Worst ski crash/injury you ever saw?

[Chipped K2]

Joining this site has brought back a flood of memories......

Worst crash I ever saw was a guy, straight off a black diamond, through the skimpy fence, airborne, and head first into the concrete block that anchored the ski lift. No helmet. He did not move after that.

What about you?

 

[FlyingAce]

I was ahead of the guy in yellow jacket in the video. Some guy lost control on a double black and cartwheel his way down onto the catwalk face first and barely missed me. No helmet. He was out for a few minutes, had a concussion and broken ribs. I could still see it in slow motion.

 

[Chipped K2]

That was a bad crash you showed there! I assume you guys blocked the trail for him and called/waited for ski patrol?

 

[FlyingAce]

That was a bad crash you showed there! I assume you guys blocked the trail for him and called/waited for ski patrol?

Ski patrol happened to be skiing behind us so he called for help and sent us on our way.

 

[KingGrump]

Taos: Feb 27 to Mar 5, 2016. Who's Going to Be There?

Well shit. I was planning to get up there for this, but that's how you make God laugh - you make a plan. I have some emergency dentistry and other must-do stuff scheduled for my days off and can't get away. :(

www.skitalk.com

 

[DocGKR]

Guy toked a joint on chair lift ahead of us at Park City one evening; skied down and hit a lift tower--open comminuted skull fracture w/exposed and torn dura w/CNS leakage, died on the hill....

 

[Jersey Skier]

Back in HS on one of our many bus trips to Huntah I can still see this girl laying on the ground. After a day of hitting every jump we could find on the main mountain we headed over to Hunter One to goof on our beginner friends. While going up the lift there was a girl who had just crashed under the lift. She was laying there with her lower leg, boot and ski all 180 degrees in the wrong direction. Like everything was disconnected at her knee and just backwards.

She was just laying there waiting for help. No expression. Obviously totally in shock. I can still see it clearly.

 

[johnnyvw]

Riding the "A" lift at Jack Frost in the Poconos, I saw a kid going way too fast launch off one of the rollers (for those not familiar, the runs at JF have "ledges" about 1/3 and 2/3 down the hill, depending on which run you're on). He went "splat", face down on the slope. Didn't move for about 30 seconds, the people below him took their skis off and started running up to him. He finally raised his head off the snow....blood running down from his nose. By the time I got to the top ski patrol was already heading down.

 

[crgildart]

I had just gotten out of school and arrived at the ski hill. Late season, place only had a couple trails open. I was scheduled to work in the ski school that evening. Only 2-3 people skiing the entire place at that time, about 3pm on a weekday. One kid training for USSA Junior Nationals Downhill event tucking the main run and hitting a roller. Other kid training for USSA Freestyle Jr Nationals Ballet with an AstralTune deck playing his ballet routine music in his ear buds.. on the other side of that roller.. It sounded like pumpkins hitting the cement. There was gear for like 50 feet in every direction. Needless to say neither kid got to go to the US Championships that year. They closed the ski hill and sent us home due to the severity and level of investigation the authorities wanted to undertake.

 

[BS Slarver]

Seen a few not make it !
Happy to report this has a happy ending. George has been in the big a dozens of times if not more, it’s a daily trip to the top.
Ski comes off in the entrance.

This video just happened to get captured by a tram rider.
After 40 days in Billings hospital and months of PT, he’s back out and crushing it !

 

[scott43]

My co-worker crashed in France and put his ski pole through his neck and it came out his mouth... Then he pulled it out himself... And wished to proceed to the bar for a Guinness.. Fortunately cooler heads prevailed and they stitched him up...

On a more serious note, my cousin crashed at Whistler at relatively slow speed, sliced open his leg, cut an artery and nearly bled out. They helicoptered him off the hill straight to Vancouver.

The worst crash I've seen personally are probably my own!

 

[Bad Bob]

66 or so, at the bottom of a neighborhood hill you have never heard of in the days of run away straps. A man leaned down to take his ski off at the lodge. A loose ski came down from 1/2 way up the hill, and as luck would have it, hit him in the right hand at speed. There was so much blood and so many compound fractures. Learned later he was a dentist.

 

[Tricia]

Seen a few not make it !
Happy to report this has a happy ending. George has been in the big a dozens of times if not more, it’s a daily trip to the top.
Ski comes off in the entrance.

This video just happened to get captured by a tram rider.
After 40 days in Billings hospital and months of PT, he’s back out and crushing it !

That is a "big" consequences kind of crash.

 

[fatbob]

This is like the ski forum equivalent of a snuff movie. Really glad that the most I've had to deal with are broken ankles and the like.

 

[Tricia]

This is like the ski forum equivalent of a snuff movie. Really glad that the most I've had to deal with are broken ankles and the like.

The topic of this thread is unsettling to me. I kinda don't want to concentrate on the "worsts" of my ski days.

 

[SBrown]

The topic of this thread is unsettling to me. I kinda don't want to concentrate on the "worsts" of my ski days.

Yeah, I'm not wanting to read these. But but but....

I am only adding this because it was the strangest thing ever. Dude comes flying out of control, sitting on his skis, going about 40, at the base of Copper where the trail goes under American Flyer. Because he is sitting, he goes under the rope, and flies off the lip into the lift loading zone. He catches one of the high-speed chairs from behind, about 20 ft in the air, and hits it, falling into the lift area. It literally looked like

He was out cold, and I guess had a broken leg. Didn't hear much else. Photo shows path (red line) and patrol working on him.

 

[scott43]

Yeah, I'm not wanting to read these. But but but....

I am only adding this because it was the strangest thing ever. Dude comes flying out of control, sitting on his skis, going about 40, at the base of Copper where the trail goes under American Flyer. Because he is sitting, he goes under the rope, and flies off the lip into the lift loading zone. He catches one of the high-speed chairs from behind, about 20 ft in the air, and hits it, falling into the lift area. It literally looked like

He was out cold, and I guess had a broken leg. Didn't hear much else. Photo shows path (red line) and patrol working on him.

View attachment 157116

I mean that's kinda awesome? In a grim reaper kinda way...? Sorry..empathy is not my strong suit....

 

[skibum4ever]

Unsettling to me as well in the light of my recent accident, which appeared to be minor but had major consequences. I think I will not continue to read this thread.

 

[AtleB]

A guy I knew was backed over by a pist machine back when we were teenagers. We were snowboarding in a closed off area and he fell and slid right under the belts of the pist machine that was backing up at the time. The machine operator did not notice and kept backing up until he saw the bloodied kid as he reappeared in front of the machine. There was a lot of blood on the snow and intense screaming.
The kid was real lucky though. He was rushed to the hospital, everyone fearing for his life, but miraculously no major blood vessels were cut and apart from the trauma and quite a few stitches he was ok.
The snow was pretty soft, that probably saved his life.

 

[crgildart]