Your Fear Factor

[BodeMiller1]

What mountain or mountains do you ski with caution.

For me:

1. Killington, Cannon, Sugarloaf are the culprits.

I like to ski these places and I do it enough that I let my guard down. They all have long steep trails.

2. Sunday River

This is the only place I've been hurt; however, the runs aren't too long (at least the steep stuff) and most of the time the mountain is busy enough if I go down someone will be around.


A big part of the sport is the rush and balancing the thrill with walking off the hill at the end of the day.

 

[4aprice]

Crossing that 60 line the fear factor has risen big time. It's not any particular mountain, it could be small and easy. It's the fact that for any injury the recovery time has tripled over the years. I'll still ski things especially if my son accompanies me but that pause at the top is longer and the decent time longer.

 

[crank]

We skied a really steep line at Lake Louise last winter... Steepest pitch I've skied in maybe 4 years or so... Steep as if not steeper that Tower 3 at Jackson. Once I got used to it and settled in I was able to really enjoy it. Definitely some fear factor there though.

At one point I said to my wife to just take her time and it would be ok. This apparantly freaked her out a bit because I never make comments like that. Steepest run she'd ever skied it was. And she did fine!

Yes to shit seeming steeper and fear factor ramping up as I get older.

 

[zyk]

Ever since I wrecked my knee I've been trying to take it slower. I've skied everything in the east that I've wanted to ski. Now I'm looking forward to teaching my granddaughter on a small local hill.

 

[snoseek]

I'm more scared of crowds and weird intersections than steep gnarly terrain. Anywhere trees merges with trail is my biggest fear.

 

[Hawk]

Skiing at most resorts I don't really have what you would call fear. I ski with my head on a swivel at Killington in the early saeson and late season. I would call it caution. The only place I experienced fear was at Chamonix when I froze in a really steep chute. It took the guide to reassure I could make that first turn that unstuck me. I have also been in some really exposed terrain over there where fear started to sink in. That's when you just go.

 

[Hawk]

Actually, standing at the top of Baldy one day with my friends pointing me down some chute, maybe little chute put some fear in me.
Nice friends. LOL I opted for the larger main chute.

 

[2Planker]

As an Over 60 skier, I can still ski anything w/ no fear, BUT it's the speed that makes me uneasy now...

Anything over 40+mph seems a LOT faster than it ever used too...

Tucks is the only thing I fear, every year, but it is fear out of pure respect

 

[BodeMiller1]

I always thought I knew what steep was then I went to Sugar Loaf. Just going with the flow there, hitting speeds never came close to. Went back to Cannon and tucked 3 of the front five (groomed out). If I'm not scarred, I'm not on. When I'm trying to hit my peak I use coffee and donuts,

Is there anything donuts can't do? I don't want to die doing what I love, I want to be thinking about it.

If you can't touch the side it's not steep enough. My problem is I seem to jump small cliffs I have no business jumping.

 

[jimk]

Skied about a 100 mountains in North America. You can find steep stuff at many, usually at all the big/renowned places. Off the top of my head the places I remember encountering pretty dang steep terrain are:
East: MRG, Stowe, Sugarbush
West: Arapahoe Basin, Aspen Highlands, Crested Butte, Taos, Snowbird, Alta, Jackson Hole, Delirium Dive at Sunshine Banff
Of course, there are many more.

As you guys know, if you get off the trails and start exploring you can stumble onto steep surprises. One day in April 2023 I was at Solitude, UT and tried to find my way to Cathedral Cirque. It's near the cliffy area 3/4 way up the summit chair. I missed it and ended up going down a very steep and tight chute that I would have to straight line. I had started down the chute and I couldn't see the exit out of it. In fact there was a thick tree branch crossing the chute at eyeball level requiring a duck while straight lining. I was not comfortable (scared shitless), so I spent a long time side stepping up and out of that chute. That was the sketchiest situation I'd experienced in a few years. There was a lot of powder in the chute making sidestepping tedious. But it was so steep that if I lost footing and fell over I was going to tumble for a while.
Photo of a couple friends in the Cathedral Chute area at Solitude from a visit earlier in the season of 2023:

 

[BenedictGomez]

Corbet's Couliour's got nothing on intermediate trails in the Poconos.

 

[2Planker]

Opening Day @ SR - 1,200 people on 1 trail, w/ downloading and multiple bare patches.

Now that is something that used to terrify all the patrollers

 

[MadPadraic]

Crystal. The mandatory air gates at Northway are the most intimidating things I've ever seen inbounds at a resort. Note: there are tamer entrances to Northway. The entire Silver Queen area freaks me out, because the cliffs aren't well marked and it is too steep to see below. I have no intention of ever riding "Brain Damage" there.

Also, I get vertigo when I'm well above tree line. This has caused me issues at both Courchevel and Chamonix on terrain that otherwise would have been easy.

 

[machski]

The slide into Big Couloir at Big Sky freaks me out every time. Not that it is steep, but it is almost always wind scoured and looking over 2000 very of straight drop off if you blow am edge is scary crap. The Big Couloir itself doesn't induce that fear like the side slip to the entrance

 

[ss20]

Cirque traverse at Snowbird is the first thing that came to my mind. Chair 23 at Mammoth was a little intimidating the first couple runs. The Baldy chutes at Alta are pretty intense. Very, very high consequence terrain. That's what freaks me out more than anything these days... what would happen in a fall/slide-for-life situation. Baldy Chutes you're going down a thousand+ vertical feet and hitting rocks 100%.

 

[2Planker]

Can't remember the year (happens when you're over 60) But it was the Cirque at Bachelor on a really cold & windy day.
Nobody had any business being there that day. Think Tuck's in February

 

[Hawk]

The slide into Big Couloir at Big Sky freaks me out every time. Not that it is steep, but it is almost always wind scoured and looking over 2000 very of straight drop off if you blow am edge is scary crap. The Big Couloir itself doesn't induce that fear like the side slip to the entrance

The headwaters traverse in ski boots has much the same fear factor also. It that traverse over to the Big ever not icy and rock strewn?

 

[BodeMiller1]

The first season Mittersill was open got stuck in an "elevator shaft" Ice, dirt. Ended up on the side downhill ski on tree. No where to go but down. So that's where I went.

Most good ski days are uneventful. Great days are sketchy, butt you survive.

 

[Scottyskis2]

Fucken HD and being in nursing at 46 years young and sick with bad illness sssss and few miles from the east Catskills mountains that I not allowed to leave here for rest of my life. Sorry for the bummer post but that what I fear and feel all the time

 

[machski]

The headwaters traverse in ski boots has much the same fear factor also. It that traverse over to the Big ever not icy and rock strewn?

Agreed. Once back in my skis, the fear in Headwaters goes way down. Until then though....