Sled Rides

[2knees]

Ok some may view this as taboo or bad vibes or whatever but i say you gotta face the reaper. Who's had a sled ride down before? I've had 3 but one stands out in particular. Mt. Snow, dec of '89. It had been rainy and real warm and while we were skiing, the temps started to drop real fast. Created an eggshell, or breakable crust, scenario. Bad stuff if you've ever had the displeasure of skiing it. anyway, was on free fall on the north face and broke through while changing a line laterally, and immediately popped my acl. Ski patrol loaded me up and took me down the bottom 1/3rd of free fall. Banging my head against the back of the sled cause of all the bumps. At the bottom of free fall, they hook me up to the back of a snowmobile. Get pulled by that around the back, about a mile or so i guess, sucking in all his exhaust. Then hooked me back up to another patroller for the ride down one more time or whatever that far left trail is. By the time i got to the medical shack, i think i had carbon monoxide poisoning and a mild concussion.

 

[JimG.]

I took a sled ride once...other than the actual ride being the best part of the day, that's about all I have to say about it.

 

[Greg]

Luckily, I haven't had the pleasure. I think Andyzee has some pics of his ride.

 

[Sparky]

I’ve had one ride in a sled and I plan to keep it that way. I was teaching a night adult group. Not my usual people, but good folks, however one of them had that habit of following anybody in an instructor’s jacket. So apparently while I was talking to the group another instructor ski across this guy’s line of vision and off he went. I should have just let him go, but this time I though I could catch him and still keep my group together. I took off expecting to catch him with a short burst then everybody else would catch up and we could continue with the lesson. I almost had him when a snowboarder hit a small ridge that had built up behind a snow gun and while he was still in the air we hit head to head. Fortunately for the boarder he was wearing a helmet unfortunately for me, I was not. I still have images of the snow coming up to meet my face. By the time ski patrol got there I could sit up, but skiing was out of the question, so I got a ride. I must say that the patroller’s did a great job, but it is quite a thrill going backwards down a hill without any control of your destination, felling every minuscule bump, and hearing the sled scrape on the ice. Thankfully I just had a minor concussion, and did not require any stitches to stop the bleeding. All and all it was a minor incident, however if the boarder had not been only 8 years old I would have been in trouble.

 

[Geoff]

One sled ride. In 6th grade (~1969) I hooked a tip on a gate, released, and my runaway strap broke my tibia.

I've had lots of injuries since where I skied down including 2 blown ACLs, a fractured skull with blood all over the place (Killington opening day 1980), and a blown shoulder.

 

[skibum]

One ride for me, at Gunstock around 82 or 83. from gunshy to the patrol hut for a sprained ankle. I was 9 or 10 years old.
Then in a small world moment; in the late nineties in french class at CMC steamboat I met a Steamboat patroller from Claremont who was patroling at Gunstock in the early eighties. Coulda been him, neither of us could remember.

 

[andyzee]

Luckily, I haven't had the pleasure. I think Andyzee has some pics of his ride.

This is correct, concusion at Killington, I was out for 5 min. Have no idea what happened, think I caught an edge and fell face first. But I got a pic from the sled, damn, I should be a reporter :

 

[sledhaulingmedic]

Other than for training, I always believe "It's better to give than to receive", particularly when it comes to sled rides.

Hearing the comments is very helpful in reminding me to put myself in my patient's boots. Sled rides can be very unpleasant. I always try to check in with the patient and also let them know what's coming up, bumps, etc..

Magic, for example has a lot of flats towards the bottom of the outside trails. I make it a point to let the passenger know that I'm taking up the brake and "opening her up" for the flats.

A sled beind a sno-mo can't be fun. Especially a 2-stroke!

 

[teachski]

Good points "sled". I have taken many training rides, but have never had the pleasure of a "real" ride. I know that some of the training rides were not the most comfortable thing in the world. I cannot imagine those same rides with an injury.

My hill is so short and not very steep that it is frequently a big mistake to put the chain brake down. The owners of our area have made our job even more difficult by creating a 100 foot(plus) paved and shoveled path between the bottom of the hill and the patrol room. Fortunately, the injuries we have seen since this was done have mostly been upper extremeties (snowboarders) and small children who could be carried into the patrol room.

 

[Jonni]

I've had a sled ride as well, but it was because I needed to go to work rather than get taken off the mountain. Working at Sunapee as a lift foreman means that I have to ride up on the back of a sled in the morning and depending on where I am will determine if I need to ride back down on a sled at the end of the day.