"Close Calls" With a Happy Ending

[oneotwoandcounting]

FHW’s post on the 00-01 run on Cloudspin and the and the post on talkabouts prompted me to this thread. Talkabouts, well I hated them until a friend of mine gave me two for Christmas. She did so because at a Thanksgiving dinner one of her relative’s asked me I ever had any “close calls” at being seriously injured or lost on a mountain while skiing. I think anyone that skis regularly has their “close call” stories and I would like to hear them. Here is one of mine.

About ten years ago I was skiing Whiteface’s Cloudspin trail. As I came onto the Niagara section I was on the right side of the trail. I was about to drop onto the, “drop off.” I headed for a bump at the trail’s edge. My plan was to make a left turn on the bump. Well I miss judged the firmness of the bump and I missed the turn. The bump launched me and I flew off the trail. I headed skyward and started flying over some trees. I knew I was going to hit one of them so I turned myself sideways and told myself I had to hit the tree dead center under my boots and absorb the shock. Somehow I managed to do so using the tree to stop me (I now believe in miracles). I than dropped straight down into what was around ten feet of snow. The snow cushioned my fall and I was uninjured. However I was lying in all that snow with my skies tangled beneath me. My skiing buddy (although he was skiing behind me – way behind) did not see my sorry attempt at becoming a bird and skied past my dilemma. We were on our way to a break at the mid station loge so he proceed to go there.

Well it took me over forty minutes to get myself untangled and out of the woods in that much snow. By the time I did I was exhausted, covered with perspiration and looked a wreck. When I reached mid station lodge my buddy was waiting and said he was about to send out a search party for me. After telling my girlfriend this (and two other “being lost on the mountain stories”) she decided a talkabout was a good idea. I carried one last year but this summer I lost one and the other one broke ((actually I drowned it falling into the AuSable River while fishing this spring – boy was the water cold ( I’m beginning to wonder if I don’t have a subconscious death wish)) (no way I don’t think dead people ski – at least I haven’t seen any, I think). I will probably get myself another just in case I have any more unexpected bad gravity experiences.

Once again I apologize for such a long post. God I have to get a life or the mountain has to open.

 

[ChileMass]

Not exactly a close call, but it's another Cloudspin tale -

I don't know the trail as well you obviously do, but about 20 years ago on a foggy, warm spring day I was tearing down the center of the steep pitch just below the big left turn about a quarter of the way down (is that Niagara?), pretending I was Leonard Stock winning the 1980 Olympic downhill (which occurred 4 years earlier on this trail - look it up) when I got onto a sheet of uncovered late season ice. I got flat on my boards to try to give myself a second or two to figure out what I was going to do next, and as I was contemplating, I hit a huge pile of wet mashed potatoes waiting for me at the other side of the icesheet. Never saw it coming in the fog and flat light, and buried both skis straight into the pile.

As I went over my tips, I heard the unmistakeable sound of "click-click" as both of my bindings released, and I was truly airborne. Right over the tips, just about a full somerault with a quarter twist. Landed first on my right shoulder and then - BAM - slammed down onto my right hip. Big slide into another pile of wet mashies, and I came to a halt on my butt.

At first I would have sworn I really badly injured my hip, and I could barely get up to ski away. By the bottom (last run - needed anesthetic available at the bar) my shoulder really started to hurt, and by home I couldn't lift my right hand over my head. The orthopedic doctor told me I had some broken cartilege in the shoulder, but I never got it fixed. Problem is, it still hurts occasionally today, so perhaps I'll go get it 'scoped one of these days. Can anyone recommend a good doctor around Worcester?

That was the furthest I ever flew unintentionally on a pair of skis......

 

[freeheelwilly]

Chile, yes that was Niagara and I've had 1 or 2 embarrassing falls down there in the flats but mostly almost falls. Hit sticky snow or whatever and then proceed to strain every muscle in your body in order to recover and remain upright. Sometimes I think I should just fall; hurts a lot less.

102. That's a bitch. And kinda scary too 'cus if you'd of been hurt, even a little, might have been a different story......

One time backcountry in the Chic Chocs I snapped a ski about 7 or 8 miles in comin' off the summit of a mountain. The ski broke right where the toe piece of my tele binding attached to it and blew the binding out (and the mounting holes were all messed up). The ski itself wasn't literally in two pieces; just that from the point of the break the back half of the ski was bent hideously skyward. The snow pack was unfathomably deep - post-holing for 7 or more miles with a fairly well loaded backpack was not a pleasant thought. Especially when the sun's gonna set in about an hour. I'm sure I had a headlamp - but still.

Miraculously, my buddy had a manual drill. We set new holes, remounted the binding and just skied out. The ski was bent but the tough skiing was largely behind us and it kept me on top of the snow and got me out. Whatever. I needed a new pair of skis anyway. :beer:

It turned out not to be a "close call" after all but for the first 60 or so seconds, before I knew what my bud had in his pack, I thought I was in for a loooong night.

 

[salida]

Oh boy here goes nothing:

I was skiing along between two trails at Winter Park in Colorado. Things were going superb with feet upon feet of powder. I saw a steeper line to my right and I decided I would check it out. I busted through a thick stand of trees and found better spaced trees and a steeper grade. Cool I thought, I'll go one more tree stand over and it'll be even better than this one. So, I bust through some more tight trees, and on the other side, before I can even think is about a 10 foot wide corridor of water. I couldn't stop so I decided to give it a whirl and jump over. Bahhaha, didn't work so hot, and I planted myself in the side of the bank on the otherside. So here I am in tons of snow, and the top of the stream is kinda iced up. So I cant go up and out of the stream so I kind of step onto the ice. Very dangerous, but my only option. There happened to be a small tree right where I was on the bank. So, I used the tree to hold on to while I was stepping on the ice. This was working, but it didn't get me anywhere, I still had to get out of this huge hole.

So, I decided I was definitely going to have to take my skis off. So, carefully, very carefully, I pole out of the bindings, and throw the skis up the 10 foot emankment. Here I am ready to fall through the ice any minutes, standing in my ski boots with no help in sight. I figure I'm going ot have to get out some how. So, I pull as much snow off the side of the bank as possible, beating the crap out of the side of the banks with my ski poles, and this stuff is calving off like an ice berg coming straight from the arcitc. Eventually, it kind of makes a pile at the bottom of the river. Sweet, now I've got something to step on. I use a combination of sticking my boots into the side of the snow wall, stepping on the pile, and dragging myself up the side of this sapling. Eventually, after maybe a half an hour of intense sliding down the wall, I decide thats not going to work. I end up basically hugging the tree, and pulling myself up it. Much better, this worked pretty well, and I eventually got high enough that I could fling myself at the embankment and land on top. Finally, I was out of this damn river.

My bro, was waiting at the bottom, just chillin, thinking what could have happened to me. Ha, pretty scary experience though.

-porter

 

[SAB]

Wow, I have a couple of good stories - but this one is probably the best.

Went on a trip to Tuckerman's a number of years ago. I had been there a number of times, so I didn't have that foolish drive many first-time visitors have that makes them do stupid things. Still, it is a big event because it is a bit of a drive and it's tough getting people to commit to a weekend so I can make the trip with friends.

So we get a nice spring day. We hump our gear all the way up there. Weird conditions. The bottom half of the bowl is glare ice and the top half is heavy snow. They must have had some kind of an odd weather event a few days earlier to cause these conditions. We look it over and don't like the ice, but the snow above looks just fine. No problem - we'll just make short runs and stop before the ice starts. We'll get in twice as many runs!

So we throw our skis over our shoulders and start the climb, kicking miniscule steps in the ice until we reach the snow. We're going to ski the Chute. For those unfamilar with Tucks, the Chute starts out wide, then narrows down to a passage through the rocks that is maybe 20-25 feet across. Below this passage you come out into the lower bowl, which is completely open. The ice line starts just below the narrow part.

We climb to the top of the Chute, take a bit of a rest, then pop on our skis. Takes a minute to get started; after all the work getting up here, you want to make sure everyone else is clear before you start your run and there also is a bit of nervousness before the first run. Finally, take a deep breath and push off into the first traverse. Snow is heavy spring snow. Come to the edge and push off into an agressive jump turn - only to jump right out of my skis! Later, when I recovered my skis, I found both tips buried in the snow and both tails skicking up in the air at about a 45 degree angle, nice and parallel. A fall like this isn't like losing an edge where you fall into the slope. I was jumping away from the slope for my turn, so my fall became a tumble. So here I am, tumbling towards the rock Chute, about 150 feet below.

First order of buisness is to see. Snow had packed into my sunglasses, so I reached up and ripped the glasses off. I'm still 5 feet or so from the wall, so I'm OK. Manage to stop the tumble, get onto my stomach, feet down the hill, so now I dig my elbows into the snow to stop. Almost stopped - then the snow ran out and the ice started. I just accelerated the rest of the way to the bottom of the ravine, about 400 feet.

The bottom had melted out a little, so there were rocks and bushes sticking through the snow. Luckily I hit a bush. That's why this is under 'close calls' and not under 'bad wrecks'. I found out that the next day, a co-worker of a friend of a friend did the same thing in the same place and was taken out by helicopter with 2 broken legs, a broken arm, and 8 broken fingers. Me, I ripped a gash in my face on the bush. It looked bad at the time, but after I was out and able to clean up the blood, it really was quite minor.

Then the coup-de-grace, I had to reclimb to the top of the Chute to get my skis and ski down again! Believe me that run was not much fun.

Exciting trip. Biggest injury was to my psyche.

Moral - when you ski, think not just about where you are sking, but also what's below you.

SAB

 

[ChileMass]

WOW - Some of these stories are nuts......

Skiers rule, baby...... 8)

 

[Greg]

Wow SAB. Now that's some story...

 

[dmc]

A couple of years ago at Tucks... We were getting ready to leave the bowl and head back to the shelters.. As were were leaving this guy asks if how the lower headwall was... I told him it was undermined and had open water... So he shouldnt go... He did..
As he was skiing he fell and lost a ski... It went right into a crevase and was sitting in the water... He try to get the ski and fell in... He got sucked under the snow and popped out of the next open spot 25' down the hill.. He climbed out went back up and tried again... Fell - got sucked in again and popped back out...
We watched in amazement...

 

[JimG.]

I'll never forget a fall similar to what SAB describes in Chute 2 seasons ago. The guy blew out of his skis on his first turn and accelerated like a rocket down to the bottom. He never tried to slow himself, at least not that I could tell, and his rate of acceleration was close to horrifying. He was so rattled by the fall I think he was going to just leave his skis there but his poor snowboarder buddy actually sacrificed his run to gather the guy's equipment and bring it down to him.

After all that hiking, I'll admit I would have left the skis there and let him hike back up to get them.

 

[dmc]

He was so rattled by the fall I think he was going to just leave his skis there but his poor snowboarder buddy actually sacrificed his run to gather the guy's equipment and bring it down to him.

Remember me yelling at the guy - to hike up and get his own darn skis???

 

[JimG.]

Remember me yelling at the guy - to hike up and get his own darn skis???

:lol: :lol: ; I felt bad for the snowboarder because it looked like he had a scary time inching his way down with all of that ski equipment. I was glad he didn't fall or get hurt.

 

[dmc]

They were both in WAY over their heads...