Worst ski crash/injury you ever saw?

[Pequenita]

I once saw a guy not land well when coming off the right-most rock/cliff (looker's right) in this photo. I have no idea what happened to him, but he was screaming for a long time, so at least he was conscious.

 

[coskigirl]

As a child I watched someone lose control on a run, go into the trees and hit one. They did not survive. It has always stuck with me and part of why I have challenges with tree skiing where I get flashes of that person hitting the tree. I prefer to tree ski following someone so I can focus on them instead of the trees.

 

[Tricia]

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 wondered if you were going to share this one.

My season in injuries

My knees stay toasty wrapped in their Ossur Rebound braces:crutches: Harder to keep my fingers from freezing the last couple days. Today looks like it's going to be nice!

www.skitalk.com

I thouhgt of it while driving through Rifle, coincidently the anniversary of the day you called us to come pick up a jeep.

 

[4aprice]

Saw one lucky you know what last season at the home bump Camelback PA. Came down off the headwall on Hump (a short but steep drop) with speed, lost it and spun around backwards heading into the woods with plenty of rocks in the area. Thought I was watching certain death. Somehow the guy's skis got hung up in some snow making hoses jerking him to a complete stop. Actually witnessed him stand up virtually unscathed. Wonder if he even knew how lucky he was.

He was headed for the area just to the right of that red fence at the bottom

 

[Andy Mink]

so at least he was conscious

When we had our first kid anytime we heard a bump/crash and scream we came running. With the second if we heard a bump/crash we waited for it...scream indicated consciousness, consciousness indicated sounds worse than it was.

 

[wooglin]

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.

Yeah. Definitely not following any of the links.

 

[Andy Mink]

Saw one lucky you know what last season at the home bump Camelback PA. Came down off the headwall on Hump (a short but steep drop) with speed, lost it and spun around backwards heading into the woods with plenty of rocks in the area. Thought I was watching certain death. Somehow the guy's skis got hung up in some snow making hoses jerking him to a complete stop. Actually witnessed him stand up virtually unscathed. Wonder if he even knew how lucky he was. View attachment 157127

He was headed for the area just to the right of that red fence at the bottom

When I was in high school I was night skiing at Camelback. Icy icy. Things have changed quite a bit but I was coming down maybe Big Pocono or Sullivan Trail. There was a big left hand sweep followed by a right hand sweep. I slid out of the left hander, sailed through the trees and hit a big rock with my right buttocks cheek. I was the only one on the run and it took a while to extricate myself and get back to the run. By the time I got to the bottom I couldn't bend far enough to take my right boot off. Drove home left footed WITH a clutch. No bueno, no fun. Bruised all the way to the bone.

 

[ThomasD]

I think I've mentally blocked many things over the years, but that Wil-e-Coyote graphic brought one of them back up.

Not sure if they even still do it, but one of the events during Hellroaring days at Big Mountain (Whitefish) was the furniture races. Yep, they closed off one of the green runs skier's right of the base lodge and people would ride down on furniture that had skis bolted on. There was a "safety inspection," you had to wear a helmet, and your ride had to have a braking mechanism. A neighbor/coworker of mine went down on a toilet with a plunger stuck to his helmet - that kind of stuff.

Well, this one group try riding down on a full size bed, mattresses and all. They had a huge rake hanging off the back for a brake, and had it engaged almost the whole way down. But they simply lacked the necessary leverage so it was effectively useless. The bed accelerated the entire way down. People below began to realize what was happening and thankfully cleared out of the way as the bed began crashing through multiple rows of race mesh fencing. The two guys in the back bailed off the sides after the first fence, but the girls in front stayed on as it headed for one of the condos below.

The condo had a ground floor below slope level, with a concrete retaining wall partially protruding in front. The bed hit that lip, jumped up then dropped down into the space below disappearing from sight with a loud crash. A crash that then catapulted those riders up and into the wall of the condo - each making that same spread eagle splat. The sound of a human body slamming into a solid wall at speed is not a memory you want.

Thankfully, if only coincidentally there were a lot of trained medical personnel on hand (including my neighbor) to render much necessary assistance. The good news is nobody died.

 

[Pequenita]

When we had our first kid anytime we heard a bump/crash and scream we came running. With the second if we heard a bump/crash we waited for it...scream indicated consciousness, consciousness indicated sounds worse than it was.

Yeah, that’s the thing. I’ve injured myself doing various things, and usually I’m too busy freaking out and assessing what’s wrong with me to get a lung-full of air to scream, so I’ve wondered if the guy with the failed jump was wailing for theatrics. I’m sure he broke something, but it’s not like he passed out from the injuries.

 

[Carl]

In 2008 at Solitude I was skiing down Challenger with a buddy. It's a pretty steep pitch. It was early in the morning about 10 degree temps on groomed hard pack. Very icy. We had pulled to the side of the trail, and as we did a guy around 60ish went by. He wasn't going particularly fast but wasn't maintaining proper control. I commented to my friend that I didn't think it was going to end very well. Unfortunately I was right. He went flying into the woods and busted his head on a tree. I went down to see if I could help. He was out cold with a huge gash on his head and blood everywhere. No helmet. I raced downed to alert ski patrol. They helicoptered him out to the Intermountain Medical Center. He died in the hospital that night.

 

[Chipped K2]

Furniture races sounds like a blast. Sounds like my childhood----just trying to have fun in the snow. But ya, you got to know when to eject.

To be completely honest, the idea of skiing is rather crazy. A person is going to strap slick rails to their feet and ride those down a slippery surface? What could go wrong?

 

[RobSN]

I’ve enjoyed Skitalk and before Pugski for a couple of years and often learn good stuff, but this is the most worrisome thread I’ve read. Coming on top of the safety thread and the one about the little girl who was killed, I’m close to getting ski-phobic. Eek!

 

[Bad Bob]

That's it! Skiing is too dangerous.
Taking up something safe like base jumping.

 

[Tricia]

I’ve enjoyed Skitalk and before Pugski for a couple of years and often learn good stuff, but this is the most worrisome thread I’ve read. Coming on top of the safety thread and the one about the little girl who was killed, I’m close to getting ski-phobic. Eek!

Honestly that’s one reason we have never encouraged “worst” threads

 

[MikeW Philly]

I’ve enjoyed Skitalk and before Pugski for a couple of years and often learn good stuff, but this is the most worrisome thread I’ve read. Coming on top of the safety thread and the one about the little girl who was killed, I’m close to getting ski-phobic. Eek!

The “dark side“ or morbid side of me thinks somebody started this thread to combat VR crowds…

Lot of scary posts, especially the BIg Coulair video. But I have to admit @ThomasD post had me laughing just at the thought of it. I wouldn’t want to see that but the comparison to wile e coyote and that story just too much. Glad to hear they made it out ok though.

 

[Jelder]

The only real injury I've ever seen was kind of weird. I was at a hill in Michigan called Caberfae. I got off a lift and a moment later heard someone screaming behind me and some other people freaking out. I turned around and there was a teenage girl sitting on the snow clutching her knee in obvious distress. I'm not sure how it happened, but she had gotten cut by an edge really badly a couple inches below her knee cap. It had gone through her ski pants, base layer, and skin, all the way down to the muscle/tendon. It was laid open and pretty gnarly, but my non-professional assessment was that it would just need a bunch of stiches and leave a nasty scar with an interesting story.
Anyway, after I helped her move to get out of the way of traffic her mom (presumably) shows up, who must have been three or four chairs behind. She sees her daughter with blood running down her leg and me, some middle-aged random dude, sitting next to her trying to calm her down. Assuming I had been involved with whatever was going on, she looked at me full of accusation and fury and yelled "what the hell happened!?" I calmly told her that I was only helping but didn't know how she had gotten hurt. Pretty sure that in the moment she didn't believe me, but right then ski patrol arrived. I got up, clicked in, and skied away. I bet the scar is cool.

 

[markojp]

Honestly that’s one reason we have never encouraged “worst” threads

Sorta wish it was ' worst-but-with-a-happy-ending' thread. I don't want to talk about mine. Wouldn't wish it on anyone.

 

[François Pugh]

The only real injury I've ever seen was kind of weird. I was at a hill in Michigan called Caberfae. I got off a lift and a moment later heard someone screaming behind me and some other people freaking out. I turned around and there was a teenage girl sitting on the snow clutching her knee in obvious distress. I'm not sure how it happened, but she had gotten cut by an edge really badly a couple inches below her knee cap. It had gone through her ski pants, base layer, and skin, all the way down to the muscle/tendon. It was laid open and pretty gnarly, but my non-professional assessment was that it would just need a bunch of stiches and leave a nasty scar with an interesting story.
Anyway, after I helped her move to get out of the way of traffic her mom (presumably) shows up, who must have been three or four chairs behind. She sees her daughter with blood running down her leg and me, some middle-aged random dude, sitting next to her trying to calm her down. Assuming I had been involved with whatever was going on, she looked at me full of accusation and fury and yelled "what the hell happened!?" I calmly told her that I was only helping but didn't know how she had gotten hurt. Pretty sure that in the moment she didn't believe me, but right then ski patrol arrived. I got up, clicked in, and skied away. I bet the scar is cool.

The thought of at scar is why she was screaming.

 

[markojp]

Yes, because when cut to the bone and bleeding profusely, the first thing a woman or girl would think about is the scar.

 

[BLiP]

Honestly that’s one reason we have never encouraged “worst” threads

Tell me about the time you watched someone die or get seriously injured!! What is the purpose of this thread? Voyeurism or schadenfreude? Both?