What is your scariest ski moment?

[darent]

skiing the edge of a trail on bear mt , caught a edge went upsidedown off a dropoff and landed in the top of a tree and hung there. one ski off the other hung up in tree. reached up with ski pull and clicked out and fell about 4 feet into soft fluffy snow. heart was punding and was breathing a little hard, didn't ski edges of trails for awhile

 

[Hawkshot99]

Several years ago there was a mini AZ meetup at Hunter. I remember that Bivert, and Greg were there plus a few others. It as a firm day so we spent most of the day on the front side of Hunter. In the afternoon we decided to take a shot over on the West Side and try Clairs. Clairs was moguls all of the way down. I am not the greatest in moguls but if I take my time I can usually make it down ok.

I think Greg went first on a pretty icy Clairs and myself second. I made a few mogul turns and then slid out on the ice. I started to slide when I went down, and somehow got turned over on my back heading down head first. I was able to flip over onto my stomach so i could at least see where I was going as I was gaining speed. I started launching off of the moguls as I was speeding down the trail on my chest. Franticly i was finally able to get my skis kicked off after a long time, as I was going at a very high rate of speed, getting lots of air on the launches.

After the skiis were kicked, I was able to swing my feet downhill and finally dig my toes into the icy slope and come to a rest just a few yards before taking out some trees.

I went way down the trail. If you are familar with Hunter, the slide started right around the island in the middle of Clairs at the top, and ended about a hundred feet before Way Out enter the trail.

Greg was able to gather up my skis and stuff and get them down to me.

 

[4aprice]

I had a scary one today... I caught an edge and started veering towards the trees with my other ski in the air above my head (Bode Miller style) but I regained my balance and steered away from the trees. I was in the middle of a clinic with a bunch of other instructors, who were behind me, and cheered for me when they saw my spectacular save!

Had a very similar experience last year. Skiing the edge of Pharaoh at Camelback I caught an edge on the headwall just above Bactrain. Started hurdling towards the woods (and rocks) at a pretty high rate of speed and remember thinking this is not good. Was able to shift my weight and lucky for me the outside ski held on the downward edge of the trail falling off into the woods. Ended up landing with my chest hitting the top of the trail bank. Really shook me and I remember standing there for a few minutes just shaking.

Also saw this one this past week. Mom and daughter up on Marjies Delight. Daughter having trouble so mom orders her to take skis off and walk down. Fellow I was with tells her to walk up and out (she wasn't too far from the top) but she didn't listen. Two steps and bang on her back and straight down to the top of Sullivan Trail. My friend goes over to the mom and tells her to give her daughter a big hug because if she had shot off the trail there was a good chance she would have been dead. Note to everyone be careful out there.

Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ

 

[deadheadskier]

The beginner area at Okemo has basically 3 levels of the trail/trails that drop down a good ten feet as you go from under the lift over towards far skiers right which is the Mountain Road. The differences in height make for great quarter pipe type jumps as you go from the lower trails to the upper ones. Back in High School I caught perhaps the most air I ever caught in my life off one of them and came down in the middle of the trail right on top of a Mountain Ops snowmobile.

I was probably 15 feet in the air looking down at a snowmobile that was going to be right where I was going to land. He slammed on the breaks and jumped off his sled just as I landed on the hood, which I managed to ski right off of. Surprisingly, my pass wasn't pulled. Mountain Ops guy felt he was at fault for riding up the middle of the trail and was profusely apologizing to me. Ski Patrol had that jump and others similar to it roped off within about 10 minutes. :lol:

 

[cold waters]

cartwheeling down the back side of Alta ... the last cartwheel dropped me off a 15'

 

[C-Rex]

I came off the lip of a kicker all sorts of wrong several years ago. I landed on the back of my head/neck/shoulders and got folded up. When I hit, I saw a bright flash and heard all kinds of stuff in my neck and back pop very loudly. First thought was that I just broke my back. I was unbelievably terrified for the few seconds I laid there before I gathered the courage to try and move.

 

[billski]

I came off the lip of a kicker all sorts of wrong several years ago. I landed on the back of my head/neck/shoulders and got folded up. When I hit, I saw a bright flash and heard all kinds of stuff in my neck and back pop very loudly. First thought was that I just broke my back. I was unbelievably terrified for the few seconds I laid there before I gathered the courage to try and move.

That is big-time scary. I get nothing but ****about skiing since my head injury. It would be a pain worse than death not to be able to board any more. Lucky you...

 

[Kerovick]

came off a kicker and landed flat on my back. Heard cracking, couldn't breath and damn near pooped myself.

 

[Angus]

two different events.

last day of the ski year in March when I was probably a Freshman in HS. Skiing at Ascutney with friends and we decided to skip lunch to maximize time on the slopes. Mid-day on a narrow trail with corn snow, bumps, probably skiing too fast and really tired. A skier cut me off and I had to cut horizontally across the slope to avoid crashing. Everything just kind of slowed down.The edge of the trail was only a few feet away but I was so tired I couldn't react. I hit a big mogul and shot up into the air and into the woods, I cleared a bunch of smaller pine trees and was headed into a big tree when I was able to get my skis up at the last moment. Skis hit the tree first and I bounced off. Broke a ski and scratched up my face. I remember realizing I had gotten lucky but not freaking out - of course, I was young and indestructible.

Over Christmas vacation right after my son had gotten his first pair of skis, we were skiing at Sugarbush. It was my son's second year of skiing. Early in the day, we were on a connecting trail somewhere below the Castlerock lift. My son was in front of me and I was shouting instructions to take a sharp right at the bottom of a trail that dead-ended. Right at the bottom, my son turned his head back to me because he was confused which way to go. Looking past him not far below on the edge of the trail and right at head level was snow making hydrant sticking out, and he was headed right for it. I screamed for him to turn around and turn. He swung his head forward and made a quick turn to avoid hitting the hydrant. My heart was in my throat and the memory still bothers me. We stopped to discuss never, never turning your head to look uphill!

 

[jaja111]

As long as they look to take a mental picture and not a video.

 

[CMcKenna]

Coming around on a big cork/misty 5 or 7 and realizing that your face is going to take the landing.

 

[Mapnut]

nothing, and I mean nothing, scares me more than watching my kids lose it. ....

Or wife. She was my fiancee at the time, so this goes waaaay back. It was her first ever ski trip, and she did fine for the first two days at Sugarloaf. The next day was New Year's, and we had been out late the night before. We were staying in Augusta, so we decided just to go to Camden Snow Bowl for the afternoon. I'd never been there before, but it's an easy mountain. She went to warm up on the beginners' slope while I went up the long T-bar to see if any of the runs up there were easy enough for her. I wanted her to see the famous view. The trail on the west side of the T-bar looked fine, so we went up halfway. I should have realized she was tired. There's a little pitch just above the bottom that's steeper than I realized. She missed a turn, picked up speed and headed straight into the woods, just missing me. I thought of trying to tackle her, but figured 2 sets of skis and poles were more dangerous than trees. She hit a 4-inch-thick birch - with her head. I went in after her saying "oh God, oh God, oh God . . . " She was conscious but was already getting a a huge bump on her forehead. The ski patrol came and took her to the hospital, where the doctor said there was no serious injury. But the bump was jumbo-egg sized, and she was embarassed to show herself for a week. There's still a trace of it.

She went skiing just once more, but after that we got into having babies and paying a mortgage , and when it came time to take up skiing again, she declined. I still call her my hard-headed woman.

 

[jrmagic]

I have a few... back in college I was skiing at Kissing Bridge one night moving pretty good and the moguls on this trail were all iced up. I got in the back seat on one bump and then got launched in the air and in trying to recover I somehow fell forward with my ski whacking me in the head. I then rag dolled it for the next 50 yards. I continued sliding down the hill yet another couple of hundred yards (did I mention it was icy??). No real damage thankfully but scared the heck out of me.

Four yeards ago I was skiing the edge of Wizard at Magic in some nice soft snow with the family when I caught and edge and headed directly into the trees. there was nothing I cold do but cover up as good as possible. I managed to not hit a single tree with my body until I was almsot stopped but both skis were broken behind the binding from banging into a tree or two.

The scariest one though was on the liftline for the red chair at Magic. I was letting my 6 y/o son ride up with his older brother for the first time. Well somehow he didn't quite get onto the lift and he was holding onto the side of the chair as it headed up towards the first tower:-o I was yelling for him to let go as the liftie was hitting the emergency stop. He woulnd up dropping about 8 feet. In another second he would have been much higher.

 

[St. Bear]

I'm a wuss, and I bail before things get out of hand, so I've had many many ugly moments on skis, but nothing I'd call scary. Lots of self induced falls before hitting a tree and whatnot.

 

[Madroch]

Magic 1984- hooked a tip and blew into the trees off elevated trail coverage doing mach schnell... besides some facial lacerations from branches amazingly no damage. Sundown 2011- watching daughter get hit by racer going full tilt-- never happier to hear her cying in my life than when I jumped down to see if she was okay.

 

[2knees]

a snowless winter.....

 

[Sparky]

Every time I stand in front of the ticket window with my well worn credit card

 

[BenedictGomez]

I caught perhaps the most air I ever caught in my life off one of them and came down in the middle of the trail right on top of a Mountain Ops snowmobile.

I was probably 15 feet in the air looking down at a snowmobile that was going to be right where I was going to land. He slammed on the breaks and jumped off his sled just as I landed on the hood, which I managed to ski right off of. Surprisingly, my pass wasn't pulled.

This is my favorite so far, it sounds like something straight out of a cheesy 1980's ski film.

 

[Warp Daddy]

While i had a few occurances and a couple of broken wrists my WORST experience involved the Queen .
We were given 40 th Anniversary present of a week slopeside at the Grand Summit @ Attitash by our kids . We arrived day one and the suite wasn't ready , so we went skiing . She is a novice can handle all greens and some easier blues and in great physical shape from yrs of working out and doing XC , tennis , biking etc , So she skis with me all AM and is doing fine !.

After lunch and Because the pkg included a perfect turn lesson she decided to take that lesson while i went free skiing for couple of hrs . She and one other woman took the course . I'm rockin my 3rd run from the top when i look down and see her on a sled -- OH no !!!!!!!!!!!

Get her down to the hut and the patrol tells me she got hurt ( After the instructor had them running and turning on ice on a moderate headwall WTF) and she was the first to go . She is tuff and tried to stand up and BUT when we foinally got her down and CUT the boot off her foot was facing the wrong way . She was in surgury an hr later got a steel plate and 6 screws to show for her 40th Anniversary . needless to say i felt like crap bcuz she only skied bcuz i was nuts about it .

We left for home - the day after the surgery --she's fine now BUT limits her skiing to strictly blubird days and green trails now but still goes with me whenever my RED group posse is not skiing together ,'

She's awesome

 

[Chinalfr]

My scariest moment is coming down a diamond trail after my first ski lesson at the bunny slope. This was in OR about 20 years ago. I didn't ski for the next 15 years.