Startling Events when Ski/Boarding stories

[4aprice]

My daughter will never let me forget the time I almost killed a chipmunk at Dartmouth Skiway. I was in moguls and never saw the critter but the rest of my family did. Just off the slopes at Loveland Basin I've seen Mountain Rams. I've seen Air Force planes at more then one ski area.

Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ

 

[playoutside]

Used to work in defense and have been to many AF bases, planes I saw didn't look military to me. Definitely weren't fighters or warthogs. Not big enough to be cargo or bombers. Obviously they were in a distance, but they didn't seem to be either the gray color or camo colors they use these days. What struck me is that they looked more like commercial aircraft. It was weird. Interesting, but weird.

 

[twinplanx]

Used to work in defense and have been to many AF bases, planes I saw didn't look military to me. Definitely weren't fighters or warthogs. Not big enough to be cargo or bombers. Obviously they were in a distance, but they didn't seem to be either the gray color or camo colors they use these days. What struck me is that they looked more like commercial aircraft. It was weird. Interesting, but weird.

What he said... Thank play... I was a little reluctant in posting my comment to this thread. Its nice to have company.8)

 

[hardline]

in Feb i was in the middle of a safety meeting in the wood of chin clip when two girls stoped just down hill from me. they where looking around trying to figure out where the stink was comming from. so i just stood there not saying anything. they couldn't have been more than five feet from me. so after a few min i say aren't the conditions great. the dam near jumped out of there boots. they didn't see me at all. one girl said that she thought that i was a tree. granted i was wearing all brown but i would be a pretty strange looking tree. the encounter kept me laughing the rest of the day.
on the same day next run i was lower down in the woods thinking to myself where are all the people. as i made a toe side turn is see another rider making a toe side turn right into me. we ended up in a loving embrace. we lokked at each other and broke into uncontrolable laughter. he said he never saw me till we where hugging. i said the same thing. he was wearing all green. what are the odds of coliding with someone in the middle of the woods? mind you we where over on the ridge heading down to 108. i think i may have to change my colors next year. i never saw a single other person for the next day and half.

 

[kingslug]

At Jackson we came across a baby elk. I felt it would be a good idea to move on before the mother showed up. Had lunch with a porcupine at Snowbird. Even let me scratch its nose a little...petting it was out of the question.

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

I was cruising in the woods at Magic yesterday when I came upon the really STRONG scent of a SKUNK. I mean, like so close it might have been shooting at me. It NEVER occurred to me to find a skunk in such deep snow. I didn't stop to look, in fact I amp'd it up faster to get out of there.

I remember Scott's encounter with a moose earlier this year.

You have a good story being startled by something while skiing or boarding?

Haha..are you sure it wasn't a safety meeting...watch out..those skunks are a mellow bunch and they will eat your doritos.

One thing about when I ski untracked powder is that I like to look back at my tracks while skiing..and a few times doing that has resulted in an ass over tea kettle wipeout..mad homer Simpson..doh...

A few years ago at Jackson Hole..I was getting a $4.50 slice of pizza from Headwall pizza(now closed)..the floor was slippery concrete and slipped and fell flat on my back..luckily the pizza landed crust side down. I was picking grit out of my teeth from the pizza for several runs...doh

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

No kidding. I was taking a friend's 8-year-old up the lift @ Windham in January when we got hit by that aroma. The kid smelled it, too, and said "Wow! I smell a skunk." Thank Providence for that -- didn't want to have to go through a drug talk, or lie to the kid.

Just be honest with the kid..in a few years he'll be blazing..lol

 

[dirtbagking]

My buddy Kenny once ran over the top of a black bear. The bear was snoozing with a couple inches of snow on him. They were on the 19th hole at MRG. Kenny thought it was going to be good air. After he hit him, the bear got up and ran away.
Another friend, Grossy, hit a chipmunk on Spring Fling at Sugarbush. He hooked it with his ski binding and brought it all the way to the bottom. He had those old brakes that pointed forward. Chipmunk didn't live to tell the story... so I had to.

 

[Phlogiston]

About 5 years back Mama Bear and her cub and were foraging around in the ground cover under the trees just off of White Cloud, at Hunter, on the last day of the season (second Sunday in April).

Back in the 80's I was riding up the chair for night skiing at Cortina, and an owl flew under my feet to pounce on something in the grass under the lift. He passed about 2 feet below my skis as he made his dive.

 

[2Planker]

I work for Patrol at Sunday River, and twice earlier this year while doing sweep, coming out of Jordan Bowl (on Kansas) I have run into 2 HUGE Coyotes. They were in no way intimidated by my presence. I stopped dead in my tracks and we just watched each other... As I started to move they simply headed into the woods and dissapeared.

Many years ago I sliced a grey squirrel clean in 1/2 when it ran across the trail (Jungle Road) in front of me. very messy !!

 

[OppositeGeorge]

I work for Patrol at Sunday River, and twice earlier this year while doing sweep, coming out of Jordan Bowl (on Kansas) I have run into 2 HUGE Coyotes. They were in no way intimidated by my presence. I stopped dead in my tracks and we just watched each other... As I started to move they simply headed into the woods and dissapeared.

Yeah, they are curious critters. Came up on one while cross-country skiing @ Yellowstone years ago and the dude just sort of watched me -- I stopped and we hung out for a while. My guess is he figured I had a snack for him.

Of course, just 10 minutes later my GF and I, total XC newbs (and crappy alpine skiers at the time, to boot,) both fell at the bottom of a short hill, and turned around to find two huge bison no more than 15 feet away looking right at us. Having heard all sorts of horror stories from the rangers about how many tourists they kill each year, we hightailed it out of there just as soon as we'd finished crapping our pants. I swear there were cartoon-style speed lines coming off of both of us. Of course, it was so darn cold at the time, the buffalo were probably too lazy to do anything except just stand there anyway, but we weren't going to stick around to find out.

 

[OppositeGeorge]

I always see these around Waterville valley - it's typically Air National Guard maneuvers. They do fly in tight formation pretty typically. For many years they would fly the warthogs around.

http://www.airforce-technology.com/projects/a-10/ They fly so damn fast it could be from any airbase in the northeast. What did your planes look like?

Used to see the A-10s all the time when hiking up in the Whites, though I haven't been up there in a while. Just saw a couple military planes flying pretty close to the ground off the top of the single @ MRG last month, though I couldn't tell you what kind they were.