Trails with high potential risk of injury/fatality

[St. Jerry]

All the unfortunate deaths got me thinking about this morbid topic. The trail that comes to mind is Pine Knot at Gore. It's always icy (boiler plate in spots), crowded, narrow, and probably should be a black diamond rather than a blue.

 

[millerm277]

Pipeline at Mountain Creek. Steep icy pitch into a sudden narrow 90 degree turn.

 

[BenedictGomez]

Liftline (points below National) at Stowe. It isn't hard, and that's sort of the problem.

It's a de-fanged, faux, double-diamond, but it is relatively steep, and very wide open, which for some will encourage high speeds.

You put someone on it who "wants to ski a double-diamond trail", and you've a potential risk of injury, especially in fast conditions.

 

[Zand]

Pretty much any wide steep crowded groomer. White Heat, Ovation, Superstar, Jet, hell... 10th mountain at Wachusett has killed a few people because wide groomers encourage speed, and icy wide groomers increase that speed and decrease traction. Hit some ice wrong and you better hope theres a damn good snowbank on the side of the trail.

 

[steamboat1]

Speed kills!!!

 

[deadheadskier]

Somebody list the trails the deaths have occurred on the past few years in the Northeast and I'm guessing you'll get a good idea. I'd say groomed intermediate to advanced type trails involving skiers/riders traveling at a high rate of speed and crashing into the woods.

I seem to recall a few deaths the past few years on an intermediate trail at Windham, you had the recent one on Sleeper at Sugarbush, there was the ski team kid at Sugarloaf a couple years ago on either King's Landing or Hayburner. All groomed cruising trails with a skier traveling at a high rate of speed.

 

[Smasandian]

I always found Upper Goat Run at Jay a bit dangerous. It's usually icy at the top, it's tight and it's mostly crowded.

I took my brother to Jay, not the greatest skier in the world but was doing most of the blues alright. He hated Upper Goat Run because there always people scrapping behind you.

I also hate the end of Northway but that's a personal opinion.

 

[thetrailboss]

Any trail can be dangerous, including green circles. It's about skiing/riding in control and within your limits. And staying off closed trails.

 

[AdironRider]

There are 3.8 skier deaths per 1 million visits. With odds that low, theres not enough data to argue one way or another.

 

[UVSHTSTRM]

Somebody list the trails the deaths have occurred on the past few years in the Northeast and I'm guessing you'll get a good idea. I'd say groomed intermediate to advanced type trails involving skiers/riders traveling at a high rate of speed and crashing into the woods.

I seem to recall a few deaths the past few years on an intermediate trail at Windham, you had the recent one on Sleeper at Sugarbush, there was the ski team kid at Sugarloaf a couple years ago on either King's Landing or Hayburner. All groomed cruising trails with a skier traveling at a high rate of speed.

Regards to Sugarloaf, you bring up a good point, I think all of the Sugarloaf deaths in the last 5 years have been on intermediate trails....heck the one that involved the person from Nova Scotia a month ago occured on an intermediate with powder conditions.

 

[jaja111]

Great Eastern at Kmart. I'm not joking. I'm serious. I hate that damn cat walk.

 

[riverc0il]

Steep trails cause skiers and riders to check their speed with skids, it doesn't seem like deaths are happening on steep trails for the most part. The most dangerous trails in terms of death potential seem to be intermediate groomers that get folks skiing too fast because they have no need to check their speed.

Though as TB says, conditions are ultimately what makes a trail dangerous. These deaths probably aren't occurring during the first run on fresh cord.

 

[Watatic Skier]

Probably any trail above green that has high traffic. By lunchtime most of these will probably become sheer ice.

Another bad mix is moguls and groomed snow. Like Zand said 10th Mountain trail at Wachusett is a great example. Just last week I watched someone (probably a low intermediate) come flying down the upper section and get launched off of the moguls. crash, and slide down the whole steep pitch. When a trail is groomed a lot of people assume the entire thing is groomed.

 

[andyzee]

Steep trails cause skiers and riders to check their speed with skids, it doesn't seem like deaths are happening on steep trails for the most part. The most dangerous trails in terms of death potential seem to be intermediate groomers that get folks skiing too fast because they have no need to check their speed.

Though as TB says, conditions are ultimately what makes a trail dangerous. These deaths probably aren't occurring during the first run on fresh cord.

Good points, I find the most dangerous to be intermediate trails for a number of reasons; 1. Expectation, people expect them to be easy. 2. Icy conditions, they get more traffic and get skied off quicker. As a result, you go get people skiing quicker and then suddenly hitting ice. IMHO, Windham is great for these kind of trails.

 

[goldsbar]

Yup, grooming kills. Sounds crazy but true. Put an intermediate on any bumped up blue run and they'll pick their way down at 5 mph. Groom same intermediate trail and there will be 10 of them side by side skiing down at 40 mph. Mix in a little young male testosterone...

 

[andyzee]

Yup, grooming kills. Sounds crazy but true. Put an intermediate on any bumped up blue run and they'll pick their way down at 5 mph. Groom same intermediate trail and there will be 10 of them side by side skiing down at 40 mph. Mix in a little young male testosterone...

Put it on an area of the mountain that is open and windblown.

 

[Scruffy]

Any trail that lures in beginners where they don't belong. Starr at Stowe is an example of the opposite, you can't see the slope pitch from peering over the top, it disappears, so the sense is it's really steep, which it is, so it freaks out even the noobs with even the most testosterone for brains. An unfortunate side affect of the confluence of the Xtreme culture, and the instant gratification culture is any noob on rental boards thinks they got what it takes to tackle the whole mountain. Those clowns flying down at mach II in a death V, skis a flapping, their butt back like their about to sit and take a shit are like Russian Roulette bullets flying around the mountain.

 

[oakapple]

Any trail that lures in beginners where they don't belong.

Practically all beginners, faced with this situation, ski the trail VERY slowly and carefully. That's why you hardly ever hear of a beginner dying on the slopes. If it's going to happen, it tends to be someone with enough experience to become over-confident and build up unsafe speed.

 

[SIKSKIER]

There have been 3 deaths at Cannon at the bottom of Skylite.You must make a hard right onto the traverse to get back to the summit quad.Everyone didn't make the turn and ended up below the traverse in the trees.They have widened the approach quite a bit since and made the transition much easier.

 

[Puck it]

There have been 3 deaths at Cannon at the bottom of Skylite.You must make a hard right onto the traverse to get back to the summit quad.Everyone didn't make the turn and ended up below the traverse in the trees.They have widened the approach quite a bit since and made the transition much easier.

It does get icy there and the turn at the end of Ravine also. You would think they would put in some type of catch fence to prevent this from happening.