WJenness
Active member
Just thought I'd chime in on this one since it's super relevant.
Friday at Saddleback, I panicked while approaching a 4' or so drop coming out of a little woods shot right by the bottom station of the Kennebago quad... I don't know how, but in trying to check my speed so as not to get launched into the air and land on flat hardpack, I ended up going down pretty hard and smacking the back of my head...
I cracked the lining of the helmet (I'll get a pic to put up here tonight), broke the adjustable part inside (my helmet has this floating piece that moves when you turn a dial for fine size adjustment... that part snapped off), and was out cold for what I'm told was three to four minutes before coming to. I had a conversation with a ski patroller and a couple other skiers that I do not remember AT ALL. I was apparently coherent enough that I was able to convince people to let me still ski.
We skied one more run through Casablanca which I don't remember at all (except for one moment of clarity when skiing down where I realized 'shit, I have no idea who I'm supposed to be staying with at Sugarloaf... Also, where is my car?'), I guess I was skiing SUPER slow and the folks I was with started worrying about me.
The next thing I clearly remember was WoodCore telling me 'you should really be done skiing for the day' (I wholeheartedly agreed with him) when we got out of the woods. I skied down to the lodge from there with a wicked headache and my back hurting. After sitting in the lodge for a while and drinking some water, I began to return to coherent thoughts...
My back continued to hurt throughout the day on Saturday (enough that I didn't go back out after lunch), and bothered me a little bit yesterday...
I'm VERY thankful that I was wearing my helmet, because I suspect the kind of fall I took was similar to the one that killed Natasha Richardson a couple of years ago. (I have no info to back this up, but I can see how much more serious my injury COULD have been without the helmet)... I'm not anxious to repeat the fall without a helmet on to see if I'm correct (obviously), but this incident further cemented my desire to always ski with a helmet.
I ordered a new helmet online last night.
-w
Friday at Saddleback, I panicked while approaching a 4' or so drop coming out of a little woods shot right by the bottom station of the Kennebago quad... I don't know how, but in trying to check my speed so as not to get launched into the air and land on flat hardpack, I ended up going down pretty hard and smacking the back of my head...
I cracked the lining of the helmet (I'll get a pic to put up here tonight), broke the adjustable part inside (my helmet has this floating piece that moves when you turn a dial for fine size adjustment... that part snapped off), and was out cold for what I'm told was three to four minutes before coming to. I had a conversation with a ski patroller and a couple other skiers that I do not remember AT ALL. I was apparently coherent enough that I was able to convince people to let me still ski.
We skied one more run through Casablanca which I don't remember at all (except for one moment of clarity when skiing down where I realized 'shit, I have no idea who I'm supposed to be staying with at Sugarloaf... Also, where is my car?'), I guess I was skiing SUPER slow and the folks I was with started worrying about me.
The next thing I clearly remember was WoodCore telling me 'you should really be done skiing for the day' (I wholeheartedly agreed with him) when we got out of the woods. I skied down to the lodge from there with a wicked headache and my back hurting. After sitting in the lodge for a while and drinking some water, I began to return to coherent thoughts...
My back continued to hurt throughout the day on Saturday (enough that I didn't go back out after lunch), and bothered me a little bit yesterday...
I'm VERY thankful that I was wearing my helmet, because I suspect the kind of fall I took was similar to the one that killed Natasha Richardson a couple of years ago. (I have no info to back this up, but I can see how much more serious my injury COULD have been without the helmet)... I'm not anxious to repeat the fall without a helmet on to see if I'm correct (obviously), but this incident further cemented my desire to always ski with a helmet.
I ordered a new helmet online last night.
-w