OK, Not to start a debate again...but

[cbcbd]

At Snow... heading down at a good speed, was going over a big rolling hump to the right of these kids to the left of the bump...
one of their friends was sitting down right in the middle of the trail, under the lip. I didn't see him until I had too much lift and couldn't get an edge to turn - clipped him with a ski and fell.

His friends scattered and he stayed, gave me my ski and asked if I was ok. I was freakin pissed, but since he did what he did, it stopped me from bitching at the kid and I just told him not to sit in the middle of the trail under a lip.

I hit someone a long time ago... I don't remember details, but I'm sure I apologized profusely.

 

[jack97]

A snowboarder is usually looking ahead to their next turn ..when turning toe side, it is easy to glance up the hill but when turning heel side the boarder is usually looking ahead to his next turn and it is very difficult to look over the shoulder to glance back up the hill. Therefore, it is a blind turn but don't skiers made all their turns blind so to speak?

I agree that skiers have limited peripheral view, I think the point the instructor was saying is that the view on riders heel side is more limited, it's just an observation he was passing on to us. Generally, I give more clearance on the heel side and will get closer or pass on the toe side.

 

[Brettski]

but don't skiers made all their turns blind so to speak?

Yes..but not if I've got a straight line...besides no one is going to catch me, so when I do pull up or want to make a direction change (GS Turn, whatever), I put my blinker on ( ;-) ), Look over either my left or right sholder, then commit to the turn

And I gotta say that's a good idea...BUT, had a border coming down Belt (I hate that trail) and rolled back into my son knocking down while passing him at warp 9, my son was a advanced beginner at that point, so it's the converse...picked my son up, who was more frightened the hurt...even twisting the knee a little is scary....

Never did find the kid the rest of the day....damn sure was looking though

 

[Brettski]

Also, I imagine that being in an "altered" state with head phones on doesn't help

I smelled some old familiar smells from the lift on Tuesday

 

[dmc]

Also, I imagine that being in an "altered" state with head phones on doesn't help

Doesn't affect me...

 

[DEVO]

Over the xmas break I was skiing while filming a friend who was also skiing. I had the camera out in front of me keeping one eye on the trail and the other looking at the small screen. I watched an older woman skiing slightly ahead of us and to my right and since we were skiing just a little faster the woman and I ended up skiing next to each other for a number of turns. Then the woman and I made both made a turn into each other. We both fell and I slid a little more downhill. The fall was pretty minor for both of us and neither of lost a ski or pole or anything. I got up and asked if she was alright. All she could say was "I was the downhill skier" I answered that actually for a few minutes we were skiing pretty much next to each other and that we had just turned into each other. She just kept repeating "well, I was the downhill skier" Finally I just said ok, and skied away. I figured that was better than trying to argue with her.

 

[cbcbd]

Over the xmas break I was skiing while filming a friend who was also skiing. I had the camera out in front of me keeping one eye on the trail and the other looking at the small screen. I watched an older woman skiing slightly ahead of us and to my right and since we were skiing just a little faster the woman and I ended up skiing next to each other for a number of turns. Then the woman and I made both made a turn into each other. We both fell and I slid a little more downhill. The fall was pretty minor for both of us and neither of lost a ski or pole or anything. I got up and asked if she was alright. All she could say was "I was the downhill skier" I answered that actually for a few minutes we were skiing pretty much next to each other and that we had just turned into each other. She just kept repeating "well, I was the downhill skier" Finally I just said ok, and skied away. I figured that was better than trying to argue with her.

Should've pushed her down the hill and said "NOW you're the downhill skier"...


... I guess that's kind of mean. Just pushing her would suffice.

 

[shwilly]

I'm a boarder, have never hit anyone, and have only been hit once, by a skier. Once another boarder almost turned into me, but I said "whoa whoa whoa!" and pushed off to avoid the collision, and we both went on our merry ways without falling or stopping.

Mainly I try to play it safe and leave room for error. You can't always predict what others will do, particularly beginners. If I try not to get within 20 feet of anyone, that leaves a lot of room for beginners to lurch spastically across the trail without a problem.

My pet peeve is when people are stopped on the trail, you're about to pass them, and they drop into your path without looking. I swear, some people drop in when they hear someone coming, as some sort of passive-aggressive thing. "Look uphill and yield before starting downhill" must be the most-ignored part of the skier responsibility code.

I don't know why boarders seem to hit people so much. I suspect it's a combination of factors: there are a whole lot of low intermediate boarders, and skiers and boarders often take different lines and can't always predict which way the other will go. It's true that it's a bit startling if someone comes by close on your blind side, but I don't think I've seen a collision happen this way.

On the bright side, as more terrain has opened in the last month, it's become easier to avoid the most crowded trails except for certain bottlenecks and intersections.

 

[Jester]

Same here

i used to ski vernon valley, nj alot. nowadays, it's mountain creek. i don't go there anymore. every single time i go there, a boarder clocks my kids. when your kids are about 5 years old and they get clocked consistently, you start avoiding the ski slopes. it's gotten much better now that my kids don't need to be on greens all the time, but these are the slopes i still avoid for those reasons:
- mountain creek
- hunter

I tought my Kids at Sundown but they got creamed so many times by , you know - the people I'm not supposed to mention - (but let's say when they're coming in for the kill there's usually a very loud scraping noise right before impact) that we just don't go there anymore. A shame too since it's so close. I saw a little girl get her wrist broken by one of these guys. I wish there could be some kind of penalty but what are we going to do have referees with flags all over the mountain?

 

[dmc]

I saw a little girl get her wrist broken by one of these guys. I wish there could be some kind of penalty but what are we going to do have referees with flags all over the mountain?

Speaking as "one of these guys" that your "not supposed to mention" may I suggest you talk to the Ski Patrol or the mountain and discuss your issues...

Maybe do something positive instead of just complaining... Or at least acknowledge that the "loud scraping" is actually the person trying stop...

 

[dmc]

My pet peeve is when people are stopped on the trail, you're about to pass them, and they drop into your path without looking. I swear, some people drop in when they hear someone coming, as some sort of passive-aggressive thing. "Look uphill and yield before starting downhill" must be the most-ignored part of the skier responsibility code.

yeah... Big problem for me too...

And actually it's mostly skiers that pull this crap on me... Like I'm on a board so they're not letting me in front... Pisses me off...

Then they hide behind the "code" and claim they were the dh skier.... bunch of bs...

 

[Jester]

Speaking as "one of these guys" that your "not supposed to mention" may I suggest you talk to the Ski Patrol or the mountain and discuss your issues...

Maybe do something positive instead of just complaining... Or at least acknowledge that the "loud scraping" is actually the person trying stop...

Don't get me wrong. I've got nothing against boarders. Quite the contrary, I'm amazed by them and only wish I could do it. But alas, I'm too old and nowhere near flexible enough. Please accept my apology for the generalization. I did talk to SP that night by the way and was kidding about the refs and what-not.

 

[Brettski]

What does a ski patrol look like?

Never seen one

 

[from_the_NEK]

What does a ski patrol look like?

Never seen one

Some people see them this way... :flame:

OR, maybe they are there to rescue hot blonds :lol:

Get some :wink:

 

[Brettski]

Awesome...they look like my Rockets

 

[Bandit2941]

I wish there could be some kind of penalty but what are we going to do have referees with flags all over the mountain?

No - but we could shoot them with paintball guns that way everyone else would know they're an idiot........

 

[thinnmann]

Both of my kids were clocked hard once at Belleayre. Two seasons ago I was meeting my then-7 year old daughter after her day in the Alpine Development program. I was standing outside Overlook Lodge in front of some ski racks with my daughter who was still in skis. We were not facing uphill. Outa nowhere a girl comes flying into my kid, knocking her feet & skis out from under her, bending her pole, and continuing into the ski rack, knocking over several skis and poles. Laughing, she looked at us, picked up her skis and started to walk away. A couple of instructors from Alpine Dev, including my daughter's, stopped her, told her to come back and apologize (which she didn't) and told her that they were going to tell her parents about the incident. See, the instructors told me this girl thought she could do whatever she wanted and they were fed up with her attitude. They said she was the daughter of a certain Belleayre-connected family with a three-letter last name beginning with the letter that follows :S" and rhymes with a synonym for "automobile". She didn't pick up the skis she knocked over either. She did offer to get my daughter a new set of poles - she probably would have gotten them free, now that I think about it - but being glad nobody was hurt, and since I was able to bend the bent one back fairly straight, I said it was OK. Here is why she was out of control - she didn't have ski boots on! She was retrieving her skis that she had left up near Lift 7 with apres ski booties on her feet. She was standing in her bindings in those things and expected to be able to stop!

My 13-year-old son got clocked from the back by an outa control teenage twintipper on the top of Wanatuska during the week after Christmas. He is an expert skier, and can ski anything here and out west, from racing carves to bumps and trees. I didn't see the collision because I was way down the trail already. It wasn't a yardsale, but he went down hard. The kid didn't stop, but my wife and friend who he was skiing with had a good description of the purp. They stopped a patroller and described him. He probably never got anything said to him. We were looking for those orange twin-tips for the rest of the day.

I got clocked a couple of weekends ago while standing on the flat before the line-up area for Lift 7. I was talking to a couple of friends when an oversized 10-year-old (you know those big oversized kids?) crashed out of control well past the "slow" sign. I didn't see it coming, but we all heard the explosion of skis separating from boots on hard snow. This kid hit me on the side of my knee and knocked my skis out from under me. Luckily I was standing on flat skis and didn't have any edge engagement, or else I might have a knee injury. My two friends, both with knee/ACL issues and those bionic supports under their pants - one a genuine former-USSR national team member - got hit by either part of the kid or his debris as it blew by us. He continued almost into the scrub trees at the edge of the trail lower than the flat area near that lift. I was not hurt, and we all were stopped mid-sentence in amazement, staring at the kid, literally open-mouthed, thinking like what the f** are you doing?... After a few seconds my friend asked the kid if he was OK (he was). Then, ten or so seconds later the kid's father is sliding up, yelling at the kid in some kind of mystery middle-eastern accented English, "You have to ski in control!" DUH~!~! Neither the father nor the kid said they were sorry nor asked if we were OK.

So I have this new rule: When standing at the bottom of any run, always look up hill.

And just to nudge that other debate - it is because of other skiers and boarders - not the trees - that my family and I wear helmets.

 

[millerm277]

I have hit someone once who had fallen, and skidded into the path I was taking to try to avoid him. I then asked if he was okay, and proceeded to help him up.

I have been hit twice, once by a boarder who apparently didn't understand the double diamond rating, and once by a skier who clipped me as I was standing at the bottom of a trail, by a lift.

Well, up at Hunter a couple weeks ago, (Jan 2nd, I think). I watched an out of control boarder go down hellgate, and literally flip two small kids over him (who were far better than him), as he slid down the hill. Then, when he came to a stop....he immediately got up and went away, without even looking back. I was riding the lift with a ski patroller, and he saw it as well, and called in a description of the boarder in, and I believe he was found and escorted off the mountain.

 

[aveski2000]

I don’t think I’ve been hit or hit anyone, except for falling over while standing still. I remember back in the ‘80 is while skiing upper Gondi line at the Loaf, right before the mid station, skiing over the front of women’s skis. Neither of us was out of control, we just turned into one another. I don’t remember if either of us fell. We were both going slowly. I think we apologized to each other and continued skiing.

 

[dmc]

I do believe that using the correct technique it's entirely possible to avoid most collisions..
Usually involves stopping somewhere safe and keeping an eye uphill...
But also trying to make consistent turns if you sense someone who's agressive wants to pass.
Making sure you have enough time to get out into a trail and not end up in someones line. If there's a question - I always wait.

With that - it's warmed up to 20... I'm going riding..