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Close Calls

dlague

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Lately, I got thinking about this. Why? Because, I had two situations that could have ended up bad but worked out OK in the end.

First, skiing at Attitash on Saturday, was cruising along at a good clip and cam across a group that was skiing rather slow - looked like experienced beginners. I was about to pass one of them while making consistent turns then all of a sudden he makes a left turn straight across the fall line towards his buddy. I did a stop turn where I basically sprayed him and then took a quick turn and split the two. The guy looked like a deer in headlights. That collision would have been real bad.

Yesterday, skiing at Cannon, I was cruising right along down Paulie's Folly having a great run. At the very bottom, I was maintaining speed to get to the lift and the turn at the bottom of the trail to the run out was scraped off so I ran the snow pile which collapsed, caught an edge and it spun me around and did a backwards snow plow stop right before the wood line there. Once I stopped I looked behind me and thought - that could have been bad. Know one was around me to I stood there like I was waiting for everyone I was skiing with. I was pissed at myself for being careless.


Anyone else have close calls that made you think about the possible carnage that could have been?
 
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skiNEwhere

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In a word, yes.

I've had more than my fair share of close calls, usually caused by poor visibility/bad equipment or just poor judgement (or a combination of all 3).

Sounds like your ski reflexes took over though, which is a great thing to have.
 

Puck it

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Yes to numerous. Latest was at Kton on Sunday and took a shot to the shoulder from a branch stub and now have a huge multicolored bruise on arm.
 

Abominable

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In one of my more memorable (to me - low barrier here) feats, a dude wrecked right in front on me on one of those mile wide western cruisers, total yard sale, I'm hauling ass (probably too fast, too fast to stop anyway), quick jump at speed and cleared his tumbling rolling skis and poles. Right under the lift too, got some cheers.
 

BenedictGomez

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Last year I was skiing the left edge of the most treacherous and dangerous terrain on the planet (a Pocono intermediate), when a teenage girl cut me off at an insanely last minute 90 degree angle.

To my immediate right was a large, wild, densely packed female herd of her gregarious teen ilk = no go.
To my immediate left was about a five foot dropoff into a gully of large rocks = no go.

My only split second choice was to intentionally dump into combination of "falling sliding hockey stop" into a "butt check" (if that makes sense).
 

bdfreetuna

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keep the faith
Every time I've gone to Okemo somebody or multiple people have come inches from colliding with me at high speed.

Most of the time this was the fault of those uphill of me, unable to control themselves as I slowed to a stop. (I try not to hockey stomp in the middle of a high traffic trail)

One time I remember very well, I was cruising at a nice clip but sub tunaspeed for sure, and I see a guy obviously a beginner taking very very wide turns across the trail.

Ok, so I'll maintain my pace but hug the outermost edge of the trail to avoid him. (I thought)

This guy did a rapid reverse turn and then proceeded to go horizontally across the trail. My only thought was to maintain course, proceed with the plan. I would use only the very few inches on the side of the trail if necessary.

This guy apparently also had the idea to use the very few inches, literally, on the side of the trail, to make his sh*tty snowplow turn.

I ended up skiing over his skis and brushing his jacket at a pretty good pace.

Now.... is that MY fault or HIS? Probably mine. But still another reason why I do not end up at Okemo on purpose.
 

Cornhead

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Personally no, but I got a chilling call from my Son Monday, he was boarding at Keystone, he said he got some air boarding on a trail and upon landing he caught an edge and was flung into a tree on the edge of the trail. He was lucky, he struck the tree with the back of his left leg. He was treated at the hill, x-rays taken, no broken bones or joint damage. So thankful, it could have been so much worse. His entire leg is black and blue.

To top it off, he recently became unemployed, and uninsured, that's OK, I'll gladly help pay his medical bills instead of funeral expenses. Be careful out there everyone, it is a dangerous sport we all love.
 

MadMadWorld

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Every time I've gone to Okemo somebody or multiple people have come inches from colliding with me at high speed.

Most of the time this was the fault of those uphill of me, unable to control themselves as I slowed to a stop. (I try not to hockey stomp in the middle of a high traffic trail)

One time I remember very well, I was cruising at a nice clip but sub tunaspeed for sure, and I see a guy obviously a beginner taking very very wide turns across the trail.

Ok, so I'll maintain my pace but hug the outermost edge of the trail to avoid him. (I thought)

This guy did a rapid reverse turn and then proceeded to go horizontally across the trail. My only thought was to maintain course, proceed with the plan. I would use only the very few inches on the side of the trail if necessary.

This guy apparently also had the idea to use the very few inches, literally, on the side of the trail, to make his sh*tty snowplow turn.

I ended up skiing over his skis and brushing his jacket at a pretty good pace.

Now.... is that MY fault or HIS? Probably mine. But still another reason why I do not end up at Okemo on purpose.

Hard to say. What kind of trail was it?
 

thetrailboss

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I've had a few. One memorable one was a few years back at Burke where I was skiing Bear Den Ledges and skiing far skier's right of the line. I turned back into the middle of the trail, skis dove into a mogul and prereleased sending me headfirst down the steepest pitch heading for the trees. The deep snow stopped me...thank God.


Sent from my iPhone using AlpineZone
 

Nick

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I've always considered that it's probably very statistically likely that everyone has several close calls before there is an actual accident. That's probably true with skiing, driving, and crossing the street.

I've fallen my fair share times skiing but really the only "close" calls I had were when I flew over some 8 year old girl's head at Okemo when I was around 15 years old. I probably could have killed her. and then hitting the tree at Magic mountain 2 years ago.
 

prsboogie

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First day out this year my 6 year old cherub decided she would rather ski on top of my skis instead of the ample available trail in front of her. Made a tripod face plant as not to crush said child but managed not to end either of our ski season.

After a long conversation about which surface to ski on we had a very enjoyable day.
 

ss20

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A minute from the Alta exit off the I-15!
The faster I go the less I worry about close calls. If something happens, I want to see it in front. I can deal with someone cutting across the trail in front of me. But when someone speeds by me from behind that I didn't even know was there... that freaks me out.
 

ceo

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A fall that nearly sent me into a tree was what prompted me to get a helmet, some years ago.

My older son, when he was (I think) 7, decided to take one of the jumps in the little terrain park in Tuckerbrook at Cannon, and I saw him disappear over the lip head first. The time it took me to frantically ski down to him was the scariest five seconds of my life. He was fine, but quite shaken up, and it was some time before he collected himself enough to ski down to the lift. Hasn't tried a jump like that since; I can't say that distresses me much. Recently he made some reference to "the time I went over a big jump and landed on my face".
 
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