish snow, I mostly skied it pretty well and I don’t hurt any worse than I did at the start of the day.

So that’s the story of my biggest crash. I feel pretty lucky to have walked away from it as in tact as I am. At 52, I’m hoping there’s not going to be another one to top that.
 

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