Death at Camelback 02/20

[John9]

I see a news story about a skier who died yesterday after accident. Says found in woods off trail. Must have skied off trail by accident, there is no snow off the trails to go out of bounds on purpose. I remember this happened last year off Hump trail. Anyone know more about this? So sad.

 

[Not Sure]

Pretty sure they did not intentionally go off trail . There often are some burm type drop offs that will send you there quickly. I’m not sure which trail this happened on but I avoid skiing close to the woods on the trails that have any kind of switchback to them , many times up there I’ve seen 8’ plus steep angle sides. Lots of big boulders and trees , was there fencing in the area?

 

[BenedictGomez]

The Poconos are my choice for world's most dangerous ski venues, and I'm not even kidding.

 

[Dick Gazinya]

I heard that place was flat as a pancake

 

[Jully]

I heard that place was flat as a pancake

People die on relatively gentle pitch groomed blues every year. Pancakes are dangerous when they're groomed.

 

[John9]

I ski there on a regular basis. Asp and Rocket are favorite. Easy to push 55 mph. Trails are short, not flat.

 

[x10003q]

Pretty sure they did not intentionally go off trail . There often are some burm type drop offs that will send you there quickly. I’m not sure which trail this happened on but I avoid skiing close to the woods on the trails that have any kind of switchback to them , many times up there I’ve seen 8’ plus steep angle sides. Lots of big boulders and trees , was there fencing in the area?

You would have to fence off the entire place.

 

[Not Sure]

You would have to fence off the entire place.

Well at least the turns for a start ,My guess is that’s where it happened. They do blow quite a bit of snow if you have a 5 foot base in places and a 3 foot berm on the side that’s quite a drop off into the woods.

 

[danimals]

My buddy flew into the woods there a few years back. When I say into the woods, I mean quite a ways in. I thought for sure he was dead due to the rocks and no natural cover. Walked away without a scratch .

I haven’t been recently but I remember the steeper trails funnel right into turns.


Sent from my iPhone using AlpineZone

 

[cdskier]

Well at least the turns for a start ,My guess is that’s where it happened. They do blow quite a bit of snow if you have a 5 foot base in places and a 3 foot berm on the side that’s quite a drop off into the woods.

Those steep drops along the trail edges of many PA and NJ areas always bothered me when I was younger and skied those areas. It was always in the back of my mind that they could cause some serious damage if you went off the sides where those existed.

 

[BenedictGomez]

They do blow quite a bit of snow if you have a 5 foot base in places and a 3 foot berm on the side that’s quite a drop off .

Oh, big time. I've seen drop-offs like that on intermediate trails at Shawnee too. Poconos is combat skiing.

 

[ThinkSnow]

Don't those areas bother to use fencing to prevent such occurrences?

 

[asnowmobiler]

Hardly at all.
It can get interesting when you get caught up in the shaved ice that piles up along the edges and your cross your tips:-o

 

[x10003q]

There were always people climbing up out of the woods to the trail when I skied at Pocono and NJ areas. I have even seen people lose their balance when standing on the side of the trail and slowly slide down the berm into the woods. Picture mid-Feb in a no snow year- 5 feet of snow making going down to zero in the woods and you get these accidents. Every trail is like this.