Jiminy snowboarder death

[Greg]

Man...these are starting to bum me out:

http://www.capitalnews9.com/content/headlines/?ArID=111727&SecID=33

I feel for this guy's (kid's? - he was only 18...) family and friends.

 

[riverc0il]

whoa, that's three in a week. yet another terrible tragedy and a bummer for new england skiing.

i find that particular article odd, in that it gives scant details about the accident and goes on for over half the article about helmets and skiing safety. while some mention of the lack of helmet and preventative measures is warrented, i think more details could have been provided vs. outlining safety. it's sad that it takes the tragedy of others to take better precautions. it's a very similar to the way media handles a car crash in which a seat beat was not fastened... suggesting that tragedy may not have occured with a safety device.

such a terrible week for accidents. seems to happen every year but always still is troublesome to read about.

 

[bvibert]

Thats really sad... I feel bad for his family and the families of the other two people.

 

[RossiSkier]

Lids on Kids and on adults

It is a very sad thing to see a young man cut down in his prime of life. This should motivate us to wear a helmut. I started wearing one this year after years and years of skiing without one. All my children will wear them. I even went out and bought one for my good friend for Christmas.

Prayers to the boy's family.

 

[tirolerpeter]

Ski deaths

I feel like there is a pattern here. Without knowing the details of each of these deaths on the slopes, I get the uneasy feeling that trail conditions (regardless of skier ability and/or judgement) have been a significant factor in each of these incidents. Namely, ICE. Fifteen years ago I suffered a major crash that was directly attributable to ice. Even though, there was an inch or so of "machine made powder" on the surface the base was a glacier (This was at Bellayre, NY). After a collision (another element of the story) with a totally oblivious other skier on a blue trail, I went into a high speed backward snowplow. My right heel released just as I thought I was going to control the slide, and dropped me on my forehead (No helmets in those days!) and I suffered a severe concussion with long term consequences. My point is that I was skiing on a BLUE, on "powder," on a virtually empty trail, yet, dropping my head onto the ICE base nearly did me in. Firstly, I was (self) deceived into thinking I was on SNOW, and I believed I was skiing in control because I was able to edge reasonably well. Secondly, I did not anticipate the consequences of falling on this thin "snow" cover. I think this happens more often than we realize. On Dec 22nd I was with my son and my friend (They are 28 and 34, and also excellent experienced skiers) on "DOWNDRAFT" at Killington. My friend had taken the lead, gone over a rise, and invisible to me had gone down on his left side. My son, skiing a different line had seen this and had stopped about two feet above him. As I came over the rise, I too decided to stop. Never happened. I hit exactely the same spot Bobby had hit and went down on my left side also. I slid through both of them taking them both out. Fortunately without any damage since I was going pretty slowly by the time I had reached them. While we were trying to untangle ourselves, two more skiers following the same line fell in exactely the same spot as we had. They missed us, but we were all nailed by this unmarked and invisible icy "boobytrap" right in the center of a trail that otherwise had great cover and that we had skiied twice before that day. ICE is the big danger to us here in the NE. BTW, we all wear helmets to ski these days.

 

[Greg]

Here's some more info:

http://www.thetranscript.com/Stories/0,1413,103~9054~2634055,00.html

It looks like this accident may have been a result of a lack of experience. The Outback trail is very easy and has only a slight pitch in the beginning. Towards the end, it flattens out so much that I would suspect many riders would need to unbuckle to "walk" the rest of the run unless significant speed was carried through from the top.

 

[ctenidae]

Man, just goes to show, you never really know, do you? Even a green trail can kill you if you mess up and don't respect it enough. The kid's death is a tragedy. The only good that can come of it is that people notice, and utilize an extra little bit of caution.

 

[hammer]

Re: Ski deaths

I feel like there is a pattern here. Without knowing the details of each of these deaths on the slopes, I get the uneasy feeling that trail conditions (regardless of skier ability and/or judgement) have been a significant factor in each of these incidents. Namely, ICE.

I would not be surprised if this is the case. It doesn't take a lot of pitch to pick up a potentially dangerous amount of speed on ice, especially if you don't have the experience to handle it.

I really have to make sure my wife gets a helmet before our next ski trip...

 

[chocolateSkiBunny]

...I find that particular article odd in that it gives scant details about the accident and goes on for over half the article about helmets and skiing safety...

It also mentions attempts to pass laws making helments mandatory for kids. The victim was 18 and a first-timer--maybe he'd thought he'd watched enough of the X-Games to not need a formal lesson. It sounds like this tragedy is being used to score political points and pump up helmet rental revenues.

 

[Greg]

It also mentions attempts to pass laws making helments mandatory for kids.

Just an FYI - we discussed the helmet mandate last season.

 

[sledhaulingmedic]

Regardless of the details, a loss of life at that young age is a tragedy. My condolances go out to the familuy and friends of the departed.

Much as I kid around, personal responsbility and risk managment is up to ourselves. Want to come home after a day on the slope? How about http://www.nsp.org/nsp2002/safety_info_template.asp?mode=yrc Maybe you want to increase your chance of skiing/riding another day? How about....http://www.nsp.org/nsp2002/safety_info_template.asp?mode=helmets
other ways to increas your safety?

Accountability: A beutiful thing