Whats the most scared you've been skiing?

[dmc]

Re: Most afraid moment.

This story is an example of why I always wear an avalanche transceiver out west..

Interestingly enough, my most frightening moment had nothing to do with steep terrain. Last December I was skiing at Alta on day two of a four foot dump. It was "white out" conditions so we had trouble navigatiing. My buddy and I took different lines coming off a ridge and I ended up skiing into a gully that had an immense amount of freshly drifted powder. I must have crossed a tip and went head first into the snow. I totally lost my orientation and literally didn't know which way was up! As I floundered, I found myself aspirating snow. I just couldn't seem to find a bottom or top to my situation. After a moment of panic I stopped breathing, and slowly rotated my head and body (I luckily still had one ski on that gave some leverage) until I noticed that there was more light in one direction then in another. I then sort of started "swimming for the light." As I moved in that direction, it got brighter and brighter, and I finally broke out on top. As luck would have it, my lost ski was sticking up just a bit about 10 or 15 feet away. I unclipped the ski I had, used it to paddle over to my other ski, and then worked my way out of the "ocean of powder." It took me quite a while to get over the realization that I might have "drowned" in that beautiful white stuff. I can just imagine what people caught in a slide must feel like as they float along under the snow (never mind the potential for smacking into something)!

 

[sledhaulingmedic]

My experience with a "Thunder blizzard" in Tuckerman certainly got the epi flowing for me.

Watching three skiers/riders heading over the lip without looking at if first. It was early June in '97 and it was wide open skier-eating crevases. (If I recall correctly, there is a concept in Norse mythology of a "Yawning void" called "Ganungagapp", which would seem to describe the certain death these three were headed for.)

We watch from the top of LG trying to formulate a plan for what to do when this party went South, so to speak. We could here the expletives as each of them realized the error of their ways. Fortunately, they were able to bail, but it definitely was ugly. I can't imagine what that little surpise would have been like to ski into.

 

[smootharc]

Re: Most afraid moment.

Last December I was skiing at Alta on day two of a four foot dump. It was "white out" conditions so we had trouble navigatiing. My buddy and I took different lines coming off a ridge and I ended up skiing into a gully that had an immense amount of freshly drifted powder. I must have crossed a tip and went head first into the snow. I totally lost my orientation and literally didn't know which way was up! As I floundered, I found myself aspirating snow. I just couldn't seem to find a bottom or top to my situation.

Tree wells out West can be treacherous - you get sucked or fall into one, and the snow around it caves in on you. Great idea having a transceiver. But I'd also add that the importance of a good buddy system cannot be underestimated in big snow and big terrain. Who's got your back ?

In rock climbing, know your belayer. Pretty much the same in certain skiing circumstances....

 

[Geoff]

Pretty much any peak season Saturday that I've skied at Killington..... :lol:

Yeah. I was going to say "Lower Bear Claw at 1:30 on a Saturday".

I fell once jumping into what was then called the Saudain Couloir at Blackcomb. What I thought was powder was actually ski-grabbing windblown and I ended up in the back seat and tumbled. That's a no-fall area where you'll end up in the rocks if you don't self-arrest. Fortuantely, I did a shoulder roll and came back up on my skis. It completely scared the crap out of me and I was mentally tuned out for the rest of the day.

A close second was tumbling the entire length of the Hanging Valley Wall at Snowmass.

 

[pizza]

Re: Most afraid moment.

This story is an example of why I always wear an avalanche transceiver out west..

Can't wait til one comes around on S&C..

 

[kickstand]

Alta, Devil's Castle. I ducked in much earlier than the rest of the conga line. Skiing down, I saw the Cliff Area signs, so I cut back to my right. My buddy had cut down a little after I did, so I was able to meet back up with him. I started to head down. I didn't see it until I was literally on top of it, but there was a large rock/cliff right in front of me. My right ski stuck on top of the rock and I got launched, face first, into the deep powder below.

It was rather scary landing face first like that, but I think where I got really freaked was trying to climb back up the 25 feet to get my ski still stuck on top of the rock. I had never been in powder that deep and light, and I was sinking up to my arm pits with every step. Luckily, I didn't have to climb all the way back up to the top of the rock. I was able to knock my ski down with one of my poles.

 

[dmc]

Re: Most afraid moment.

This story is an example of why I always wear an avalanche transceiver out west..

Can't wait til one comes around on S&C..

Let me know if you ever ned to borrow one..
We have an open lending policy for people we know...

Going to a party in NH this weekend... The guy hosting is going to stage a transceiver scavenger hunt.. So we're all bringing our transcievers..
Should be good practice...

 

[pizza]

Re: Most afraid moment.

This story is an example of why I always wear an avalanche transceiver out west..

Can't wait til one comes around on S&C..

Let me know if you ever ned to borrow one..
We have an open lending policy for people we know...

Going to a party in NH this weekend... The guy hosting is going to stage a transceiver scavenger hunt.. So we're all bringing our transcievers..
Should be good practice...

oh wow..
wish I could come. Not that I'm invited or anything, but even if I was, I wish I could come.

 

[Zand]

Most scared I ever was was at Sugarbush 2 years ago. It was my first time down Organgrinder and you couldn't see 5 feet because of the fog. It freaked me out because of the experts only sign at the top. I was expecting a huge drop to come or something but thankfully for me, it never did. Organgrinder remains to this day the most disappointing trail for me for its rating.

 

[FLAT SKI]

For me I the most scared I ever was on skis was my first day at a ski area. We were buying our tickets and we see a guy being pulled on a patrol sled all wrapped up. we were so scared we didn't ski right away, we had to wait for my dad to calm us down.

 

[Tyrolean_skier]

My most scary moment occurred at Vail when a sudden whiteout occurred and I had no idea which way to go. Decided to stay put and wait it out. It took a while but it finally subsided enough for me to spot where the lift was. I followed the lift towers down.

Another scary moment was when I got to the top of Corbet's Couloir in Jackson Hole and realized that it was way beyond my abilities. I then had to hike back up in order to go down Rendevous Bowl.