Did You Ever Think You Might Die While Skiing?

[highpeaksdrifter]

If yes, when and where and what happened to get you out of the situation?

 

[deadheadskier]

Killington, lower bunny buster, Thanksgiving weekend early 90's.....no explanation needed

 

[drjeff]

Once back in '01(before I wore a helmet). I was skiing down Highline @ Killington the morning after a thaw/freeze and booted out pretty close to the treeline while skiing at a nice clip, thought I was headed for the trees+snowmaking pipe basically upper back/neck first until I was somehow able to get part of the edge of one of my skis to grab enough to basically steer me parallel to the treeline until I stopped. It happened so fast that I still really have no clue how I reacted like I did with the skis - probably just luck.

Scared the sh$t out of me (and my wife who wasn't far behind me). Bought a helmet that afternoon.

 

[cbcbd]

Never thought I would die, but the first and only time where my legs were literally shaking because I was in over my head was at Tux on the lip, spring of '05. I didn't think I was going to die (the lip has a non-rocky runout), but I couldn't stop the leg shaking... took one turn, lost it, and cartwheeled down a bit to cheers from the crowd. What a dumbass...

Ever since that day I vowed to get better and have since returned to Washington to ski lines in Tux, Huntington, and King Ravines - some solo.

 

[2knees]

'03 season after the first of the absolute monster december dumps at killington. went up on tuesday, i think the storm had hit sunday into monday. anyway, it was early season and thimble was open only to the snowshed crossover. i was skiing alone and there wasnt a soul over there nor were any of the lifts running over there. I was skiing about 20-30" of cut up heavy powder and having a bit of a hard time. didnt notice but there is about a 5 or 6 foot cliff and i went off it totally unprepared. landed in the bomb hole from previous people and immediately double ejected and landed completely on my head. i was stunned for a second and couldnt believe how far i had flown out of my skis. They were just sitting there exactly where i landed with the poles lying next to them. I probably wasnt close to dying but for that split second when i realized i was already going off the thing, my heart just about stopped. Had i seen it and known, it wouldnt have been a big deal but man, was i freaked out.

 

[bvibert]

I didn't think I would die, but I got concerned that I might seriously injure myself and not be able to ski out during an accidental off trail excursion at MRG. I made it down without any real problems, though I am pretty embarrassed by the whole situation.

 

[crank]

It was a windy day near the top of Mammoth Mt. in CA. Nothing but 1,500 of air below.... and then then gondola reached the top station.

 

[Beetlenut]

A few years back I was skiing a glade at SR and I took some air between two trees. While in the air, my shoulder grazed one of the trees and knocked me sideways, and I landed in a deep pocket of snow upside down. My body made an impact crater in the snow, and I could not move. It was really hard to breath because my stomach was compressed. It took several minutes for my buddy to find me and ski over to me and help roll me up-right. During the time it took my buddy to get to me, I got to thinking how that would have been a real sucky way to die!

 

[Starter Jackets Rule!]

Almost but not quite.
I booted out on a training run at red mtn.
The DH course was not in the best shape for training but it was open.(too soft)
I double ejected with a din of 17 and shot over the A-fencing into the woods head first, That was the easy part of the ride.
I hit a fur tree and landed head first in a tree well.
(second time in my life).
It took the Red Mtn SP twenty mins just to find me the snow was that deep!
back 2 the well.
I was clinging on to a bunch of under branches about five feet under the snow with every move that I took the snow from above kept falling in on me and covering my face.
I felt something tugging on my right leg, it was a rope that the SP had snared around by boot.
once I was pulled out a ass felt cold due to the fact that my DH suit had been torn from my jewel's to halfway up my back.
I had to ski back to the start to collect my pants and coat with every thing hanging out that's when i thought I was about to Die from the embarssment.

 

[cbcbd]

They were just sitting there exactly where i landed with the poles lying next to them.

I guess something like this:

 

[jaywbigred]

Two years ago during one of the epic April dumps I was skiing woods (can't remember exactly where) on Lincoln Peak. The snow was heavy, wet, spring snow, but we were lovin it up all day. Towards the end of the day, my legs were getting to be real jello. After being in the woods for some time, I could see we were getting funneled out onto a trail in a few 100 feet. Stupidly, and as a result of my tiredness, I got lazy and decided to pretty much straightline it out of the wood rather than stop, rest, find the best hole out, etc...I wound up spilling out at a spot where I thought there would be a 4-6 foot steep hill/drop off, but instead was about a 10-14 foot steep hill. I got no air, rode the little hill down, which ended in a ditch that was lower than the adjoing trail. So my momentem carried me down into the ditch, and back out, but my skis got stuck in the cement snow in the ditch. The result was me doing a huge forward flip that whipped me around and i landed on my head and shoulders. Something like this:

I heard a crack as it happened and was very scared for about 30 seconds as I thought that I was probably going to be paralyzed as I couldn't move. But the shock wore off in a few seconds and I eventually was able to move everything and was fine, albeit with a very sore back that has never been the same since.

 

[deadheadskier]

I guess something like this:

from the video, it looked like you better off double ejecting. Doesn't appear to be much of a run out or place to check your speed

 

[awf170]

Last year I slid down Huntington Ravine on my ass, on ice, and went in between 2 rocks about 10 ft. apart from each other at about 30 mph. By far the scariest moment of my life. There were so many stupid decisions that led up this event. I can't even believe how dumb it was.

I guess something like this:

ih8udie.

 

[Geoff]

I fell jumping into wind slab on what was then called the Saudan Couloir at Blackcomb. I still don't know how I didn't kill myself on the rocks.

 

[vcunning]

Death by Murder

I had the most fortunate opportunity to be a ski bum for a year at the Arizona Snowbowl in Flagstaff, Arizona. In 1995, they had a record amount of snow. My wife was kind enough to work while I was on a so-called sabbatical.

One of her friends was visiting from New England for a week in January. The best 2 days of skiing in my life were with her while my wife went to work. On day one, 2 feet of the lightest powder dropped. I put the chains on the car (a local requirement for Flagstaff), we dropped my wife off at work and enjoyed a spectacular skiing day without a cloud in the sky.

My wife was very jealous when we picked her up at work. And guess what happened? . . . another 2 feet of snow dropped that evening and we had the exact same conditions.

At the end of day two I almost died (by murder). :lol:

I've been skiing for 25 years, averaging about 50 days a year for the last 5 years. Those 2 days were still the best. I've also been married for 25 years and am still alive. I think I'll survive.

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

If yes, when and where and what happened to get you out of the situation?

Sure..anytime I'm skiing fast..especially near the side of the trail..I know that if a snowsnake bites me and I get flung into a tree..I could die..but I believe my odds of dieing are way greater on the road..

 

[roark]

landed completely on my head..

This part sounds familiar...

 

[KingM]

Last year I was skiing Mt. Ellen when it was perfectly clear up top with a nasty fog bank right in the middle of the mountain. I could see the fog, but had no idea how bad it was until we were about twenty feet in. I hit a little bump, fell hard, and slid and slid and slid, right into the woods, going pretty fast. It was long enough to think, "Hmm, I hope I'm not about to spend the rest of my life in a wheelchair."

Fortunately, I came to rest with no apparent injuries. My shoulder was pretty sore the next day, and I was a bit shaken up, but could have been a lot worse.

 

[millerm277]

Only once. I was a young (12yr old) intermediate taking a lesson, and a horrific instructor decided to take our intermediate group down Quantum Leap at SR. (single diamond). We immediately discovered, right after the last turn-off, that the rest of the run was pure ice. Not hardpack, but glossy, clear ice. As expected, after about 3 "turns", I fell. Then the fun began....not knowing how to self-arrest well yet, I started to slide and pick up speed rapidly. I managed to "steer" my body that was flying down the hill with my skis that were still attached to my feet. If my skis had come off, I'm fairly certain I would have been seriously injured, since there's no way I would have been able to control/stop myself from flying off the trail.

After that terrible lesson where I learned nothing, I decided that was enough of lessons and that I could learn the rest on my own, and to start, by learning how to self-arrest better as I never wanted to have that experience again.

 

[frozencorn]

Not me, but a good friend of mine was out at Whistler, Feb. '01. I'm not sure of all the particulars, but he was flying down, close to the lift, somehow, he said, when he found himself in mid-air, having launched himself off a cliff. When he landed, he had shattered both legs, had to be helicoptered out, and spent three weeks in a Seattle hospital, where they had to rebuild his legs (the metal in them still bothers him when it gets cold.) When he came home, he was bed-ridden for an another month. The next week, I bought my first helmet.

Today, he can still kick my ass on the hill. But skiing with him is one of my greatest pleasures, knowing how close he came to losing it all, and then goes at it hard when he's out there to this day.