Skier Death at Killington on Double Dipper

[Zand]

Damn. 2 in 1 week. That sucks.

 

[RossiSkier]

Skier loses control, dies at Killington

http://www.rutlandherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050104/NEWS/501040405/1002

Article text removed by Greg

 

[Greg]

Thanks RossiSkier, but the link alone will suffice.

 

[Skier75]

OMG, I'm so sorry to hear that. You know we saw the ambulance there and was wondering what happened. That's awful. I always try to ski in control, cause I know what it's like to get hurt, but obviously not like that. When I do any black diamonds, the first run I go pretty carefully to see what the terrain is like first. Even after, I still try not to go too fast, just in case......you never know.

 

[khatadin]

Saw it just after it happened. it was bad. he must have cartwheeled 500ft+. but as best i could tell, he was skiing under the lift in an OB area. blue ice/hard pack all the way down. into a tree..

 

[NickKopan]

Anyone have a link to the first fataility this week that Zand mentioned?

 

[khatadin]

I didn't see it happen so not sure. but from where his ski was stuck in the hoses he was well into OB and would have had to go quite a distance laterally through ropes on a steep section to get to where he ejected. doesn't seem likely. I also saw tracks above where his ski was in the OB area that certainly appeared as though they could have been his.

 

[BrockVond]

So it seems that this fellow cut rope and it ended up real bad......

While there may be a lesson here, it is all so sad. I wonder about the other circumstances in the other skier deaths. Not to be morbid here, but I would like to be able to track all the deaths and the circumstances this year. Of course, the ski resorts woun't publish this in front page places. I'll bet that a good percentage of them are due to skiier's choices.....

I wasn't there at K the day of this accident, but there were a large number of witnesses to this accident and all say that he was coming down lower Double Dipper, which was an open trail at the time. None of the witnesses have said that he cut rope before this accident, but all agree that the conditions on Double Dipper were really bad and that he was going really fast prior to losing control.

 

[goldsbar]

Cutting ropes doesn't mean you should get killed. In fact, I usually ski more in control out of bounds since the conditions are unknown.

Sounds like this accident could have happened to anyone. I've had plenty of instances where I let it rip a little and the conditions deteriorated drastically all of a sudden. This could lead to a whole discussion of the costs/benefits of grooming but that's been covered before.