More bad news from the weekend (skier death)

Here is my take.
Grooming + skies that are easier to ski on have increased average speeds (estimate 20 to now 25 mph).
People skiing super fast may have decreased as most skis are no longer designed for 45+ MPH. However 1000 people skiing 5 mph faster on groomed slopes easily outweighs the loss of 20 of the 100 people that were skiing over 45mph.

That extra 5 mph the 1000 (mostly intermediates) are skiing leads to more severe accidents.

from_the_NEK said:

Wench cats ehh?

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Are they like bar wenches?

drjeff said:

I gotta agree with HS on this one. A good percentage of equipment today, while easier for most to ski on, isn't better at speeds. You just essentially never saw anyone tearing down a groomed/firm trail 20 years ago with their tips and tails "flapping in the breeze" like you regularly see today. I'm sorry, but a rockered ski, no matter how much or how little rocker it has in its design, just isn't going to perform as well on hard snow at speed as a traditional cambered old school "skinny ski" can on that same hard snow/groomed surface. You may see more people skiing ""fast" (and feel free to define what "fast" is for yourself), but as a whole I don't think that you're seeing anyone ski "faster" now than you used to see skiing on groomed terrain.

The bigger issue might have to do with common sense and knowing when it's OK to ski fast verses when you need to slow down a bit and spend as much time paying attention to what the others on the slopes around you are doing at that moment vs trying to speed up and "thread the needle"

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I think it was a lot harder to use old skinny skis to their true potential. Most people were just skidding turns, which keeps the speed down. Modern shaped skis might not have as much potential, but being easier to carve, they're more fun to ski at higher speeds than skinny skis. I never ski my 64mm under foot bump skis as fast as I ski an all-mountain ski because it's just not as fun.

from_the_NEK said:

Here is my take.
Grooming + skies that are easier to ski on have increased average speeds (estimate 20 to now 25 mph).
People skiing super fast may have decreased as most skis are no longer designed for 45+ MPH. However 1000 people skiing 5 mph faster on groomed slopes easily outweighs the loss of 20 of the 100 people that were skiing over 45mph.

That extra 5 mph the 1000 (mostly intermediates) are skiing leads to more severe accidents.

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I can agree with this analysis.

.....oh yeah, its SKIS.

Domeskier said:

I think it was a lot harder to use old skinny skis to their true potential. Most people were just skidding turns, which keeps the speed down. Modern shaped skis might not have as much potential, but being easier to carve, they're more fun to ski at higher speeds than skinny skis. I never ski my 64mm under foot bump skis as fast as I ski an all-mountain ski because it's just not as fun.

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People used to tuck and straightline stuff all the time in the 80's and 90's.

Highway Star said:

People used to tuck and straightline stuff all the time in the 80's and 90's.

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I was actually going to add that - the only time I saw people hitting max speed in the 80's and 90's was some kid in a tuck straightlining with his poles pointing skyward...

deadheadskier said:

Sadly, Highwaystar is a social moron and needs to turn every conversation he has into something about himself and how awesome he perceives himself. It's incredibly boring to read.

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This guy is supposed to be a moderator yet he's the one stirring chit. Who's the moron?

Like you too steamboat

Brad J said:

I am talking about how people skied at the time that NO grooming was being done on steeper wider slopes

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Sounds like ski paradise.

Brad J said:

not how great you ski

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That's kindof his thing.

Highway Star said:

IMHO, people in the 90's skied faster than they do now.

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I'm going to disagree with both positions put forth (i.e. Position #1 = People skied faster then & Position #2 = People ski faster now).

I don't notice any appreciable difference is average skier speed from 20 years ago to today.

I'm going to disagree with both positions put forth (i.e. Position #1 = People skied faster then & Position #2 = People ski faster now).

I don't notice any appreciable difference is average skier speed from 20 years ago to today.[/QUOTE]

I must have skied at different mountains or different trails than some of you guys and did take a break from skiing for a few years but when I did start up again in 2004 I was very suprised on how fast peopled skied. And it was also the first real experience with steeper trails being groomed. I came from a background that no real expert trails where ever groomed( skied MRG 1984- 1995) Killington before that , wildcat before that, so my experience with high speed groomers must be clouded. It was all about short radius turns and bumps and only opened them up on powder days. I must be getting old when someone says that they can remember when they started using winch cats, I come from the days of a Tucker Snowcat dragging a home made grader with chains dangling behind, and a roller filled with water to pack slopes on powder days."""

BenedictGomez said:

I don't notice any appreciable difference is average skier speed from 20 years ago to today.

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20 years ago, speeding skiers were more likely to straightline ski runs. Nowadays, speeding skiers are usually guys carving long GS turns at very high speed. Simply goes with the equipement available.

I think speedsters were going faster 20 years ago, but that there are simply more speedsters now.

Speed or Stability? , maybe some accidents can be Stability issues
I ski on Old Rossi B2's , love them and have found only one weakness ,
Was crushing about 30 and flat near the bottom of trail runout ,
I hardly ever ski flat, went from powder/granular to larger granular mix , lost stability immediately, took me by surprise .
If there was a turn or a tighter trail it would have been ugly,GS turns handled that section Ok ,

According to an article on nj.com, he was cut off by another skier and swerved to avoid the skier that cut him off... http://www.nj.com/somerset/index.ss...ki_accident_was_a.html#incart_related_stories