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Major tumble at Breck

skiNEwhere

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I was in the Lake Chutes at Breck, I believe the specific trail was "Wacky's Chute". I'm not sure of the pitch, but I do know that the top of some of the chutes off of the Imperial Express are 50+ degree's, so yea, definitely "no fall" terrain.

I always critique myself and will admit if I screwed something up, but this is not the case, at least this time. I dropped in fine, but after I finished my next turn, my ski came off, which made me go down. I'm sure someone will tell me what I did wrong, but looking back, I still can't think of anything, other than not having good equipment. After the ski came off, well, I had an interesting ride. At 0:33 I see that I am heading toward rocks, and I desperately kicked the snow with my now free boot to try to steer away. Alpine replay clocked my tumble at 29.6 mph, so I might have had a bad day if I wasn't able to avoid them. I got turned around right before I passed them but I think I only cleared them by 1-2 feet, at which point I was able to experience what the inside of a clothes dryer feels like.

This happened a few days ago, and I've been debating posting it on here because this, combined with previous close calls I've had, might give off the impression of me being reckless, and I kind of felt weird posting this after another post I made. But I want to see people's opinions on what caused this. My bindings were maxed out at 10, although after this incident I am strongly suspecting they only have a resistance of around 7-8. I have Marker Jester's on my other ski's with a DIN of 11, and they never release unless I've torqued the ski the wrong way really hard.

Surprisingly, even with the somewhat firm snow, I only had a mildly sore left shoulder. I tried to stand up at the end, but I was pretty dizzy which I why I fell back down.

Thinking maybe I should learn how to self-arrest? Might work better than the "flailing" method :)

Thanks to Nick from Breck Ski patrol for grabbing my ski's so I didn't have to hike all the way back up. My other pole is still MIA though.

Available in 1080p

 
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MadMadWorld

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Glad you posted it man. Like I said, that video hits very close to home! Really hard to tell what caused the ski to come off. Looks like your up hill ski got a little tangled up. Could you have stepped on your binding release? Seems crazy that even that would have caused the binding to release with the amount of force needed. Self arrest on something like that is really difficult in those kind of conditions. On terrain like that you have to be grabbing and digging in the boots the moment you fall because there is no way your self arresting at 30 mph without a whippet. After you start gathering a ton of speed, do your best to point your feet downhill as your sliding and look for something solid to grab onto. If that doesn't work, close your eyes and say a few Hail Mary's. In my case, I was able to reach out and grab a hold of boundary fencing.
 

skiNEwhere

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Could you have stepped on your binding release? Seems crazy that even that would have caused the binding to release with the amount of force needed. Self arrest on something like that is really difficult in those kind of conditions. On terrain like that you have to be grabbing and digging in the boots the moment you fall because there is no way your self arresting at 30 mph without a whippet. After you start gathering a ton of speed, do your best to point your feet downhill as your sliding and look for something solid to grab onto. If that doesn't work, close your eyes and say a few Hail Mary's. In my case, I was able to reach out and grab a hold of boundary fencing.

I just opened up the raw video and played it frame-by-frame. Looks like my toe piece released. My heel binding is still locked down as well.

eject 1.png

eject.png

Whippets definitely would've worked. I don't think Breck would've liked me using those though lol
 

Edd

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Looks to me like the downhill binding pre-released. I would think you'd be aware if you had somehow engaged it with your uphill ski. Any chance there was too much snow under that boot when you clicked in? Glad you're ok, man.


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MadMadWorld

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Looks to me like the downhill binding pre-released. I would think you'd be aware if you had somehow engaged it with your uphill ski. Any chance there was too much snow under that boot when you clicked in? Glad you're ok, man.


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That would make a lot of sense based on the boot hike and the conditions.
 

skiNEwhere

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glad you're ok. Now get back on it.

Not with those ski's. If I get a powder day which I can justify my K2 Pontoon's with Marker Jester's which have never let me down, there will be a Lake Chutes pt 2
 

Glenn

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That's nuts! You went quite always down.

I wonder if you just happened to catch that downhill ski at the right angle for it to release.


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jack97

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.... Time for a different set of bindings. I could never trust those again.

I have a bias against Markers last generation models. They had no elasticity in the toe piece nor the heel piece as well. Any sudden jar in the wrong direction would cause a pre release. Anytime I take them in firm bumps, I was always good for a release even when I didn't hit the bump that hard. Lots of bumpers had this experience as well.

The current Royal models resolve that problem with the pivot design but it sometimes makes me wonder. Just a thought.
 

Savemeasammy

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I have a bias against Markers last generation models. They had no elasticity in the toe piece nor the heel piece as well. Any sudden jar in the wrong direction would cause a pre release. Anytime I take them in firm bumps, I was always good for a release even when I didn't hit the bump that hard. Lots of bumpers had this experience as well.

The current Royal models resolve that problem with the pivot design but it sometimes makes me wonder. Just a thought.

That's good info right there... It really sucks to being skiing hard in the bumps and having a binding release without a damn good reason. I have look px 12's. I haven't had any issues with unexpected releases, and I use the setting the shop put them at. I'd rather a ski let go than my knee!

More on topic: that was a gnarly fall.... I thought the theory about snow on your boot was a good one. The binding could have been under extra tension.

There was another video of someone that looked like they tumbled over a cliff. You?!

Glad you're ok, and hopefully you keep getting after it!


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snoseek

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I think Your shoulders were turned away from the mountain and did that instant reaction to hug the wall. that makes the tail of your ski skid out easily. I bet that was what went wrong.....I have history with doing that and its been my issue on steep terrain in the past.

Basically drive yourself forward even when the terrain is intimidating.

God, the skiing in Colorado looks awesome right now!
 

mulva

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Wow, glad you're okay! I've had a few mystery releases on steeper terrain this year but on demos at Snowbird. Sucks because you lose confidence in the equipment and think about that when determining where you want to drop in. Sucks a little of the fun out of the day. If you figure it out, please post back.
 

skiNEwhere

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Wow, glad you're okay! I've had a few mystery releases on steeper terrain this year but on demos at Snowbird. Sucks because you lose confidence in the equipment and think about that when determining where you want to drop in. Sucks a little of the fun out of the day. If you figure it out, please post back.

Yea I hope that doesn't mess my with head and linger in there next time I want to try it. For the next skis I get I'll definitely have to work up to that kind of terrain to make sure the equipment can handle it.

There was another video of someone that looked like they tumbled over a cliff. You?!

Glad you're ok, and hopefully you keep getting after it!

If the name of the video is "cliff tumble arapahoe basin 03/24/2013" then yes.
 

skiNEwhere

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I think Your shoulders were turned away from the mountain and did that instant reaction to hug the wall. that makes the tail of your ski skid out easily. I bet that was what went wrong.....I have history with doing that and its been my issue on steep terrain in the past.

Basically drive yourself forward even when the terrain is intimidating.

Do you mean my shoulder weren't pointing downhill? That is something I know I have to work on a little bit, I didn't focus on it as much there though, since that was a new line I hadn't been on, and I was just (planning on) turning, then surveying the next turn for 3-5 seconds, and repeating.

What do you mean by my instant reaction was to hug the wall?
 

elks

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Reminds me that earlier this season I was skiing at Mt. Hood Meadows off-trail in powder, going at good speed on a mellower wide open section that was completely untouched, when I just lost a ski. When I went back up to pick up my ski, I found a metal rod (rebar style) sticking out of the ground. What that rod was doing firmly stuck in the ground, I have no idea ... Maybe Breck likes to hide rods just below the surface as well. :)

Lucky you didn't get hurt. Quite the fall.
 
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