fbrissette
Well-known member
Some of the posts are reasonable, some not.
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Death at Stratton
- Thread starter thetrailboss
- Start date
Some of the posts are reasonable, some not.
hammer
Active member
That's great until the instruction period is over and the now "trained" beginner decides he/she wants to explore the mountain with more experienced friends or family. The vast majority of the time that works out fine, but unfortunately if that was the case here it tragically did not.
I'm sure we have seen similar setups where parents take their novice kid who can barely snowplow down a narrow blue or worse. I was checking out videos of Magic's Slide of Hans the other day and I spotted and watched a video of novice kids going down (and one falling on) Upper Wizard. Even though that trail is flat up top it's definitely not one I'd take a novice down, but I'm sure parents or friends have coaxed kids down that trail when they had no business on it.
Highway Star
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You also have to remember, as was the case with Actress Natasha Henstridge (?sp) who was killed after a fall on the beginner slope at I believe Mount Tremblant, a few years ago. She was a beginner, not going very fast, but fell in a way and hit her head that caused some bleeding on her brain, which increased the pressure inside of her skull before it could be relieved at a trauma center and caused her passing. Sometimes it not the speed that is the issue, but just a weird way that a person falls that is what lead to the unfortunate event
It's Richardson....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natasha_Richardson
Her death could really be considered a freak accident. People hit their hear all the time and don't have that kind of internal bleading.
spiderpig
Member
You also have to remember, as was the case with Actress Nastasia Henstridge (?sp) who was killed after a fall on the beginner slope at I believe Mount Tremblant, a few years ago. She was a beginner, not going very fast, but fell in a way and hit her head that caused some bleeding on her brain, which increased the pressure inside of her skull before it could be relieved at a trauma center and caused her passing. Sometimes it not the speed that is the issue, but just a weird way that a person falls that is what lead to the unfortunate event
Yes, I was just going to say something like this. A pre-existing condition in the body could have contributed, so a fall doing anything could have resulted in injury or death (assuming no helmet here). The remote nature of being on a mountain and not having help readily available is a factor. Sad to hear.
drjeff
Well-known member
Thanks for the correction on the name HS!
And you're right about it being a freak accident in her case. But everyone now and then someone "wins the lottery" or "gets struck by lightning" too. That's the things with odds and risk. You can have the odds of something happening or the risk of something happening be extremely small, but ultimately it's not 0. For example from current events, about 3 weeks ago would anyone really have believed that a 777 could "vanish" for 2+ weeks???
Thoughts and prayers to the friends and family. Such a loss, like the recent one at Whiteface, is always tragic, no matter the circumstances. Regardless of what one believes, we can all agree that they need support at a time like this, not that we can actually do anything for them.
I do agree/believe that the best we can do to honor the deceased and his family in a case like this is to try and learn from the event, if we can, and do our best to help prevent a similar tragedy from happening to someone else, be it through personal awareness or educating others. That is why I'm curious as to what happened in this case, and this one has me scratching my head given the location. I'm not sure there is any parallel to the Natasia Richardson incident, as she died 2 days after the incident from bleeding that might (we don't know for sure) have been prevented with a helmet. This death seems to have been immediate (yes, he was revived). Wondering if being found under the trail sign could have been a coincidence, and maybe there was some other natural cause that stole this young life. Just doesn't seem like anyone could have been skiing/riding fast enough there to cause the kind of traumatic injury that would result in instant death. If the deceased was having some kind of health related distress, the place he ended up would be a logical place to pull over and stop.
I do agree/believe that the best we can do to honor the deceased and his family in a case like this is to try and learn from the event, if we can, and do our best to help prevent a similar tragedy from happening to someone else, be it through personal awareness or educating others. That is why I'm curious as to what happened in this case, and this one has me scratching my head given the location. I'm not sure there is any parallel to the Natasia Richardson incident, as she died 2 days after the incident from bleeding that might (we don't know for sure) have been prevented with a helmet. This death seems to have been immediate (yes, he was revived). Wondering if being found under the trail sign could have been a coincidence, and maybe there was some other natural cause that stole this young life. Just doesn't seem like anyone could have been skiing/riding fast enough there to cause the kind of traumatic injury that would result in instant death. If the deceased was having some kind of health related distress, the place he ended up would be a logical place to pull over and stop.
I think that is a fair assessment.
I was surprised that it happened on that trail. 91 is a fairly flat trail that winds by some condos; eventually coming out near the tubing hill on the Sunbowl side of the mountain. The trail starts basically at the bottom of the Ursa lift.
tekweezle
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I think this intersection is where the accident occurred. I have never noticed or skied on the blue trail connecting to it but if the boarder or someone else as came from that direction and lost control then who knows what could have happened.
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WWF-VT
Well-known member
This is all that is needed to be said in this entire thread
C-Rex
New member
Anyone know if he was wearing a helmet? This seems like a perfect example of a case where the victim suffered an injury that a helmet would have prevented. I'm not trying to say anything negative about the deceased, but it would be great if his death made some people realize that protecting your head is important, even if it won't save you from everything.
fbrissette
Well-known member
Despite the limitations, if my head had to meet a wooden post, I would take my chances with the helmet.
C-Rex
New member
You'd also be surprised at the protection they can provide.
hammer
Active member
Agree with both statements.
IMO helmets are more important for beginners because they usually ski in situations and speeds where they can have the most benefit.
That said, while I'm not sure they would be much help at Tunaspeed(TM), since we all don't ski that fast all the time I think helmets are of use no matter what skill level.
I'm a helmet advocate, too.....but have you seen more details regarding this incident that I haven't? Do we have enough info to make that kind of statement? In any collision I'd rather take my chances with a helmet than without....but it isn't always going to save you. Too many unknown circumstances in this one make me wonder if it wasn't a traumatic head injury, a neck injury, or other heath issue that stole this life.....and those are the types of things for which a helmet may not be particularly helpful.
It is better than nothing. But for most intermediates and experts they don't provide the level of protection that one assumes they do.
Yeah, maybe the way more advanced skiers ski, helmets might be less likely to save a life given the kinds of impacts that might occur....but that doesn't mean they can't save you from a lot of pain and non-life-threatening injury. I had one incident on Skyward at WF this season where the summit was socked in and I had a bout of vertigo. Ended up hitting a small tree moving off the edge of the trail when I thought I was pulling up to a stop well away from the edge. Broke a sapling at the base with my head. Might have come away with some stitches from that without a helmet. I've also had a few branches hit my helmet pretty hard in the glades...would have left a mark without a helmet.
tekweezle
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Just to relate my experience, I was in a gladed trail and whipped around some trees with low hanging branches. A branch poking out hit my helmet and goggle flush. It wasn't even a high speed impact but Looking back in retrospect, I could have lost an eye. Protection is for the unexpected situations you can't calculate.
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steamboat1
New member
The Ursa Access trail shown at about 42 seconds into this video is exactly where I broke my ankle & blew out my ACL last year. I know the trail had been closed last season & beginning of this season. Surprised to see that it's open again. There's two way traffic right behind the lift line ropes you see in the video & skiers/boarders usually gain quite a bit of speed to get around the ropes & to the beginning of the lift line without having to walk. I had assumed there was an accident there & that was the reason the trail was closed skiing towards Ursa from the American Express lift & upper mountain trails on that side. Skiers/boarders trying to get back to the lower mountain from Ursa are going in one direction while others are straight lining it from the other direction trying to make the lift. I don't know if this had anything to do with the accident but I can see where it could have if that's where the accident happened. I see they now put up fencing in that area. In my case the trail was closed but I couldn't see anything wrong with the trail. I didn't feel like walking uphill to the other traverse & didn't want to ski to the bottom & ride the lift up again to start over. I straight lined it trying to make the chair but hit something half way down that stopped my ski's dead & sent me flying like superman.
It's always sad to read about these incidents & my condolences go out to family & friends.
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