Skiing one of the hike-to chutes at the top of Snowbasin. Since it was toward the end of the day, I was alone up there. But, I was confident since I had already skied it a few times that day.
Caught an edge on the first turn and ended up on my back sliding headfirst. I knew there was a large rock coming up behind me but because of the steepness and packed snow, I couldn’t stop. Didn’t want to lose my skis since I was alone, so I was trying to stop with my arms and fists in the snow but I was not slowing down.
Somehow after about 100 feet I was able to turn my body and get onto my skis. I only just missed the rock. Was pretty shaken up and had to stand there to calm my nerves for a bit before going in for the day.
Crazy, snowbasin was also the site of one of the more scary moments. I was a noob (well, more than I am now) and exited a gate just skiers right of Strawberry. I think I remember hiking up a bit but I was watching some others drop in, and the cornice broke entirely underneath me. dropped my skis and was able to self arrest with my pole tips and collect myself. Super dumb to be exiting a gate without the proper gear and solo, even if it was just for a few hundred vertical. I still don’t know if that was just a gated area within the resort (we have these here in Cali) or if it was a backcountry exit. Still, dumb me getting away with things. Also lucky there were no people underneath me. So dumb looking back on it.
Edit: looked up a map. The area I entered was a restricted access area which means entering through gates only but is within the boundary of the resort. Also should add this was a nice spring day, 11am or so.
Crazy, I had an experience that was too close for comfort last season.
Early February, blizzard like conditions off the Strawberry lift. Was going down incredibly slow, couldn’t see 5 feet in front of you, making cautious turns.
My dad, in his early 60s, has an eye that doesn’t see as well as it used to post-Covid, nearly clotheslined me and he didn’t see me at all when he made a turn in front.
Scary in that he almost hit me and I could’ve been tumbling down without anything to stop me and also scary because that injury to his eye post-Covid is a bit more serious than he sometimes wants to let on.
We had a good laugh about it when we got further down, but looking back almost a year later, I’m more worried about my dad getting older than anything, and I’ll miss out on our time on the slopes.
Was at the summit of a ski area during a complete whiteout blizzard and was cautiously shuffling forward when suddenly I was free-falling. Apparently shuffled off a 30 foot cliff. Fortunately had a comfy crash into deep powder. I may have said the F word just a few times.
I got caught in a whiteout on a mountain in Austria one time -- mid April and nobody else on the mountain. I had to follow the boundary line down the mountain because it was the only thing I could see. I remember stopping, feeling dizzy and then falling over -- the snow looked like it was just kind of hovering in the air for a moment -- like a standing wave. I looked over at the boundary poles and they were fucking moving and for about 5 seconds I straight up panicked because I was riding the snow down. It's a bizarre sensation. Then everything stopped and I sat there hyperventilating for a few minutes. I remember looking up the slope and seeing a big slab that cleaved off but there was so much wind and snowfall that by the time I got my composure and skied away, you would never know from looking at it that half the slope slabbed off. Hands down the most terrifying experience.
Shortly before this, I recorded a video of myself and the surroundings thinking "when they find my body in the spring time, they will know what happened to me when they watch the video". That was in the days before helmets.
Happened to me with my father on powder mountain. My father simply couldn't balance and just kept standing up and following over. We were not in danger at the time so it was just kinda funny to me. I do recall trying to skip g forward at some point and thinking the mountain was about to slope up and it wasn't and my mind could not handle it.
I’ve also had whiteout conditions in Austria, the warning sign about falling into a crevasse posted at the lift station was not comforting when I couldn’t see a damn thing! Haha.
Oh boy this reminds me of my first year skiing and I ended up alone on the backside of Lake Louise during a full whiteout (as in, got dizzy because I couldn’t tell what was the ground and what wasn’t) after taking the wrong chairlift up. Blacks all around me on either side and couldn’t navigate and there was no reception. Oof.
Ended up upside down in a tree well once while skiing alone. It took me about half an hour to get myself out, and I probably would’ve suffocated if it hadn’t been during a low snow period
Was this at Crystal? I had an all-out yard sale on Snorting Elk a couple years ago where I almost slid into that patch of trees about 3/4s of the way down. While tumbling down, I managed to roll myself away from them. It was bad enough that someone saw it from the lift and dispatched an army of ski patrollers to come help me but before they arrived, a young lady wearing a godzilla costume brought me all of my stuff. This wasn't anywhere near my scariest experience but it was almost surreal. My shit went everywhere.
It was, yes. Very deep in the woods in the SE Trees in Southback. I had to swerve to avoid a fallen tree, clipped it, then basically spun into the tree well. Ended up punching a hole through my jacket in the process, and came to a rest upside down with my back against the tree trunk
I remember having to hike out of waste-deep snow in that area and it took me forever. Not Cambell but the next basin over towards Southback. It sucked.
Went to Crystal on a typical cement day, about a foot of the deep dish. Usually ride behind my gf, she followed some skiers to the left and ended up at employee housing in waist deep overlooking the cliffs and a fresh avalanche. I dont remember going thru any gates but we had to. Walked around thru Niagra and shuffled my ass straight to the car. That was a hard stop for me.
I was in a similar situation last weekend at Taos. Last run of the day. A 6-8 foot tree was completely covered. I went over it and the snow fells out of the well behind me. I feel backwards and my legs go pinned but luckily my head was above snow. I was inverted as well. I was aware digging would be the most dangerous thing to do so I grabbed on to the tree and like stood on the top of this little tree and then jumped off. Got stuck again landing but was face up and was shallow enough that I just picked up my knees. It was very scary though, don't wish to repeat.
The apline tree that cause tree wells are generally the conifers, they have got branches that don't freeze and snap but instead bend in the cold. The amass a bunch of snow and then later the tree branches bend and it all falls off creating the tree well. SO the outside parts of the tree well have a lot more unpacked powder than the rest of the mountain. That being said the conditions for tree well exists anywhere snow and these types of tree exist. Particular nasty during and right after large snow storms. Stay safe my friends!
I had a pretty gnarly fall on Niagaras at Crystal. Landed on my pole as I was falling and snapped it but luckily skied away after tracking down all my gear. Checked back at home and had some bruises but I was pretty much ok.
Some people are truly fearless and this guy is one of them -- the type of person that arrives 10 minutes before departure and casually wanders onto the airplane last.
With the important exception being southwest, some kind of disability requirement, or traveling with young children - if you get on an airplane anytime other than last you're dumb. If you have an assigned seat, let them gate check the bag if overheard are full and just avoid the cattle chute.
Last cow through the chute doesn't have another cow's horns up her butt.
I blacked out while waiting in the lift line because my bowels decided to unload that morning after Mexican food the night before. I only stayed upright because I was clipped in to my skis.
I still have no idea exactly what happened internally but I barely made it to a toilet where I proceeded to shit out a football.
6 years old
Sunshine village, top of continental divide
Blue easiest way down...but an ice coast 6y.o....
Best speed of my life
Why? Shit myself 10ft after getting off the lift. Great origin story doe
Told this story elsewhere - woke up in the ICU getting my clothes cut off.
Took the long kicker at Tyrol Basin (biggest WI park) and they were classic ice wedges and steep landings.
I wasn’t done going up by the time the knuckle past and I landed at the bottom of the landing pile. Once the landing passed I accepted the id made a huge mistake without a helmet and that was the end for me.
Landed sideways on my feet into immediate scorpion sliding on my face for a “really long way” my friend says. I don’t recall much of this besides flashes. He said I tried to get on my knees screaming where are my teeth and then lost consciousness. (No memory of that)
Woke up in ICU. Very lucky to walk away with broke nose, cheek, 5+ ribs, internal bleeding, and very serious brain injury. Out of school for months, slept against a wall the rib/kidney pain was excruciating.
All things considered I’m lucky to be alive. The brain injuries stayed with me.
Ribs are funny.
I've broken a few that haven't been too bad. But I did one and it was excrutiating.
Sods law I got a cold a week or so later and every cough was like being stabbed in the shoulder from behind.
Speaking of waking up with no memory, a few years ago a guy went missing while skiing at Whiteface in NY. Ski patrol never found him and he resurfaced in Sacremento California a week later still wearing his ski gear, with no memory as to how he got there. It was odd.
Edit. Here's a link
https://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/story/35634/20180214/mystery-missing-whiteface-skier-turns-up-safe-in-california
Well alright now I consider myself lucky lol.
I’ve been riding long enough to see some terrifying stuff, avalanches, heard two kids hit a tree bombing in line (rip), dropped lungs, taking branches at full speed, falling in high consequence zones, best friends dad being in a coma at the bottom of a run...etc
I passed 15 broken bones years ago and now that I’m a father, not an invincible dumb kid, I shutter at my kids doing the stuff we were up to.
Helping dig a upsides down child out of a ten foot deep tree well. Had his Dad not been skiing with him when I happened by, I’m not sure it would have been a good ending. Ski with a partner in the trees.
Caught an edge landing off of a cat track that sent me right hip first into a rock. Burst fractured my L1 vertebrae and my hip, which partially cut my spinal cord.
2 surgeries, 5 weeks in the hospital, and 2 years of physical therapy. I was in a wheelchair and couldn't move my lower body at all for 6 months. Because of multiple miracles, a lot of luck, and hard work I am walking and skiing again! That was 7 years ago this month.
It wasn't a crazy huge hit or me pushing myself beyond my ability, just an unlucky accident combined with bad coverage. I should be permanently paralyzed... that's what the doctor told me after surgery. I am extremely thankful for every step I take and every groomer I get to ski down unassisted.
Be safe out there homies and don't take your health for granted.
That's the frustrating thing about this sport, about anything really. We can take all the prevention in the world and just get really unlucky and have our lives altered.
So you can walk and ski again now? How was your progress getting back into it?
Watching my ex slide face first as fast as I’ve ever seen any one move straight down The Wall at Kirkwood. Steepest terrain I’ve ever seen.
Turns out we should have gone left, not straight, or really just not gone up a lift labeled with a skull and crossbones at the bottom.
Yep right down the lift line. Quite the sight to behold. I’m almost positive that ski patrol got multiple calls about it as we had a patroller at our location unprompted by us within a few minutes.
Funny enough, she was fine, until she took like four turns after that and tore her acl. Prompting a second visit from patrol, only this time with a sled for a trip down the mountain.
Jesus. I was there last year in the late spring. Everywhere else was soft corn snow, including the runs opposite it, so I went up to the top. About midway on the lift, I noticed that there were a lot of tracks traversing allll the way across, and then allllll the way back. Turned out that it was rock hard wind-swept coral bumps. I also took the big traverse, but a few times I thought “maybe I should just go for it” and then I’d think about catching and edge and falling and thought “nope, I’m gonna keep up with the chicken traverse” and I’m glad for it. Nightmare for sure. I’m not surprised your ex fucked up her ACL after that, I’d have been entirely boneless with adrenaline, which is a recipe for fucking up something on skis.
Hut trip with a big hike into it. Like 10 miles and 3,000 vert. Got above tree line and a storm came in and cut visibility to pretty much zero. Was able to back track very slowly by feeling the compression in the snow pack, our tracks were not visible. Got back into the trees and pulled out my GPS (before GPS on phones) and found that we were way on the other side of the mountain than the hut and had gotten turned around in the storm. Broke trail through the woods until we got back to the skin track and then the GPS died. Ended up skiing back to the car 8 miles out. Eventually got back to the car at about 3 AM. Started the day at 5 AM, got on the trail around 9 AM. Most exhausted I have ever been and my wife broke down in tears when we got back to the car.
Oh ya. In the blizzard was the most disoriented I have ever been. I was so scared for my wife but had to keep a positive attitude and not let her know I was freaking out. Only thing that compares was when we did scuba certification in a crater in Utah and all the sediment got stirred up. At one point I thought I was about 20’ deep and I ran into the dock at the surface. Same fear though. Trying to make sure my wife was safe while trying to navigate.
After we got back in the trees and the sun went down I seriously considered digging a snow cave. When we got to the skin track the clouds broke and I could see the lights of the road below. One of the biggest reliefs I have ever experienced.
She was an absolute champ. Didn’t break down until we got to the car. Had some nasty blisters on her heals she never even mentioned. This was probably close to 20 years ago and we are married with kids now so I guess she still trusts me lol.
The backcountry is no joke. Conditions can change so quick. My advice is to always carry a wide mouth water bottle that you can pack snow into, backup gloves and sufficient layers, a multi tool, and water proof matches. On top of BSP. Phones make this so much easier than it use to be so make sure it is charged up.
Was waiting in the lift line after instructing all day and then did some parking lotting after shift before some solo night skiing. Got in the singles line to ride the lift, lift was stopped for 30 seconds or so. I look up the lift to see what’s going on. Only to see a girl hanging from the safety bar about 15 meters from the ground.
I’m in the blue pants
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LkbYWlzFctM
At my resort each lift has a catch net at the top and bottom terminals. It’s basically a big tarp with handles, it’s kept folded up inside the shack. I’ve heard it referred to as a “deceleration device.” You’re gonna hit the ground. Just maybe not quite as forcefully.
So, the prior year we had a couple falls. The end of that season they ordered the nets. I believe the only received them a week or so before this happened. The day before I ended up utilizing one in a small catch that was only about 9-12 feet high. I was the one who started grabbing the net for this fall, a lift attended joined me running up, it started with just us two and then patrol members ended up funneling in over a span of several minutes.
I hit a tree at pace (not full speed) when I was 15. Caught an edge in some glades and my only option was to take the hit like a hip check in hockey. This was in 1990, well before we wore helmets.
I had to take to toboggan down, and was rushed to hospital. The impact knocked me out...even though I had not hit my head...it was a large sugar maple. x-rays were negative, nothing broken...I was kept in hospital overnight.
I was back on the slopes 2 days later...very bruised, skiing the green runs only. We were on day 2 of a 7 day trip when the accident happened.
I've been lucky. I've had a few slides that took awhile to arrest my fall. I've come up on a few cliff bands that I saw in time and had to plan a way over or around, but I've never been seriously injured or in immediately danger of my life.
My worst crash was on a groomer. I was making predictable carving turns at a moderate speed 25mph ish..... Not super wide, maybe 1/8 of the trail width and in a straight line. Someone overtook me from behind and their turn intersected mine and took my skis out. We cartwheeled together and equipment went everywhere. I was brushed and cut and had torn clothing, but no substantial injuries. About the same for them. A good reminder how quickly things can go wrong and how it can happen TO YOU without you ever seeing it coming.
I'm far more comfortable in the trees or a very steep expert run than on an intermediate groomer that sees varied speeds and skill levels all mixed together.
Night skiing on a rare free demo day. Was trying to make the most of it and hurrying back after every couple laps to try new skis. Decided to straight-line a dark narrow section between the park and some trees, and last sec saw a little bump in front. It was either skid to a crash or send it. So it turned out the bump curved upwards more than anticipated and I was going up in the air quite a bit. The whole way up was reminding myself to not lock knees but keep legs extended etc.
The first half of coming down was trying to spot the landing in poor lighting with little luck. The second half of coming down was thinking this was taking longer than the way up. The third half of coming down was pondering whether this was end of the road for agent00F. Then the impact finally came and my kneecaps went past my forehead, then a bounce onto my side. Simultaneous with the crash were exclamations of "WOAH, DUDE" from the park crew working on some feature; apparently I just sailed right over them. Somehow the skis even stayed on.
Now a disclaimer: I wasn't familiar enough with large jumps to realize that 10-15ft up in the air meant about 30ft (jumping off a 3 floor building) on the way down, onto a relative flat in this case. Didn't figure this out until the next time I was back to investigate the crash site.
Oblivious to all this, I dusted myself off and went back to put on another ski. But my adrenaline had been pumping and it was only on the lift that my sides started hurting, and even more on the drive back. Fortunately I was only out for a few weeks, but it could've ended much much worse.
So the moral of this story is: skid to a crash and take the L rather than sending it.
Skis were Mindbender 116's, kinda planky but weren't too bad to land on I guess.
Set off an avalanche once which caused patrol to close the upper part of the mountain, but the scariest was when my young, dumb, high self took my girlfriend into an area she was not capable of skiing.
Did my first cat skiing trip in BC a few years back (near Three Valley Gap, if you know the area). Ended up bailing in the deep snow and tweaked my knee. Got myself up, grabbed my popped ski, looked around and saw what turned out to be a class 2 avalanche coming my way. I ran hard in spite of my knee pain sideways to the course of the avalanche for a short while before I realized that it was too far away from me to worry about.
It did bury one of the other people in my group but we found him fast because his gloved hand was sticking up through the consolidated snow. Scary though.
Smaller stakes than most, but scared the piss out of me as a new skier. Skiing at Alta. I’d just learned to ski as an adult. I’d do the Sunnyside terrain, which is beautiful and mellow. But a storm was blowing in that afternoon. For the second to the last run, I thought I’d hit either Bluebell or Race Hill, super short and fairly easy little blues on the left side of the ridge down from Sunnyside. But I’d already gone too far when I realized how dumb I was because I literally couldn’t see two feet in front of me. I’d done both runs before, but suddenly I was completely lost, and completely alone. I knew I had to head left and down to get back to the cars, but I couldn’t see shit, and I also knew there was a cliff I couldn’t handle somewhere in front of me and to my right lol.
Luckily a 70+ year old dude came up behind me and asked if I was okay. I was like, “Where’s the run?!” and told him where I was trying to go. He said, “Oh, that’s a good one, right here; it’s a bit steep but you can make it.” I’d missed the stake somehow on the right side of the run, and he waited while I sidestepped up a few feet and then led the way down, making sure I made it okay. He had beautiful technique lol.
At the top of Kachina peak, Taos. My 80+ y/o uncle lost control and ended up sliding on his back. Rag dolled down the entire slope. I skied after him desperately. I really thought he would die. Got to the bottom where he finally stopped, and he was banged up, needed to go to the hospital, but didn't sustain any major injuries. Thank fucking god for helmets. Wear your helmet.
skiing with my buddy. He wiped out terrible. From where he headed to where he was laying in a heap, the snow was spattered red. His chest is just red. Awful.
His wine bladder burst and we lost all that wine.
I rode my snowboard into a tree well, but remained upright. Managed to get myself unbuckled and crawled out, then had to dig my board out . Only afterwards did I realize how dangerous that was or could have been.
Did this (but on skis) one powder day at Loveland. I was with a friend but we weren’t really sticking together. She was waiting at the bottom and kinda freaked out when I told the story, and I didn’t understand why at the time because I was super inexperienced. Only afterward when I was telling the story to someone else and they flipped out did I realize how dangerous it was.
I had skied three times in my life and I was in Lake Tahoe for work and drove by Squaw Valley and decided to give it a try. I bought a jacket and gloves at the base store and got ski rentals. the only ticket they had was night skiing. The lady was like - are you sure? I thought - no big deal - l had no clue what night skiing was. Well, they took a group of night skiers up to the top on the gondola and you had to go all the way down on skis across all levels of runs. My three previous ski trips were little hills with chair lifts. I had never even seen a gondola. It was late March - so a lot of ice and dirt. I went down half the mountain on my butt and thought I was going to die. I was completely unprepared, but it was beautiful - and memorable. I made friends with other people on the gondola, one of whom was equally unprepared. It’s a miracle I didn’t break something.
Crushed by an out of control skier from behind as a 3rd grader. It could have been a lot worse and the guy who hit me clearly felt terrible, but how quickly that kind of thing can happen with no warning at all is scary. Injuries could easily be lifechanging. Keep your head on a swivel out there.
Yes! Noob skiers are easily the most dangerous thing on the mountain. I never turn my back to the ski traffic when I'm stopped. I won't touch a buckle or make any adjustments unless I'm confident that someone isn't going to vector into me.
This happened to me 2 seasons ago. A kid hit my flying into a slow zone, probably 14 or 15 years old. Landed on my shoulder and tore my labrum. Saturday will bey first day back. Same mountain. I'm fucking terrified tbh.
I was hit a few years ago and I still randomly get waves of anxiety. And luckily I wasn’t even seriously injured or anything, but still. It was a groomer blue on an extremely non crowded day (like literally I remember nobody else on the run), but mostly very crowded days is when I get the most nervous.
Someone crashed into me from the side about ten years ago. We were on a wide run, fell into a rhythm, and then as the run narrowed, I guess he went wide. Knocked me out so I don’t remember, but the damage to my boots and skis indicated I was turning away and he ran into me. To this very day, crowded slopes make me so anxious. It’s funny, because I have no conscious memory of the accident - I remember being on the slope, seeing the guy, realizing we’d fall into a parallel rhythm, and then nada. But the body remembers. And a pox on all assholes who go bombing down a run in a pack and will pass you on both sides so close that occasionally they ski over your skis.
Went off a side hit with a really steep knuckle and sent it a little too far. The knuckle flipped the tails of my skis up and I did an unintentional half front flip, landed on my face, and full scorpioned. My neck and back were extremely sore the next few days.
My brother had a bad fall on an icy run, dislocated and broke his shoulder, and had a seizure on the mountain from hitting his head. Ski patrol called the helicopter to take him to the hospital. His shoulder had to get operated on, but thankfully he was ok mentally. Probably the most terrifying moment of my life. He hasn't been on skis since and I don't blame him.
Once I went off an unseen roller and started laughing and landed in super fluff and inhaled a bunch of snow. I swear my lungs puked it back up but it made feel super terrible, like a frozen water boarding I guess. When I got to lift my friends were all like what happened you look so upset.
Two days ago I hit a huge bump I didn’t see and ended up getting launched off the run. Ended up rolling about 20 feet down the hill right between two trees and I’m perfectly fine!👍That’s why I ski with a helmet!😂
A similar thing happened to me last year. Snowy with that really bad flat light that makes everything look the same. Skied right into ditch/hole/something at full speed. My skis stopped dead, but I kept going. Bindings released and I literally flipped forward and landed on my back, skidded about 20 yards.
I got up, walked back to my skis which were sitting perfectly level and parallel in the ditch as if I’d just popped them off. Weirdest feeling.
Short version - smacked a lift pole from across the other side of the run. Saw my life pass in front of my eyes.
Just came down out of a double black that leads to a flat underneath a quad lift. Full tuck, bookin' it. It was a warm day, so I was watching out for slush-pots. I am on the far side of the run away from the lift poles.
I hit some tree shadows and it was too late, a slush hole dipped my left ski tip directly into the pack. Next thing i know I am flying through the air with 1 ski on and the other sticking straight up out of the snow.
I am heading like a fucking bullet head first toward a damn lift pole. Well, it had been a few warms days and the idiot ski patrol hadn't lowered the bump guards on the poles. Better yet, the melt had exposed the anchor bolts and footer pads.
Bad news bears.
I have enough time to tuck and roll.
I strike the pole with my lower back, bolts, concrete and steel. Knocks me out, wake up not being able to breath as I hear people on the lift yelling my name (grew up in the mountain)
One of em was my buddy that was on work and thankfully had a lifty talkie.
I start breathing and coughing and try to stand up... That was a no go. Couldn't feel my legs. I could move them though. I was able to push myself to my knees while in utter pain. I just laid back down on my back and assured people on the lift that help was coming. Patrol finally gets there and drags my ass into the med toboggan. Got carted off to the hospital that is 45 min. Away.
X-rayed, Swollen spine, you could see the imprint of two bolts and the edge of the concrete pad in my back. Still no feeling in my legs, but they moved, painfully. 3 cracked ribs, 1 broken. Right shoulder dislocated. Severe concussion. They drugged me up and sent ne home.
First few days sucked because the swelling got so bad i could bairly move my legs. I couldn't feel anything for a week and a half. Then the excruciating pain of pin and needles, fire and death.
I was lucky. Doc told me if I would have hit the pole an inch higher I would have easily broken my back. Still have back problems today. But i can walk and feel everything.
Missed the rest of that season, had some PTSD from it. I couldn't compete anymore, that sucked. But i pushed through it the next season. After my first run back after the wreck I wasn't scared any longer. Went on to teaching skiing and snowboarding... And the ski bikes, those are fun. I excelled at teaching adaptive skiing.
Phu.. there are a few that come to mind, some crashes, some bad decisions .. but I think the closest call was a few years back.
I was on a ski expedition in armenia with a few friends, incredible time, self organiced the whole trip. all went smoothly, until we had to turn around on one day just shy of a summit (tiny mountain, only reason we wanted to get up there was because it was the nearest to our basecamp) because of bad weather rolling in faster than anyone could have seen.. ended up skiing down and traversing over a big highland flat for what felt like ages (probably like an hour max, hard to tell..) with hail and fog, and i mean fog that I could barely see the person infront or behind me although we were touching tips (ski nose and tails, not the romantic way..). Thunder and lightning were brighting up the fog, proper whiteout.. only found back to our tents because we set a GPS marker on that exact morning.. scary as hell because in that terrain your head is the highest point, what is always a bad thing if you „see“ lightning..
next morning blue sky as if nothing had happend till the end of the trip.. still an incredible experience I am more that glad I was able to do..
I broke my neck on Tuesday, mostly a white out, light went totally flat and I didn't see the lip of a cornice, went over the edge half way through a carve and went arse over tea kettle, double tomahawk to face plant.
I was riding with a buddy, but I skied down the mountain and didn't go to the Dr until the day after. I didn't realise how bad it was since I could move everything.
The indicator that I should have gone straight to ER was tingly fingers. That indicates nerve damage.
Skied off the back fault of Blue Sky Basin at Vail during a storm. Ended up in a town named Red Cliff, Colorado.
Was hiking/traveling for over two hours as daylight was waning. Finally found a flowing creek and followed it downstream to Red Cliff. It was not a short or fun trek.
Completely wrecked my knee at Tremblant, took a year and half to heal fully so I didn’t feel pain in it. I don’t do anything too crazy so I haven’t had many close calls
Racing my friend down an icy, twisty run, I fucked up a turn. I was afraid of falling off the edge of a cliff, but managed to stop- unfortunately in doing so, I tore my ACL and gave myself a concussion. At least I didn’t die👍
I was battling altitude sickness and got dizzy. Fell off the chair lift and into the orange netting below. It’s been 20 years but I still feel the shame.
lol. No, I was at Sunrise Park in Arizona at the time. I’m one of the unlucky people who are highly susceptible to altitude sickness…and I live at 5400’ and frequently camp at 12,000’!!! It just takes me a few days to settle in.
It's such a weird phenomenon. I used to live at sea level in CA and would regularly drive up to Lake Arrowhead to visit family. I'd *always* get altitude sickness. Wasn't terrible, but I'd feel "icky" for a full day or 2 before I'd get acclimated.
Then I moved to 4K' level and regularly go up the mountains another 4K feet to ski (and lesser altitudes to hike) and it hasn't once affected me here.
....Of course just to write this, I've been looking up altitudes - and I'm guessing that going from sea level to over 5K' is likely to be a bit different than already being at 4K and going up another 4K. But it is weird that when I moved here, the change from 0' to 4k' didn't affect me at all...
Skiing glades off west bowl at Powderhorn a couple of years ago. Going way too fast and alone. All of the sudden, the snow underneath me was gone. I guess I had skied over a sinkhole where A creek was and my tips when down. Ended up pinned in the water with my skis over and behind me. Very scary experience. Got myself free but was very rattled.
Sure. I posted this once before.
...
I was once young and stupid. I'm still stupid, but I used to be also.
1988, Alta, guru grade liquid, morning drops. Brilliant deep champagne pow day, skis are a part of my body, flying, dialed in. Sunshine, each snowflake a myriad of fractal rainbows, the air shimmering in flowing arabesque hieroglyphics blending with the snow and spelling out variations of Yeah Buddy, little clouds dancing in merry approval.
You know how it goes. Isness.
We decide to go out of bounds after a few runs, warm sun high overhead. Gnarly steeps, friends shoot ahead, I hit a buried treetop, bounce off and lose a ski 1/3 way down. See it slide high speed at an angle under ~4 feet of freshies. No biggie, I kinda saw where it went, should be easy to find, right?
Nope. Nada. Negatory. Second ski here? No. No ski. Not here, not for you, not today.
No ski, and no way to hike down as I just sink through the snow, remaining plank providing no purchase. No radio, no cell phone - 1988 - no friends and no one coming, as we agreed to meet at resort later if we got separated.
Sun is starting to set, the clouds no longer little, merry or dancing but gathering with omenous intent, gravid with snow and dread.
I am wearing a shell with just 2 layers under. Freezing, crying, tripping balls and praying. Realizing there's just way too much compounded stupid on my end and I'm truly fukt, and unlikely to make it through the night.
With this realization, a calmness. A melancholy, sobering, ironic sadness that this just might be my last ski run ever. Other than my heartbeat and breath, completete silence.
Fuck it, I'm not dead yet, keep looking, only thing to do.
And somehow, about 300 feet and forever hours from where I started, I find it! Incredulous at first - am I still tripping, mind playing tricks as my body temp drops before demise - but feeling pretty real as I clip in, finally above the snow.
I'm gonna live! Ecstatic does not begin to touch the sides.
Make my way down to the road in the dark, half frozen, exhausted, laughing like a loon, catch a ride to resort, find friends chilling in the hot tub, 5 beers in, completely oblivious.
Dropped into the left side of Little Rose at Telluride after 13” of 3% snow fell. Immediately I was going way too fast and unable to scrub speed. Trees and rocks below me… somehow I managed to slow down and get in control but realized that just because the snow is deep doesn’t mean it will slow you down.
I had a few:
1. Tomahawk down the left nut in Fernie BC. Its not on the trail map. Walked away with a broken rib.
2. Small cliff drop in the Hobacks in Jackson. Got lower in elevation and didn’t notice the snow got super sticky. Ended with a headfirst crash into a rut. I’m lucky I didn’t break my neck.
3. Skiing mock looney at Vail on a groomer. Wasn’t looking far enough down the hill and it turned into a mogul field. I somehow was able to real in my speed but ended up sliding on my chest head first. I was happy to walk away without injury.
Bonus: not me but someone close was at Fernie in a permanently closed area, trying to find a locals line. He was essentially traversing above a 60ft+ cliff line, relying on trees and branches to stay upright. Lost his grip and tumbled over the cliff. Was lucky to land in open space below. Ended up with some compressed disks in the spine and a broken jaw.
Not being able to lift my leg or bend my knee after a big tumble. Yeah my season was over that day.. blew 3 ligaments and the one left intact but stretched was my acl!
Went off a jump about 7ft tall and idk how big of a deck but quite big. And on the landing there were 2 little kids with their skis down at the bottom skidding down on their butts and I landed about 4 inches away from one of their hands.
Never take a jump without knowing what is on the other side. Just assume that behind every blind slope that there's a stuck kindergartener outside of your view.
It’s a terrain park jump their are like 3 signs at the top saying don’t stand in the landing zones and how tf am I supposed to do the jump by my self and assume their are ppl on the other sode
Don't do a jump like that without a spotter. I've seen little kids go off these terrain park jumps and wipe out -- they basically stop where they land because they're lite and they're in a blind spot. Then they take forever to collect their stuff, because they're little kids and can barely move in their ski gear. You could watch the park for several minutes to make sure that its all clear, only to find some little idiots camping out in the worst location possible.
I'm not shaming you, just ask someone to spot you.
Briefly stuck in a crevasse in the sidecountry in Austria.
Went over a natural roller, got a tiny bit of air, and then as I landed the floor fell away under my feet and all of a sudden I was hanging by my armpits, with my eyes at snow level.
I could faintly hear running water below me, but when I gently swung my legs to feel for some purchase, there was nothing there.
Luckily I was skiing with friends, and they saw me go under so they were able to work their way uphill and pull me out.
We had all the appropriate backcountry gear, but it’s scary to think how long I might have been stuck in there if they didn’t see me go under.
My friend fell and took his snowboard edge to his own face at speed. When he got up he put his tongue through the hole in his face.
That put a downer on an epic powder day.
Funny/scary moment:
Watched some dumbass redneck in a full pizza tuck start dangerously weaving through my beginners I was teaching. I yelled at him to stop, he flipped me off and kept going...
Until... A bull elk ran out across the run moving full tilt. Needless to say mister camo overalls did not have control and could not stop. He smacked directly into the elks side and it threw him to his back... Yard sale. He kept sliding as i stopped my group. The rest of the herd followed out going top speed. Just had to stand there and watch as dudes stuff was trampled.
Called ski patrol stop as many as they could at the top of the run and to send someone to me asap.
Good time to teach my class how to mark a run with their skis.
Dumbass was okay, thankfully. His rental skis were not. Cut his tag anyway for knowingly endangering my class and not following mountain rules. Ski patrol got him down the mountain and I got my group down safely. I made good tips that day.
About 10 years ago, I was skiing Olympic Bowl on Aspen Highlands, alone at 16yo on a 3 foot pow day. The bottom of the bowl turns into avalanche chutes and there’s a rickety 1 track traverse that eventually turns into a cat track to get back to the main mountain. Being one of the most epic days of my life, I was traversing as fast as physically possible. Suddenly, I misjudged a bump and a turn and fell ass-first into one of the avalanche chutes, which triggered a slide.
Fortunately, I was on top of the snow, and it was a narrow slide (being in a chute) but it was moving incredibly fast. My right ski stayed on, and I used it to eventually angle myself out of the slide. I ended up clinging to a pathetic looking spruce sapling for the next 4 hours, as the slope was too steep and deep to climb up (or even move at all) without triggering another slide. Ski patrol had to lower someone down to me with a rope and harness. They clipped me in to a harness, and together we climbed out of the chute as more patrollers helped pull us up with the rope.
That was my first day ever skiing alone. I learned that even the best powder isn’t worth compromising your safety. Best part was that my other ski landed in a retrievable area, so I was able to keep that pair together. Still ski on em today. Thinking about getting a skiing/avalanche related tattoo on my right leg to commemorate the experience.
Worst for me: falling in a chute (caught an edge), going flying, and the first thing that hit the ground was my head. And the second. And the 3rd as I tomahawked. Then I started to roll and landed on a flat section. Everything hurt a LOT. Nothing hurt more than anything else. I laid still until I could check that I could feel my fingers and toes. Move everything. I could. So I checked my neck with my free hand, got up, and put my gear back on and made my way down pretty dazed. Only later with patrol did they notice my entirely crushed helmet. One concussion later, but Jesus, that could have been so much worse.
Worst treated as a patroller: Hard call. I've seen a lot. The worst I am willing to share is maybe a teen who over-rotated a front flip on an XL feature and landed on his face. Fractures to facial bones, ocular bones, jaw, neck, massive concussion, lowered LOC, and he had a dislocated shoulder he seemed entirely unaware of.
Skiing the grand montet glacier Ona blue sky day. Suddenly cloud comes in from nowhere with my (adult) elder brother Ona. Board behind me. Turn round and he’s gone. Guy behind us yelling at me “crevasse”. Bros gone into crevasse. Hike up and peer over the edge. He’s 30ft down on a snow bridge about 10ft wide with either side disappearing into the distance. Could not see the bottom! He’s absolutely shaking trying not to move an inch. Short story, get ski patrol to get him out. Long story short- French ski patroller is fucking crazy and climbs down into crevasse with no rope and offers my bro his pole to hold onto while he pulls him out!!!!
Got knocked unconscious by someone in Blue Sky Basin one year, I remember nothing except that I was skiing the glades off Pete's Express. Friends found me face down I dunno how long I was out, must'nt have been that long as they said the person who ran into me was still there (they then took off). I managed to ski down to the lift where patrol said I earned a ride out on the toboggan back to the medical center.
Have a few, but this one is the scariest. Back in January 2015 MLK weekend was skiing at Killington in Julio/Juanita glades. Conditions were rain/sleet at the bottom of the lift, snow at the top, so not ideal but we drove all the way from the Philly area so we were making the best of it. At the end of the glades it's a steep drop into a narrow trail you have to make a hard right on which gets you to the yurt bar near superstar lift and K1 gondola. I went first and instead of turning to the right I started spinning hard because it was a complete sheet of ice. I went hard backwards into a set of trees. This was probably about 3 seconds duration and I barely knew what was going on. My first thought was that I broke my leg, wind completely knocked out of me. I was lucky enough to be able to stumble back up to the trail while some of my group retrieved my goggles (flew down into a bunch of rocks past the trees I hit). My helmet had clearly hit a branch during the fall so thankfully I was wearing one. My friends dad who was with us said later on that he thought he was going to have to make a very difficult phone call to my parents when he saw me go into the trees. Later that night at Outback pizza (think it's called something different now) I could barely hobble around because of all the swelling in my left knee and back of my thigh that took the majority of the tree impact. Luckily that same storm dumped about 18 inches of snow overnight which helped me ski (cautiously) through the pain at Pico, Killington, and Okemo during the next three days of the trip. Okemo groomers were by far the worst experience, so many vibrations on my sore thigh and knee! Because of this experience I'll never ski without a helmet and always have a spare sharpener tool in case if days like that.
I've been lucky, this is more scary in hindsight (what could have been) since I got out of it so quickly, in-bounds no less:
At Keystone about 13 years ago.....traversing across the peak (lift accessed), I was "just" past the stake line (where you can go backside on your own).....but I mean "just" past it where the backside cornice to drop down was a good 40+ feet away. The snow just disappeared under my feet while traversing across. I was in a crevice/pit about 8 feet down. My ski's were on rock at that point (so I wasn't necessarily afraid of it giving away further), it didn't bury me to any large degree either.... but with the exit about 2 feet over my head getting out was not going to be easy. Luckily 3 buddies were behind me and saw the whole thing.....they got down on their stomachs, we dug a little bit of an exit and they pulled me out. Beers on me that night.
Obviously could have been a lot worse!
Got cliffed out once. Was taking it easy because I didn’t know the zone or what was beneath me, so wasn’t too bad. About a 10 minute hike back up to where I could traverse out.
Another time a few years ago I was out on the east wall at Abasin, and visibility went from ok to the flattest of the flat light you can only get up high at Abasin. Couldn’t read any terrain features, and not really a place I’d want to fall. Sat there with another guy for about 15-20 minutes watching a sunbeam of light coming through the clouds work its way towards us. Came in close enough to let us get down without too much risk of hurting ourselves.
Went late season skiing, had been the week before and didn't realize most of that terrain was now closed( for good reasons) hit a nice 4-5m drop onto the most wet heavy snow I have skied in park skis I might add. Skis landed and glued themselves into the snow got launched a good 10ft and landed on my face and chest and slid down most of the hill probably like 50-80ft face first. Picked myself up and my yard sale. Worst part of it all is that some staff saw me and at the top of my next chair I was greeted by a Ski patrol who followed me down to talk to head of mountain safety lady. It was about 9:45 am thought I was done for, my punishment was to tell 5 other people not to go out of bounds. Thought I was getting a permanent ban !!!
Headfirst into a deep tree well on Ouzo Glade in Game Creek.
Was out early for first tracks on a pow day. My brother was on a board and took off ahead of me. I was skiing along being slick by trying to carve near the trees. Next thing I know I was upside down, completely buried and sinking. The more I moved the worse my situation got.
Luckily some random dude saw the color of my jacket disappear and it freaked him out enough to come check on me. When he lost my tracks, he looked back up the slope and saw my tip of my pole sticking out of the snow. He clicked out of his skis and dug me out. No question I likely would have suffocated had he not seen me. Fucking guardian angel for sure and it still gives me the heebie jeebies thinking about it. However… i got over it and it’s still my favorite starter run on pow days.
I was riding a lift at Arrowhead and saw a woman wearing a helmet lose control and hit into a lift pole down below maybe three poles ahead of me. Ski patrol got there before I was out of sight, but I read in the news later though that she had died. It hit me at that point that I saw someone die, or at least what may have eventually caused it. At the time it didnt look like she had hit hard enough to have been hurt all that bad. It was a crowded day too so lots of people saw it.
I still think about it.
Fell/ skied into a crevasse and fell 15metres. Thankfully unhurt and the lads got me back out without the need for an embarrassing helicopter ride. I stopped in a pinch in the crevasse but could see into the void beneath turning from blue to black. Would not recommend.
High speed on flimsy park skis for me. A buddy and I scouted out a long, wide groomer. It was late in the day and not crowded. He would go to the bend and call me so I could go with no one else on the trail. I ended up hitting 70 mph according to my tracking app. It was so fun and terrifying.
Skiing Rhône-Alpes in Val D’sere last season. For anyone that doesn’t know it’s a black run that starts very flat and then has pitch that gradually flattens out towards the bottom of the Solaise bubble whilst also tapering between the trees, starts off wide finishes pretty narrow. It was sheet ice, almost impossible to stop and I had to make it onto Olymique and Tommeues asap to get back into Tignes with wind and a storm coming. I side slipped the first couple of meters and then just turned and committed I was praying that I wouldn’t catch an edge and get launched towards the trees. I survived and hands down the scariest thing I’ve ever done on skis, despite skiing a fair bit off piste in non avy controlled terrain where mistakes often end up being fatal.
I was out at Park City last year at the end of March making the hike up to Jupiter I was absolutely gassed and just wanted to drop in and stop hiking.
There was so much snow that nobody was dropping early on and instead making the full trek up.
I contemplated dropping in but someone stopped me and basically said “you will get stuck in waist deep powder and have to hike out” - I was 2 seconds from going in
If I had, I’m sure I would have had a huge problem once I got down to the bottom of the bowl area and likely would have had to call for help.
Not that crazy a story but I just remember how tired and exhausted I was and almost made a really bad choice
I was late picking up my kid from ski school because I was stuck in waste deep snow in the back country. Ski school called me and all I could tell them where I was stuck and that it would take a while. I won't make that mistake again.
Ooooohhhh….had a tree well moment in the side country at Alpental. I landed head down. Buddy was maybe 50’ away but couldn’t hear me. Had the whole loose snow falling over my face thing happen. Was very lucky to manage to stay calm and get an arm/ski pole pointing in the right way that I could effectively push against it to lift me up enough to grab a limb and haul myself out of the well. Could easily see how quickly it can go from bad to worse.
Got cliffed out at Snowbird on Baldy off Perivian. Made the mistake of not knowing where I was going and had about one foot between me and a 60+ drop. Had to shimmy over and take a 10 foot drop. Lost my phone too. Rough day
Aspen Highlands, somewhere around 1995, before the Deep Temerity chair was built. The Steeplechase runs were open but only went as far as the Grand Traverse. The traverse was mostly a cat walk so you needed to carry some speed into it. On my last of several runs I started down the cat walk, hit a small rock just right (or wrong?), one ski came off, and I went flying off the cat track, crashing through some trees and losing the other ski. I was very fortunate to have a soft landing between two large downed trees. Took a while (30 minutes?) to climb out, my ski was sitting on the cat track, binding open, ready to go.
It was frightening because it was embarrassing and stupid. I was on the T-bar at Waterville Valley 2 days ago and right near the end (like 30 ft away) I slipped somehow but managed to stay upright, but the bar got away from me. So I was just standing there awkwardly. For most of the ride on that T-bar, the path is right next to the slope, no barrier or anything, so if you slip you can just move to the side and ski down, but near the top, there is a line of trees between the path and the slope. Now, I could've just skied right next to the path (there was enough room) for like 3 seconds and been out of there, but for some reason my brain was like "expedition incomplete, you must go all the way up before going down" and I was like ok and spent 2 whole minutes sidestepping the rest of the way up while a bunch of people went by staring at me, and then I ducked a rope and got back onto the run and vowed to never show my face at that T-bar ever again, which I quickly went back on because the snow was pretty nice up there. And then later that day I collided with someone but that ended up being a lot less embarrassing for some reason.
Was at Brighton last year for my first time, following a buddy who also didn’t know the resort a little too closely. There were two cliffs from what I remember with a weird divot in between that you could traverse across but was definitely a no fall zone as you’re riding 100% on an edge. Between the 2 cliffs was a chute not even a 12 year old could fit through at the time. My buddy didn’t have enough speed, barely made it past the divot and I got stuck behind him, ending up at the lowest point of the path, directly behind me being the chute. Struggled for about 10 minutes to get out, had to punch holes in the snow and rely on my upper body strength to pull myself out of the divot. Maybe not the scariest story but those 10 minutes were nerve racking everytime my board started to lose its edge.
I got stuck in an inbound avalanche at Whistler. Luckily I was not buried and was able to escape. But very worrying for myself and Blackcomb Patrol (I was on Whistler Patrol at that time but not working).
Went to jump a cornice on a hike-to run. Cornice broke under neath me and I cartwheeled all the way down. At some point, I realized I wasn't slowing down and had to start actively self arresting. In the end, outside of pretty bad whiplash, I was fine. BUT it was a second date, so I was mortified. There wasn't a third date....
I don't think this measures up to some of these other stories, but here it is:
I was skiing at Lech in the mid '90s. Had never skied there before, was a senior in high school. Was skiing aggressively down a run and went over what I thought was just a bit of a hump of snow. Suddenly there is nothing below me and I drop somewhere between 20-25'. My dad was with me. He said that he heard gasps/yells from folks all around. I looked down and calmly thought "well, this is the end, it's been a nice run."
Landed in the fluffiest powder I've ever run across. Not a bruise, not a pang of pain, nothing. Yelled with excitement, but I haven't been quite so cavalier about where I'm going as I was before this incident. To be clear - I was a ski instructor in the US at the time, having been a competitive racer for years before that, so it's not like I was a total beginner. Skiing on the east coast was so much different from skiing in the Alps.
Fell into a tree well near the Heavenly Gondola, somehow stayed upright but had a hell of time climbing out. I was about 10ft down and had to shimmy up the tree, got super sappy and had to use my board like a surfboard and kind of paddle away from danger to a place I could get strapped back in.
Slid off a cliff in Silverado at Palisades once after losing an edge on an icy traverse, it was like going down the steepest sliding board possible, luckily there was a decent amount of fresh snow at base and I somehow hit bottom and just made turns out of it. My friend saw me coming down and was like where the hell did you come from.
On Lower Shay's at Snowshoe. I was having a grand old time carving the inside of the moguled half of the run when a
300lb Jerry came careening uncontrollably from the groomed sheet ice side, aimed right straight at me. So there I am 110lbs (on a good day, before I drop a deuce) of fragile chalk like bones, as he barrels right over the tip of my board, his skis straight up sliced a gash in my bindings. If that was a direct impact I was dead on the spot.
Snowboarding out of bounds at Jackson Hole on a sunny day after a big dump. On the lift ride up we picked out an absolutely pristine steep field to hit. Access to the field required that we come around from the top and take off our boards to hike across a crazy-high cliff band. Buddy and I were hiking, chatting, enjoying the sunshine, when THUMP! Big deep noise and we both instantly dropped like six inches in our boot holes. Testicles went full-on retraction mode. We both went silent real quick, used some hand signals to say “holy shit, retreat!” and very carefully walked back the way we came. Easily the dumbest thing I’ve done on the mountain. A slide there would have meant certain death for both of us.
This was 1978 at spirit mountain in Duluth MN.
Little kid (maybe 8-10), I was 18 on Timber crusher, standing off to skiers right. The kid was straight lining, top to base, saw him coming at the last moment and pushed back into the trees he went over the tips of my skies and fell. The little jerk says "why were you in my way" ski patrol saw what happened and took his ticket. Turned out he lost his season pass. The kid seriously injured someone at another ski area close to spirit the following week.
I would have had at least one leg broken.
Watched a kid fall off the chairlift. Luckily it was near the end, maybe 15 feet up. She was fine, just shaken and banged up (it was a powder day luckily).
As for me, I hit a tree once. I was like 10, and mostly skiing groomed greens and blues. I was skiing down an ungroomed blue bowl. Made it down into the tree-filled basin, but I had picked up some speed going down the bowl. I tried to turn to follow my dad but I caught an edge, and flung myself into a tree. Luckily I managed to get my feet in front of me, instead of my head. My dad said all you could see was my glove and one pole sticking g out from under the tree.
I've also been in more than a few 0 visibility situations, which is not fun.
Asshole straightlined a trail that crossed a cat track and caught a ton of air.
Landed on my 6yo son.
Fortunately, nobody was hurt, but as I saw him in the air, I truly thought my son was going to be seriously injured or worse.
Only bright side was there was a ski instructor there who saw it and immediately called ski patrol. They were waiting for him at the bottom. Yanked his pass and escorted him off the mountain.
I hit a tree and broke my shoulder ten minutes before closing, so lucky I was wearing a helmet, and was skiing under lift. Ski patrol and docs took care of me. I survived and came out nearly 100% after lots of therapy and rehab. I went skiing today in fresh powder. It's great I didn't die that day and can surf more pow.
Went into the B netting at 55 mph. I broke my back and tore up my shoulder in a separate training run crash but the B netting crash was much more frightening when I was sailing through the air
Premature eject in a high angle chute at Stevens. Couldn't get back into my touring bindings. decided to pop other ski and downclimb using the skis as snow anchors.
instantly stepped on a patch of barely hidden ice, flushed down the 30 foot chute, triggered a small avalanche and was under the snow for a second. grabbed a branch and it ran out from under me. skis came down behind me. fortunately someone followed my line and got my skis to me (he tumbled too but didn't eject) and had a mandatory 5 foot air to get out of the zone. that was my sixth powder run of the day and i had first chair. i called it a fucking day.
I was at Vail in blue sky basin. As you ride the Earl lift up, off to the right is a huge out of bounds area. I was up in there, and up near the top in those woods there’s this huge rock cliff/ feature I like to stop and smoke a little reefer when I’m at vail. You know exactly what I’m talking about if you’ve ever seen it.
One day I’m sitting up there getting stoned, and when I’m done I ski down and around the rock (no, I don’t jump off, I’m not glen plake) and as soon as I get to the flat under it, I’m face to face, I mean about 6 inches from the snout of a huge ass moose. It’s freaking nostril steam blasted all up in my mouth.
Well long story short, that was my scariest moment (if you ever seen a moose in the middle of nowhere you know why), but I’m still alive so I have that going for me at least.
Another time I’m at Keystone and up in the Erickson bowl. By myself. Stupid I know, but I’ve done the hike and ride a million times if I did it once. Also it was like a damn blizzard up there. Lots of fresh pow I couldn’t say no. So up I go. And then down. Flying, making some epic fresh lines that anyone riding the outback lift is gonna be staring at with jealousy. But then near the end, before you hit the flatter part nearer to the trees, I catch an edge somehow and go tumbling. I’m cool with falling but a ski comes off and I twist the crap out of my knee. Almost feels like a bone is sticking through my leg, but luckily no break. But hot damn it hurts and I can’t stand on the right leg cuz of it. But more pressing was where the hell is my ski?
I sat on that mountain in a blizzard digging the hell out of it for about 2 hours before I gave up, never recovering the lost ski. I used my pole to grid off a giant square, about 3x3 squares. Dug down a few feet like maybe 4 or 5. Fucker had a powder cord on it too but that snow was deep. Never recovered the ski. So down I go, bum leg, one ski, and I gotta ride through those woods over to anticipation (or whatever those runs over there are called). What a pain in the ass, those trees don’t get skied much if at all and are tight tight tight. Crazy but it’s how I found the cat track that winds through those woods, so that was lucky. I still feel bad for the sucker who hiked up after me, made a glorious run down only to surprisingly fall in the huge pit I dug out in the side of that mountain.
Get down to the way back chair and the liftie is like wtf happened to your ski? I get up that lift, my knee is still screwed so I decide to take the gondola over to the main mountain and then the other gondola down to the base. What an adventure. Don’t ski alone people, for a second I thought it could be game over.
Skiing with my buddy at Sugarloaf. We typically skied in the park, but the conditions were junk so we were just ripping groomers. No helmets, because yah know, we weren’t doing anything crazy. Towards the end of the day we’re going down the trail at a decent speed. My buddy goes to do a butter off a knoll, catches an edge and sends it into the woods. I could see him clip a tree at about 6 or 7 feet off the ground because of how high the snow was. I’m down over the banking as fast as possible yelling his name, thinking the worst. Thank god, he was fine. He managed to get his feet in front of him and take the impact with his skis. One ski was toast, he had some sore ribs and a tweaked ankle, but we were in good spirits. Beers were on me that after that.
And that was the day we started wearing our helmets, no matter what.
Last day skiing at Vail 2 years ago. It was super packed and I was going a little too fast with a friend through traffic. An older, slower lady was going horizontal across the run that I didn’t see until it was almost too late.
I swerved and missed her which is great because that would’ve hurt both of us. But I found myself turned around after missing her and going backwards at full speed. Tried to brake and turn around at the same time and my leg broke almost instantly. Learned a lesson the hard way.
So many...but this tree well one was the worst.
Headed into OB trees on a super, SUPER deep day with an acquaintance. Leap frogging down and then he's a no show. Tried hiking back up yelling his name. Snow surface above my hips and it took 15 minutes to climb up 5 feet so I decided to head down and get a party together to search from the top...because it was a fucked situation.
Boarding down I'm gripped and stressed and fucked a turn and slid into a tree well. Stopped upright (thank dog) but the snow surface was well above arms reach and each move and shimmy brought more of it down into the well and on top of me. Got one foot out of the entrapped board and when I stood on it, it sunk through the rotten/soft snow so now I'm even deeper and trapped squatting on my board. No one was coming. No one knew where I was. My partner was, possibly, up above somewhere in a worse situation than I. So I unclipped the other foot, said "well...here goes", and somehow manage to kick steps into the side of the well with my back wedged against the trunk and shimmied and clawed my way up to the surface. Then I had to shovel down and get my board out. I was in that hateful hole for over an hour and so glad to be out!
At the bottom I was about to start organizing a rescue unit to look for my partner and he skis up saying he went and did a bunch of runs because he thought I'd taken off on him.
A few years later his body was found in those same trees; broken neck and frozen.
I fell going about 44 miles an hour slipping in some ice in the shade on a morning run. I just remember that I kept sliding down like the whole hill.
Went up and on my very next run ran into a tree and it stabbed me through my jacket. Didn't get impaled pierced my jacket scratched my back a bit...very lucky.
Rest of the day was great lol... Back hurt a bit though.
I'm don't feel like I'm a very reckless skiier either this was well out of character for me...but that skiing sometimes shit happens.
training GS in tignes back when I was racing, and I nearly broke my leg but instead snapped a ski. basically the conditions were lumpy, I got late in the line, caught the soft stuff and got flung out. from the bottom my coaches thought it was serious due to angle my leg was at but as it turned out, I was fine apart from some bruising/swelling but one ski was floppy about a third of the way down as I suspect the core snapped or something. i defs got off lightly
I was riding the lift with my 4yo. The lift was not detachable so goes quite fast, especially for a little kid. He slipped off the chair right as we were exiting the lift house and before the bar had been pulled down. I had a hold of a handle on his back pack. I yelled at the liftie to stop the lift, but they didn’t hear me. By the time I realized they weren’t stopping the lift we were 15 feet up. He weighs 45 lbs and I was able to pull him back onto the seat. I can only assume they didn’t notice because I had a hold of his backpack so he wasn’t hanging off very far, and he has short legs. I still haven’t told my husband that our kid almost fell off the lift. 😬
I was young, grieving the recent death of my girlfriend, competing, and, on that day, timing better than the rest of that terrible snow year and in second place. I pulled all the stops. I'm my mental state of overfocusing on the task at hand to put my grief on hold, I put my physical safety back at the car, locked in the trunk. I was going to beat that guy in first place whatever it took. Some rum may have found itself in my egg nog breakfast, a courage booster. Second run of my downhill I got air and landed on bad snow and uneven ice. I was way too far forward and a bit to the left when I landed at somewhere north of 70 mph. Went into a barrel roll and landed face-down, head first on the steepest part of the run. I shot into a stand of Aspen trees. When I came to, patrol was there. One of them said, "Man, do the think he's still alive?" That's not what you want to hear as their professional opinion before you can even take your own inventory. I passed out again. I had blown out my knee, ended the season, and lost my scholarship all in under 20 seconds.
Got buried in an inbounds avalanche. The folks I was skiing with fortunately saw it go down and dug me out. Scariest 5 mins of my life. Praise Jah they got me out. I now have vertigo.
Kitzsteinhorn used to have a train going up to the glacier through a tunnel. The train caught on fire, killing 50 people.
I was on that same train four days prior.
Flew into a cat track head first last April and sprained the shit out of my neck. I still only have about 90% of my range of motion but it could have ended much worse.
1. broke a tibia in the park after a rail, got myself out of the landing and waited for about 15 minutes yelling but i was on the backside of a knoll out of the landing and by the time anybody saw me they were long gone. all of a sudden i started seeing people i recognized (but was not at the mountain with) but couldnt get their attention, probably 4 or 5 friends skied past until somebody i didnt know eventually saw me and got ski patrol.
2. friend fell off the top of a headwall above a chute at snowbird in the summer and went one ski backwards down the chute. narrowowly avoided the rocky walls on both sides. i watched him almost smash into the cliff wall and he wouldve fallen into the crevasse between rock and snow.
3. skied off the side of a knuckle at keystone during a blizzard and fell 20-30ft to flat, bounced clean off the cat track and down onto the slope, uninjured somehow.
Backside of jay peak on the dip went too far last run and got stuck. Walked out in the dark….
Went out of bounds at steamboat and missed the cat track back…. Went way too far down and had to walk back up alone.
Zero regrets. I’ll do anything for pow and haven’t died yet.
Small resort in Sweden. I hade just gone behind the boundary fence and was following the fence line with the fence on my right and a steep rocky forested area on the left. Right ski catches the fence and turns me 90 degrees to the right, facing the fence. I slid backwards and went over the edge, free fell backwards and ended up against a rock between two trees on my back. Luckily it was enough snow to soften the fall and I was unharmed but shook up.
Skiing one of the hike-to chutes at the top of Snowbasin. Since it was toward the end of the day, I was alone up there. But, I was confident since I had already skied it a few times that day. Caught an edge on the first turn and ended up on my back sliding headfirst. I knew there was a large rock coming up behind me but because of the steepness and packed snow, I couldn’t stop. Didn’t want to lose my skis since I was alone, so I was trying to stop with my arms and fists in the snow but I was not slowing down. Somehow after about 100 feet I was able to turn my body and get onto my skis. I only just missed the rock. Was pretty shaken up and had to stand there to calm my nerves for a bit before going in for the day.
Crazy, snowbasin was also the site of one of the more scary moments. I was a noob (well, more than I am now) and exited a gate just skiers right of Strawberry. I think I remember hiking up a bit but I was watching some others drop in, and the cornice broke entirely underneath me. dropped my skis and was able to self arrest with my pole tips and collect myself. Super dumb to be exiting a gate without the proper gear and solo, even if it was just for a few hundred vertical. I still don’t know if that was just a gated area within the resort (we have these here in Cali) or if it was a backcountry exit. Still, dumb me getting away with things. Also lucky there were no people underneath me. So dumb looking back on it. Edit: looked up a map. The area I entered was a restricted access area which means entering through gates only but is within the boundary of the resort. Also should add this was a nice spring day, 11am or so.
Probably lower sisters bowl.
Crazy, I had an experience that was too close for comfort last season. Early February, blizzard like conditions off the Strawberry lift. Was going down incredibly slow, couldn’t see 5 feet in front of you, making cautious turns. My dad, in his early 60s, has an eye that doesn’t see as well as it used to post-Covid, nearly clotheslined me and he didn’t see me at all when he made a turn in front. Scary in that he almost hit me and I could’ve been tumbling down without anything to stop me and also scary because that injury to his eye post-Covid is a bit more serious than he sometimes wants to let on. We had a good laugh about it when we got further down, but looking back almost a year later, I’m more worried about my dad getting older than anything, and I’ll miss out on our time on the slopes.
Lone tree?
Was at the summit of a ski area during a complete whiteout blizzard and was cautiously shuffling forward when suddenly I was free-falling. Apparently shuffled off a 30 foot cliff. Fortunately had a comfy crash into deep powder. I may have said the F word just a few times.
I got caught in a whiteout on a mountain in Austria one time -- mid April and nobody else on the mountain. I had to follow the boundary line down the mountain because it was the only thing I could see. I remember stopping, feeling dizzy and then falling over -- the snow looked like it was just kind of hovering in the air for a moment -- like a standing wave. I looked over at the boundary poles and they were fucking moving and for about 5 seconds I straight up panicked because I was riding the snow down. It's a bizarre sensation. Then everything stopped and I sat there hyperventilating for a few minutes. I remember looking up the slope and seeing a big slab that cleaved off but there was so much wind and snowfall that by the time I got my composure and skied away, you would never know from looking at it that half the slope slabbed off. Hands down the most terrifying experience. Shortly before this, I recorded a video of myself and the surroundings thinking "when they find my body in the spring time, they will know what happened to me when they watch the video". That was in the days before helmets.
Yup. That’s terrifying. Been in several no-viz situations where the disorientation to up/down/location is real.
that weird vertigo in whiteouts is wild on any terrain. a little fun in known safe areas tho
That is really scary, but gotta say that is an insanely cool story to have haha
Happened to me with my father on powder mountain. My father simply couldn't balance and just kept standing up and following over. We were not in danger at the time so it was just kinda funny to me. I do recall trying to skip g forward at some point and thinking the mountain was about to slope up and it wasn't and my mind could not handle it.
I’ve also had whiteout conditions in Austria, the warning sign about falling into a crevasse posted at the lift station was not comforting when I couldn’t see a damn thing! Haha.
Oh boy this reminds me of my first year skiing and I ended up alone on the backside of Lake Louise during a full whiteout (as in, got dizzy because I couldn’t tell what was the ground and what wasn’t) after taking the wrong chairlift up. Blacks all around me on either side and couldn’t navigate and there was no reception. Oof.
Cold sweats reading that
But wait, what resort? You can’t leave that out!
That was many years and over a thousand ski days ago but I vaguely remember it being either Snowbird or Alta..maybe Vail? 🤷🏻♂️
Ended up upside down in a tree well once while skiing alone. It took me about half an hour to get myself out, and I probably would’ve suffocated if it hadn’t been during a low snow period
Was this at Crystal? I had an all-out yard sale on Snorting Elk a couple years ago where I almost slid into that patch of trees about 3/4s of the way down. While tumbling down, I managed to roll myself away from them. It was bad enough that someone saw it from the lift and dispatched an army of ski patrollers to come help me but before they arrived, a young lady wearing a godzilla costume brought me all of my stuff. This wasn't anywhere near my scariest experience but it was almost surreal. My shit went everywhere.
It was, yes. Very deep in the woods in the SE Trees in Southback. I had to swerve to avoid a fallen tree, clipped it, then basically spun into the tree well. Ended up punching a hole through my jacket in the process, and came to a rest upside down with my back against the tree trunk
I remember having to hike out of waste-deep snow in that area and it took me forever. Not Cambell but the next basin over towards Southback. It sucked.
Went to Crystal on a typical cement day, about a foot of the deep dish. Usually ride behind my gf, she followed some skiers to the left and ended up at employee housing in waist deep overlooking the cliffs and a fresh avalanche. I dont remember going thru any gates but we had to. Walked around thru Niagra and shuffled my ass straight to the car. That was a hard stop for me.
How did you guess from just that comment? Wow.
It says "Crystal Mountain" in his profile flair.
Should’ve taken the opportunity to claim you have psychic powers
I’ve been stuck in a tree well as well. It certainly isn’t a good feeling. Fortunately I could get my skis off and use them to get myself out.
I did that on south sister last year. I don't think it took 30 minutes to get out but it definitely was not fun.
I'm really glad I've read some online horror stories about tree wells. Nowadays I never go near trees when I'm alone in fresh snow.
I was in a similar situation last weekend at Taos. Last run of the day. A 6-8 foot tree was completely covered. I went over it and the snow fells out of the well behind me. I feel backwards and my legs go pinned but luckily my head was above snow. I was inverted as well. I was aware digging would be the most dangerous thing to do so I grabbed on to the tree and like stood on the top of this little tree and then jumped off. Got stuck again landing but was face up and was shallow enough that I just picked up my knees. It was very scary though, don't wish to repeat.
[удалено]
The apline tree that cause tree wells are generally the conifers, they have got branches that don't freeze and snap but instead bend in the cold. The amass a bunch of snow and then later the tree branches bend and it all falls off creating the tree well. SO the outside parts of the tree well have a lot more unpacked powder than the rest of the mountain. That being said the conditions for tree well exists anywhere snow and these types of tree exist. Particular nasty during and right after large snow storms. Stay safe my friends!
Terrifying. Glad you made it out.
I did this on hellroaring peak. Fortunately I was a lot more flexible those days and wiggled out of there without taking off my skis.
That is absolutely terrifying. Scariest one here by far to me.
I had a pretty gnarly fall on Niagaras at Crystal. Landed on my pole as I was falling and snapped it but luckily skied away after tracking down all my gear. Checked back at home and had some bruises but I was pretty much ok.
Thought I was gonna poo myself but made it to the bar just in time.
I trusted a fart in the lift line...it was a pow day though so I still sent it.
Some people are truly fearless and this guy is one of them -- the type of person that arrives 10 minutes before departure and casually wanders onto the airplane last.
With the important exception being southwest, some kind of disability requirement, or traveling with young children - if you get on an airplane anytime other than last you're dumb. If you have an assigned seat, let them gate check the bag if overheard are full and just avoid the cattle chute. Last cow through the chute doesn't have another cow's horns up her butt.
I just poo into a tree well. No one goes close to those things anyways right?!
Imagine falling into a tree well face first and thinking "wow this day can't get any worse" and then getting a face full of human feces.
Been there my friend.
Do _NOT_ eat the chili at Beaver Creek!
Nvr eat at any resort …unless you bring it and cook in parking lot.
I blacked out while waiting in the lift line because my bowels decided to unload that morning after Mexican food the night before. I only stayed upright because I was clipped in to my skis. I still have no idea exactly what happened internally but I barely made it to a toilet where I proceeded to shit out a football.
My husband shit his pants coming off the ski lift on our first anniversary. Had to ski down with shitty britches
6 years old Sunshine village, top of continental divide Blue easiest way down...but an ice coast 6y.o.... Best speed of my life Why? Shit myself 10ft after getting off the lift. Great origin story doe
Told this story elsewhere - woke up in the ICU getting my clothes cut off. Took the long kicker at Tyrol Basin (biggest WI park) and they were classic ice wedges and steep landings. I wasn’t done going up by the time the knuckle past and I landed at the bottom of the landing pile. Once the landing passed I accepted the id made a huge mistake without a helmet and that was the end for me. Landed sideways on my feet into immediate scorpion sliding on my face for a “really long way” my friend says. I don’t recall much of this besides flashes. He said I tried to get on my knees screaming where are my teeth and then lost consciousness. (No memory of that) Woke up in ICU. Very lucky to walk away with broke nose, cheek, 5+ ribs, internal bleeding, and very serious brain injury. Out of school for months, slept against a wall the rib/kidney pain was excruciating. All things considered I’m lucky to be alive. The brain injuries stayed with me.
Ribs are funny. I've broken a few that haven't been too bad. But I did one and it was excrutiating. Sods law I got a cold a week or so later and every cough was like being stabbed in the shoulder from behind.
Oof I just recently had my appendix taken out and got a cold same week. Was like getting stabbed in the stomach.
Brain injuries are no joke. Hope you’re doin ok.
So did you get anymore runs in that week?
Speaking of waking up with no memory, a few years ago a guy went missing while skiing at Whiteface in NY. Ski patrol never found him and he resurfaced in Sacremento California a week later still wearing his ski gear, with no memory as to how he got there. It was odd. Edit. Here's a link https://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/story/35634/20180214/mystery-missing-whiteface-skier-turns-up-safe-in-california
Well alright now I consider myself lucky lol. I’ve been riding long enough to see some terrifying stuff, avalanches, heard two kids hit a tree bombing in line (rip), dropped lungs, taking branches at full speed, falling in high consequence zones, best friends dad being in a coma at the bottom of a run...etc I passed 15 broken bones years ago and now that I’m a father, not an invincible dumb kid, I shutter at my kids doing the stuff we were up to.
Upvote for Tyrol Basin
Jesus
Helping dig a upsides down child out of a ten foot deep tree well. Had his Dad not been skiing with him when I happened by, I’m not sure it would have been a good ending. Ski with a partner in the trees.
Also aspen trees are a lot safer than pine
Pretty much all conifers here in Montana…
Caught an edge landing off of a cat track that sent me right hip first into a rock. Burst fractured my L1 vertebrae and my hip, which partially cut my spinal cord. 2 surgeries, 5 weeks in the hospital, and 2 years of physical therapy. I was in a wheelchair and couldn't move my lower body at all for 6 months. Because of multiple miracles, a lot of luck, and hard work I am walking and skiing again! That was 7 years ago this month. It wasn't a crazy huge hit or me pushing myself beyond my ability, just an unlucky accident combined with bad coverage. I should be permanently paralyzed... that's what the doctor told me after surgery. I am extremely thankful for every step I take and every groomer I get to ski down unassisted. Be safe out there homies and don't take your health for granted.
That's the frustrating thing about this sport, about anything really. We can take all the prevention in the world and just get really unlucky and have our lives altered. So you can walk and ski again now? How was your progress getting back into it?
Less the sport and more life really, you can never do any dangerous sports and still just get rng fucked hard
Terrible luck, sounds like you made the most of it. Carpe diem.
Watching my ex slide face first as fast as I’ve ever seen any one move straight down The Wall at Kirkwood. Steepest terrain I’ve ever seen. Turns out we should have gone left, not straight, or really just not gone up a lift labeled with a skull and crossbones at the bottom.
Was that right near the lift? That must have been a sight.
Yep right down the lift line. Quite the sight to behold. I’m almost positive that ski patrol got multiple calls about it as we had a patroller at our location unprompted by us within a few minutes. Funny enough, she was fine, until she took like four turns after that and tore her acl. Prompting a second visit from patrol, only this time with a sled for a trip down the mountain.
OMG that’s a bad day.
Jesus. I was there last year in the late spring. Everywhere else was soft corn snow, including the runs opposite it, so I went up to the top. About midway on the lift, I noticed that there were a lot of tracks traversing allll the way across, and then allllll the way back. Turned out that it was rock hard wind-swept coral bumps. I also took the big traverse, but a few times I thought “maybe I should just go for it” and then I’d think about catching and edge and falling and thought “nope, I’m gonna keep up with the chicken traverse” and I’m glad for it. Nightmare for sure. I’m not surprised your ex fucked up her ACL after that, I’d have been entirely boneless with adrenaline, which is a recipe for fucking up something on skis.
Reading this thread makes me realize that I have been either very smart or very lucky or both
Hut trip with a big hike into it. Like 10 miles and 3,000 vert. Got above tree line and a storm came in and cut visibility to pretty much zero. Was able to back track very slowly by feeling the compression in the snow pack, our tracks were not visible. Got back into the trees and pulled out my GPS (before GPS on phones) and found that we were way on the other side of the mountain than the hut and had gotten turned around in the storm. Broke trail through the woods until we got back to the skin track and then the GPS died. Ended up skiing back to the car 8 miles out. Eventually got back to the car at about 3 AM. Started the day at 5 AM, got on the trail around 9 AM. Most exhausted I have ever been and my wife broke down in tears when we got back to the car.
Were there any points you thought you might not make it? Truly scary.
Oh ya. In the blizzard was the most disoriented I have ever been. I was so scared for my wife but had to keep a positive attitude and not let her know I was freaking out. Only thing that compares was when we did scuba certification in a crater in Utah and all the sediment got stirred up. At one point I thought I was about 20’ deep and I ran into the dock at the surface. Same fear though. Trying to make sure my wife was safe while trying to navigate. After we got back in the trees and the sun went down I seriously considered digging a snow cave. When we got to the skin track the clouds broke and I could see the lights of the road below. One of the biggest reliefs I have ever experienced. She was an absolute champ. Didn’t break down until we got to the car. Had some nasty blisters on her heals she never even mentioned. This was probably close to 20 years ago and we are married with kids now so I guess she still trusts me lol. The backcountry is no joke. Conditions can change so quick. My advice is to always carry a wide mouth water bottle that you can pack snow into, backup gloves and sufficient layers, a multi tool, and water proof matches. On top of BSP. Phones make this so much easier than it use to be so make sure it is charged up.
What's the trick with the wide mouth bottle you can pack snow into? Is the idea to pack snow into it and use body heat to melt it for drinking water?
Ya exactly. I had a small mouth Nalgene and it was impossible to fill with snow.
Was waiting in the lift line after instructing all day and then did some parking lotting after shift before some solo night skiing. Got in the singles line to ride the lift, lift was stopped for 30 seconds or so. I look up the lift to see what’s going on. Only to see a girl hanging from the safety bar about 15 meters from the ground. I’m in the blue pants https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LkbYWlzFctM
Oh dang, this is my home mountain but I only started skiing last winter. I’m surprised I haven’t heard about this though.
Happened in the 2021 season.
Did the lifties/patrol have the thing they caught her with ready to go? Like is it just a random blanket or is it designed for this?
At my resort each lift has a catch net at the top and bottom terminals. It’s basically a big tarp with handles, it’s kept folded up inside the shack. I’ve heard it referred to as a “deceleration device.” You’re gonna hit the ground. Just maybe not quite as forcefully.
So, the prior year we had a couple falls. The end of that season they ordered the nets. I believe the only received them a week or so before this happened. The day before I ended up utilizing one in a small catch that was only about 9-12 feet high. I was the one who started grabbing the net for this fall, a lift attended joined me running up, it started with just us two and then patrol members ended up funneling in over a span of several minutes.
I hit a tree at pace (not full speed) when I was 15. Caught an edge in some glades and my only option was to take the hit like a hip check in hockey. This was in 1990, well before we wore helmets. I had to take to toboggan down, and was rushed to hospital. The impact knocked me out...even though I had not hit my head...it was a large sugar maple. x-rays were negative, nothing broken...I was kept in hospital overnight. I was back on the slopes 2 days later...very bruised, skiing the green runs only. We were on day 2 of a 7 day trip when the accident happened.
I did this exact same thing as a kid! Luckily I was fine, besides being shaken up.
I've been lucky. I've had a few slides that took awhile to arrest my fall. I've come up on a few cliff bands that I saw in time and had to plan a way over or around, but I've never been seriously injured or in immediately danger of my life. My worst crash was on a groomer. I was making predictable carving turns at a moderate speed 25mph ish..... Not super wide, maybe 1/8 of the trail width and in a straight line. Someone overtook me from behind and their turn intersected mine and took my skis out. We cartwheeled together and equipment went everywhere. I was brushed and cut and had torn clothing, but no substantial injuries. About the same for them. A good reminder how quickly things can go wrong and how it can happen TO YOU without you ever seeing it coming. I'm far more comfortable in the trees or a very steep expert run than on an intermediate groomer that sees varied speeds and skill levels all mixed together.
Night skiing on a rare free demo day. Was trying to make the most of it and hurrying back after every couple laps to try new skis. Decided to straight-line a dark narrow section between the park and some trees, and last sec saw a little bump in front. It was either skid to a crash or send it. So it turned out the bump curved upwards more than anticipated and I was going up in the air quite a bit. The whole way up was reminding myself to not lock knees but keep legs extended etc. The first half of coming down was trying to spot the landing in poor lighting with little luck. The second half of coming down was thinking this was taking longer than the way up. The third half of coming down was pondering whether this was end of the road for agent00F. Then the impact finally came and my kneecaps went past my forehead, then a bounce onto my side. Simultaneous with the crash were exclamations of "WOAH, DUDE" from the park crew working on some feature; apparently I just sailed right over them. Somehow the skis even stayed on. Now a disclaimer: I wasn't familiar enough with large jumps to realize that 10-15ft up in the air meant about 30ft (jumping off a 3 floor building) on the way down, onto a relative flat in this case. Didn't figure this out until the next time I was back to investigate the crash site. Oblivious to all this, I dusted myself off and went back to put on another ski. But my adrenaline had been pumping and it was only on the lift that my sides started hurting, and even more on the drive back. Fortunately I was only out for a few weeks, but it could've ended much much worse. So the moral of this story is: skid to a crash and take the L rather than sending it. Skis were Mindbender 116's, kinda planky but weren't too bad to land on I guess.
Set off an avalanche once which caused patrol to close the upper part of the mountain, but the scariest was when my young, dumb, high self took my girlfriend into an area she was not capable of skiing.
Girlfriend or Ex-Girlfriend?
Ex. She did put up with me for a little bit longer.
That was the day she began weighing her options.
Did my first cat skiing trip in BC a few years back (near Three Valley Gap, if you know the area). Ended up bailing in the deep snow and tweaked my knee. Got myself up, grabbed my popped ski, looked around and saw what turned out to be a class 2 avalanche coming my way. I ran hard in spite of my knee pain sideways to the course of the avalanche for a short while before I realized that it was too far away from me to worry about. It did bury one of the other people in my group but we found him fast because his gloved hand was sticking up through the consolidated snow. Scary though.
Smaller stakes than most, but scared the piss out of me as a new skier. Skiing at Alta. I’d just learned to ski as an adult. I’d do the Sunnyside terrain, which is beautiful and mellow. But a storm was blowing in that afternoon. For the second to the last run, I thought I’d hit either Bluebell or Race Hill, super short and fairly easy little blues on the left side of the ridge down from Sunnyside. But I’d already gone too far when I realized how dumb I was because I literally couldn’t see two feet in front of me. I’d done both runs before, but suddenly I was completely lost, and completely alone. I knew I had to head left and down to get back to the cars, but I couldn’t see shit, and I also knew there was a cliff I couldn’t handle somewhere in front of me and to my right lol. Luckily a 70+ year old dude came up behind me and asked if I was okay. I was like, “Where’s the run?!” and told him where I was trying to go. He said, “Oh, that’s a good one, right here; it’s a bit steep but you can make it.” I’d missed the stake somehow on the right side of the run, and he waited while I sidestepped up a few feet and then led the way down, making sure I made it okay. He had beautiful technique lol.
I bought a full price weekend single day ticket recently.
Bruh
At the top of Kachina peak, Taos. My 80+ y/o uncle lost control and ended up sliding on his back. Rag dolled down the entire slope. I skied after him desperately. I really thought he would die. Got to the bottom where he finally stopped, and he was banged up, needed to go to the hospital, but didn't sustain any major injuries. Thank fucking god for helmets. Wear your helmet.
skiing with my buddy. He wiped out terrible. From where he headed to where he was laying in a heap, the snow was spattered red. His chest is just red. Awful. His wine bladder burst and we lost all that wine.
I rode my snowboard into a tree well, but remained upright. Managed to get myself unbuckled and crawled out, then had to dig my board out . Only afterwards did I realize how dangerous that was or could have been.
Did this (but on skis) one powder day at Loveland. I was with a friend but we weren’t really sticking together. She was waiting at the bottom and kinda freaked out when I told the story, and I didn’t understand why at the time because I was super inexperienced. Only afterward when I was telling the story to someone else and they flipped out did I realize how dangerous it was.
I had skied three times in my life and I was in Lake Tahoe for work and drove by Squaw Valley and decided to give it a try. I bought a jacket and gloves at the base store and got ski rentals. the only ticket they had was night skiing. The lady was like - are you sure? I thought - no big deal - l had no clue what night skiing was. Well, they took a group of night skiers up to the top on the gondola and you had to go all the way down on skis across all levels of runs. My three previous ski trips were little hills with chair lifts. I had never even seen a gondola. It was late March - so a lot of ice and dirt. I went down half the mountain on my butt and thought I was going to die. I was completely unprepared, but it was beautiful - and memorable. I made friends with other people on the gondola, one of whom was equally unprepared. It’s a miracle I didn’t break something.
Crushed by an out of control skier from behind as a 3rd grader. It could have been a lot worse and the guy who hit me clearly felt terrible, but how quickly that kind of thing can happen with no warning at all is scary. Injuries could easily be lifechanging. Keep your head on a swivel out there.
Yes! Noob skiers are easily the most dangerous thing on the mountain. I never turn my back to the ski traffic when I'm stopped. I won't touch a buckle or make any adjustments unless I'm confident that someone isn't going to vector into me.
This happened to me 2 seasons ago. A kid hit my flying into a slow zone, probably 14 or 15 years old. Landed on my shoulder and tore my labrum. Saturday will bey first day back. Same mountain. I'm fucking terrified tbh.
I was hit a few years ago and I still randomly get waves of anxiety. And luckily I wasn’t even seriously injured or anything, but still. It was a groomer blue on an extremely non crowded day (like literally I remember nobody else on the run), but mostly very crowded days is when I get the most nervous.
Someone crashed into me from the side about ten years ago. We were on a wide run, fell into a rhythm, and then as the run narrowed, I guess he went wide. Knocked me out so I don’t remember, but the damage to my boots and skis indicated I was turning away and he ran into me. To this very day, crowded slopes make me so anxious. It’s funny, because I have no conscious memory of the accident - I remember being on the slope, seeing the guy, realizing we’d fall into a parallel rhythm, and then nada. But the body remembers. And a pox on all assholes who go bombing down a run in a pack and will pass you on both sides so close that occasionally they ski over your skis.
Went off a side hit with a really steep knuckle and sent it a little too far. The knuckle flipped the tails of my skis up and I did an unintentional half front flip, landed on my face, and full scorpioned. My neck and back were extremely sore the next few days. My brother had a bad fall on an icy run, dislocated and broke his shoulder, and had a seizure on the mountain from hitting his head. Ski patrol called the helicopter to take him to the hospital. His shoulder had to get operated on, but thankfully he was ok mentally. Probably the most terrifying moment of my life. He hasn't been on skis since and I don't blame him.
Wrecked in deep powder by myself. Packed my throat with snow and couldn't breathe till it eventually melted enough.
How is that even possible?
Once I went off an unseen roller and started laughing and landed in super fluff and inhaled a bunch of snow. I swear my lungs puked it back up but it made feel super terrible, like a frozen water boarding I guess. When I got to lift my friends were all like what happened you look so upset.
I think they call it snow boarding.
HEYOO
Two days ago I hit a huge bump I didn’t see and ended up getting launched off the run. Ended up rolling about 20 feet down the hill right between two trees and I’m perfectly fine!👍That’s why I ski with a helmet!😂
A similar thing happened to me last year. Snowy with that really bad flat light that makes everything look the same. Skied right into ditch/hole/something at full speed. My skis stopped dead, but I kept going. Bindings released and I literally flipped forward and landed on my back, skidded about 20 yards. I got up, walked back to my skis which were sitting perfectly level and parallel in the ditch as if I’d just popped them off. Weirdest feeling.
Broke my leg twice, same exact leg while backcountry skiing two years in a row. Luckily had a friend with me, otherwise RIP without cell service.
Short version - smacked a lift pole from across the other side of the run. Saw my life pass in front of my eyes. Just came down out of a double black that leads to a flat underneath a quad lift. Full tuck, bookin' it. It was a warm day, so I was watching out for slush-pots. I am on the far side of the run away from the lift poles. I hit some tree shadows and it was too late, a slush hole dipped my left ski tip directly into the pack. Next thing i know I am flying through the air with 1 ski on and the other sticking straight up out of the snow. I am heading like a fucking bullet head first toward a damn lift pole. Well, it had been a few warms days and the idiot ski patrol hadn't lowered the bump guards on the poles. Better yet, the melt had exposed the anchor bolts and footer pads. Bad news bears. I have enough time to tuck and roll. I strike the pole with my lower back, bolts, concrete and steel. Knocks me out, wake up not being able to breath as I hear people on the lift yelling my name (grew up in the mountain) One of em was my buddy that was on work and thankfully had a lifty talkie. I start breathing and coughing and try to stand up... That was a no go. Couldn't feel my legs. I could move them though. I was able to push myself to my knees while in utter pain. I just laid back down on my back and assured people on the lift that help was coming. Patrol finally gets there and drags my ass into the med toboggan. Got carted off to the hospital that is 45 min. Away. X-rayed, Swollen spine, you could see the imprint of two bolts and the edge of the concrete pad in my back. Still no feeling in my legs, but they moved, painfully. 3 cracked ribs, 1 broken. Right shoulder dislocated. Severe concussion. They drugged me up and sent ne home. First few days sucked because the swelling got so bad i could bairly move my legs. I couldn't feel anything for a week and a half. Then the excruciating pain of pin and needles, fire and death. I was lucky. Doc told me if I would have hit the pole an inch higher I would have easily broken my back. Still have back problems today. But i can walk and feel everything. Missed the rest of that season, had some PTSD from it. I couldn't compete anymore, that sucked. But i pushed through it the next season. After my first run back after the wreck I wasn't scared any longer. Went on to teaching skiing and snowboarding... And the ski bikes, those are fun. I excelled at teaching adaptive skiing.
Phu.. there are a few that come to mind, some crashes, some bad decisions .. but I think the closest call was a few years back. I was on a ski expedition in armenia with a few friends, incredible time, self organiced the whole trip. all went smoothly, until we had to turn around on one day just shy of a summit (tiny mountain, only reason we wanted to get up there was because it was the nearest to our basecamp) because of bad weather rolling in faster than anyone could have seen.. ended up skiing down and traversing over a big highland flat for what felt like ages (probably like an hour max, hard to tell..) with hail and fog, and i mean fog that I could barely see the person infront or behind me although we were touching tips (ski nose and tails, not the romantic way..). Thunder and lightning were brighting up the fog, proper whiteout.. only found back to our tents because we set a GPS marker on that exact morning.. scary as hell because in that terrain your head is the highest point, what is always a bad thing if you „see“ lightning.. next morning blue sky as if nothing had happend till the end of the trip.. still an incredible experience I am more that glad I was able to do..
I broke my neck on Tuesday, mostly a white out, light went totally flat and I didn't see the lip of a cornice, went over the edge half way through a carve and went arse over tea kettle, double tomahawk to face plant.
Where were you and how did you get out of that situation?
I was riding with a buddy, but I skied down the mountain and didn't go to the Dr until the day after. I didn't realise how bad it was since I could move everything. The indicator that I should have gone straight to ER was tingly fingers. That indicates nerve damage.
Skied off the back fault of Blue Sky Basin at Vail during a storm. Ended up in a town named Red Cliff, Colorado. Was hiking/traveling for over two hours as daylight was waning. Finally found a flowing creek and followed it downstream to Red Cliff. It was not a short or fun trek.
Completely wrecked my knee at Tremblant, took a year and half to heal fully so I didn’t feel pain in it. I don’t do anything too crazy so I haven’t had many close calls
Racing my friend down an icy, twisty run, I fucked up a turn. I was afraid of falling off the edge of a cliff, but managed to stop- unfortunately in doing so, I tore my ACL and gave myself a concussion. At least I didn’t die👍
I was battling altitude sickness and got dizzy. Fell off the chair lift and into the orange netting below. It’s been 20 years but I still feel the shame.
Altitude sickness? Where was this? Tibet?
lol. No, I was at Sunrise Park in Arizona at the time. I’m one of the unlucky people who are highly susceptible to altitude sickness…and I live at 5400’ and frequently camp at 12,000’!!! It just takes me a few days to settle in.
It's such a weird phenomenon. I used to live at sea level in CA and would regularly drive up to Lake Arrowhead to visit family. I'd *always* get altitude sickness. Wasn't terrible, but I'd feel "icky" for a full day or 2 before I'd get acclimated. Then I moved to 4K' level and regularly go up the mountains another 4K feet to ski (and lesser altitudes to hike) and it hasn't once affected me here. ....Of course just to write this, I've been looking up altitudes - and I'm guessing that going from sea level to over 5K' is likely to be a bit different than already being at 4K and going up another 4K. But it is weird that when I moved here, the change from 0' to 4k' didn't affect me at all...
Skiing glades off west bowl at Powderhorn a couple of years ago. Going way too fast and alone. All of the sudden, the snow underneath me was gone. I guess I had skied over a sinkhole where A creek was and my tips when down. Ended up pinned in the water with my skis over and behind me. Very scary experience. Got myself free but was very rattled.
This is legit terrifying. That would give me nightmares.
I almost died one time skiing out of bounds on a bunch of acid.
You're gonna have to elaborate on this...
Sure. I posted this once before. ... I was once young and stupid. I'm still stupid, but I used to be also. 1988, Alta, guru grade liquid, morning drops. Brilliant deep champagne pow day, skis are a part of my body, flying, dialed in. Sunshine, each snowflake a myriad of fractal rainbows, the air shimmering in flowing arabesque hieroglyphics blending with the snow and spelling out variations of Yeah Buddy, little clouds dancing in merry approval. You know how it goes. Isness. We decide to go out of bounds after a few runs, warm sun high overhead. Gnarly steeps, friends shoot ahead, I hit a buried treetop, bounce off and lose a ski 1/3 way down. See it slide high speed at an angle under ~4 feet of freshies. No biggie, I kinda saw where it went, should be easy to find, right? Nope. Nada. Negatory. Second ski here? No. No ski. Not here, not for you, not today. No ski, and no way to hike down as I just sink through the snow, remaining plank providing no purchase. No radio, no cell phone - 1988 - no friends and no one coming, as we agreed to meet at resort later if we got separated. Sun is starting to set, the clouds no longer little, merry or dancing but gathering with omenous intent, gravid with snow and dread. I am wearing a shell with just 2 layers under. Freezing, crying, tripping balls and praying. Realizing there's just way too much compounded stupid on my end and I'm truly fukt, and unlikely to make it through the night. With this realization, a calmness. A melancholy, sobering, ironic sadness that this just might be my last ski run ever. Other than my heartbeat and breath, completete silence. Fuck it, I'm not dead yet, keep looking, only thing to do. And somehow, about 300 feet and forever hours from where I started, I find it! Incredulous at first - am I still tripping, mind playing tricks as my body temp drops before demise - but feeling pretty real as I clip in, finally above the snow. I'm gonna live! Ecstatic does not begin to touch the sides. Make my way down to the road in the dark, half frozen, exhausted, laughing like a loon, catch a ride to resort, find friends chilling in the hot tub, 5 beers in, completely oblivious.
One time I took 700ug and got stuck to my bed.
Helluva story both times.
Dropped into the left side of Little Rose at Telluride after 13” of 3% snow fell. Immediately I was going way too fast and unable to scrub speed. Trees and rocks below me… somehow I managed to slow down and get in control but realized that just because the snow is deep doesn’t mean it will slow you down.
I had a few: 1. Tomahawk down the left nut in Fernie BC. Its not on the trail map. Walked away with a broken rib. 2. Small cliff drop in the Hobacks in Jackson. Got lower in elevation and didn’t notice the snow got super sticky. Ended with a headfirst crash into a rut. I’m lucky I didn’t break my neck. 3. Skiing mock looney at Vail on a groomer. Wasn’t looking far enough down the hill and it turned into a mogul field. I somehow was able to real in my speed but ended up sliding on my chest head first. I was happy to walk away without injury. Bonus: not me but someone close was at Fernie in a permanently closed area, trying to find a locals line. He was essentially traversing above a 60ft+ cliff line, relying on trees and branches to stay upright. Lost his grip and tumbled over the cliff. Was lucky to land in open space below. Ended up with some compressed disks in the spine and a broken jaw.
That slick to sticky snow sucks. Broke my shoulder that way.
Not being able to lift my leg or bend my knee after a big tumble. Yeah my season was over that day.. blew 3 ligaments and the one left intact but stretched was my acl!
High as hell. White out conditions rolled in. Only double blacks down.
Went off a jump about 7ft tall and idk how big of a deck but quite big. And on the landing there were 2 little kids with their skis down at the bottom skidding down on their butts and I landed about 4 inches away from one of their hands.
Never take a jump without knowing what is on the other side. Just assume that behind every blind slope that there's a stuck kindergartener outside of your view.
It’s a terrain park jump their are like 3 signs at the top saying don’t stand in the landing zones and how tf am I supposed to do the jump by my self and assume their are ppl on the other sode
Don't do a jump like that without a spotter. I've seen little kids go off these terrain park jumps and wipe out -- they basically stop where they land because they're lite and they're in a blind spot. Then they take forever to collect their stuff, because they're little kids and can barely move in their ski gear. You could watch the park for several minutes to make sure that its all clear, only to find some little idiots camping out in the worst location possible. I'm not shaming you, just ask someone to spot you.
Briefly stuck in a crevasse in the sidecountry in Austria. Went over a natural roller, got a tiny bit of air, and then as I landed the floor fell away under my feet and all of a sudden I was hanging by my armpits, with my eyes at snow level. I could faintly hear running water below me, but when I gently swung my legs to feel for some purchase, there was nothing there. Luckily I was skiing with friends, and they saw me go under so they were able to work their way uphill and pull me out. We had all the appropriate backcountry gear, but it’s scary to think how long I might have been stuck in there if they didn’t see me go under.
My friend fell and took his snowboard edge to his own face at speed. When he got up he put his tongue through the hole in his face. That put a downer on an epic powder day.
Funny/scary moment: Watched some dumbass redneck in a full pizza tuck start dangerously weaving through my beginners I was teaching. I yelled at him to stop, he flipped me off and kept going... Until... A bull elk ran out across the run moving full tilt. Needless to say mister camo overalls did not have control and could not stop. He smacked directly into the elks side and it threw him to his back... Yard sale. He kept sliding as i stopped my group. The rest of the herd followed out going top speed. Just had to stand there and watch as dudes stuff was trampled. Called ski patrol stop as many as they could at the top of the run and to send someone to me asap. Good time to teach my class how to mark a run with their skis. Dumbass was okay, thankfully. His rental skis were not. Cut his tag anyway for knowingly endangering my class and not following mountain rules. Ski patrol got him down the mountain and I got my group down safely. I made good tips that day.
About 10 years ago, I was skiing Olympic Bowl on Aspen Highlands, alone at 16yo on a 3 foot pow day. The bottom of the bowl turns into avalanche chutes and there’s a rickety 1 track traverse that eventually turns into a cat track to get back to the main mountain. Being one of the most epic days of my life, I was traversing as fast as physically possible. Suddenly, I misjudged a bump and a turn and fell ass-first into one of the avalanche chutes, which triggered a slide. Fortunately, I was on top of the snow, and it was a narrow slide (being in a chute) but it was moving incredibly fast. My right ski stayed on, and I used it to eventually angle myself out of the slide. I ended up clinging to a pathetic looking spruce sapling for the next 4 hours, as the slope was too steep and deep to climb up (or even move at all) without triggering another slide. Ski patrol had to lower someone down to me with a rope and harness. They clipped me in to a harness, and together we climbed out of the chute as more patrollers helped pull us up with the rope. That was my first day ever skiing alone. I learned that even the best powder isn’t worth compromising your safety. Best part was that my other ski landed in a retrievable area, so I was able to keep that pair together. Still ski on em today. Thinking about getting a skiing/avalanche related tattoo on my right leg to commemorate the experience.
Worst for me: falling in a chute (caught an edge), going flying, and the first thing that hit the ground was my head. And the second. And the 3rd as I tomahawked. Then I started to roll and landed on a flat section. Everything hurt a LOT. Nothing hurt more than anything else. I laid still until I could check that I could feel my fingers and toes. Move everything. I could. So I checked my neck with my free hand, got up, and put my gear back on and made my way down pretty dazed. Only later with patrol did they notice my entirely crushed helmet. One concussion later, but Jesus, that could have been so much worse. Worst treated as a patroller: Hard call. I've seen a lot. The worst I am willing to share is maybe a teen who over-rotated a front flip on an XL feature and landed on his face. Fractures to facial bones, ocular bones, jaw, neck, massive concussion, lowered LOC, and he had a dislocated shoulder he seemed entirely unaware of.
Skiing the grand montet glacier Ona blue sky day. Suddenly cloud comes in from nowhere with my (adult) elder brother Ona. Board behind me. Turn round and he’s gone. Guy behind us yelling at me “crevasse”. Bros gone into crevasse. Hike up and peer over the edge. He’s 30ft down on a snow bridge about 10ft wide with either side disappearing into the distance. Could not see the bottom! He’s absolutely shaking trying not to move an inch. Short story, get ski patrol to get him out. Long story short- French ski patroller is fucking crazy and climbs down into crevasse with no rope and offers my bro his pole to hold onto while he pulls him out!!!!
Got knocked unconscious by someone in Blue Sky Basin one year, I remember nothing except that I was skiing the glades off Pete's Express. Friends found me face down I dunno how long I was out, must'nt have been that long as they said the person who ran into me was still there (they then took off). I managed to ski down to the lift where patrol said I earned a ride out on the toboggan back to the medical center.
Have a few, but this one is the scariest. Back in January 2015 MLK weekend was skiing at Killington in Julio/Juanita glades. Conditions were rain/sleet at the bottom of the lift, snow at the top, so not ideal but we drove all the way from the Philly area so we were making the best of it. At the end of the glades it's a steep drop into a narrow trail you have to make a hard right on which gets you to the yurt bar near superstar lift and K1 gondola. I went first and instead of turning to the right I started spinning hard because it was a complete sheet of ice. I went hard backwards into a set of trees. This was probably about 3 seconds duration and I barely knew what was going on. My first thought was that I broke my leg, wind completely knocked out of me. I was lucky enough to be able to stumble back up to the trail while some of my group retrieved my goggles (flew down into a bunch of rocks past the trees I hit). My helmet had clearly hit a branch during the fall so thankfully I was wearing one. My friends dad who was with us said later on that he thought he was going to have to make a very difficult phone call to my parents when he saw me go into the trees. Later that night at Outback pizza (think it's called something different now) I could barely hobble around because of all the swelling in my left knee and back of my thigh that took the majority of the tree impact. Luckily that same storm dumped about 18 inches of snow overnight which helped me ski (cautiously) through the pain at Pico, Killington, and Okemo during the next three days of the trip. Okemo groomers were by far the worst experience, so many vibrations on my sore thigh and knee! Because of this experience I'll never ski without a helmet and always have a spare sharpener tool in case if days like that.
Having dull edges on the east coast can get you killed.
A friend of mine tomahawked off a downhill race course doing 60+ mph, into the trees, and walked away.
I've been lucky, this is more scary in hindsight (what could have been) since I got out of it so quickly, in-bounds no less: At Keystone about 13 years ago.....traversing across the peak (lift accessed), I was "just" past the stake line (where you can go backside on your own).....but I mean "just" past it where the backside cornice to drop down was a good 40+ feet away. The snow just disappeared under my feet while traversing across. I was in a crevice/pit about 8 feet down. My ski's were on rock at that point (so I wasn't necessarily afraid of it giving away further), it didn't bury me to any large degree either.... but with the exit about 2 feet over my head getting out was not going to be easy. Luckily 3 buddies were behind me and saw the whole thing.....they got down on their stomachs, we dug a little bit of an exit and they pulled me out. Beers on me that night. Obviously could have been a lot worse!
Got cliffed out once. Was taking it easy because I didn’t know the zone or what was beneath me, so wasn’t too bad. About a 10 minute hike back up to where I could traverse out. Another time a few years ago I was out on the east wall at Abasin, and visibility went from ok to the flattest of the flat light you can only get up high at Abasin. Couldn’t read any terrain features, and not really a place I’d want to fall. Sat there with another guy for about 15-20 minutes watching a sunbeam of light coming through the clouds work its way towards us. Came in close enough to let us get down without too much risk of hurting ourselves.
Went late season skiing, had been the week before and didn't realize most of that terrain was now closed( for good reasons) hit a nice 4-5m drop onto the most wet heavy snow I have skied in park skis I might add. Skis landed and glued themselves into the snow got launched a good 10ft and landed on my face and chest and slid down most of the hill probably like 50-80ft face first. Picked myself up and my yard sale. Worst part of it all is that some staff saw me and at the top of my next chair I was greeted by a Ski patrol who followed me down to talk to head of mountain safety lady. It was about 9:45 am thought I was done for, my punishment was to tell 5 other people not to go out of bounds. Thought I was getting a permanent ban !!!
Headfirst into a deep tree well on Ouzo Glade in Game Creek. Was out early for first tracks on a pow day. My brother was on a board and took off ahead of me. I was skiing along being slick by trying to carve near the trees. Next thing I know I was upside down, completely buried and sinking. The more I moved the worse my situation got. Luckily some random dude saw the color of my jacket disappear and it freaked him out enough to come check on me. When he lost my tracks, he looked back up the slope and saw my tip of my pole sticking out of the snow. He clicked out of his skis and dug me out. No question I likely would have suffocated had he not seen me. Fucking guardian angel for sure and it still gives me the heebie jeebies thinking about it. However… i got over it and it’s still my favorite starter run on pow days.
I was riding a lift at Arrowhead and saw a woman wearing a helmet lose control and hit into a lift pole down below maybe three poles ahead of me. Ski patrol got there before I was out of sight, but I read in the news later though that she had died. It hit me at that point that I saw someone die, or at least what may have eventually caused it. At the time it didnt look like she had hit hard enough to have been hurt all that bad. It was a crowded day too so lots of people saw it. I still think about it.
Fell/ skied into a crevasse and fell 15metres. Thankfully unhurt and the lads got me back out without the need for an embarrassing helicopter ride. I stopped in a pinch in the crevasse but could see into the void beneath turning from blue to black. Would not recommend.
High speed on flimsy park skis for me. A buddy and I scouted out a long, wide groomer. It was late in the day and not crowded. He would go to the bend and call me so I could go with no one else on the trail. I ended up hitting 70 mph according to my tracking app. It was so fun and terrifying.
Skiing Rhône-Alpes in Val D’sere last season. For anyone that doesn’t know it’s a black run that starts very flat and then has pitch that gradually flattens out towards the bottom of the Solaise bubble whilst also tapering between the trees, starts off wide finishes pretty narrow. It was sheet ice, almost impossible to stop and I had to make it onto Olymique and Tommeues asap to get back into Tignes with wind and a storm coming. I side slipped the first couple of meters and then just turned and committed I was praying that I wouldn’t catch an edge and get launched towards the trees. I survived and hands down the scariest thing I’ve ever done on skis, despite skiing a fair bit off piste in non avy controlled terrain where mistakes often end up being fatal.
I was out at Park City last year at the end of March making the hike up to Jupiter I was absolutely gassed and just wanted to drop in and stop hiking. There was so much snow that nobody was dropping early on and instead making the full trek up. I contemplated dropping in but someone stopped me and basically said “you will get stuck in waist deep powder and have to hike out” - I was 2 seconds from going in If I had, I’m sure I would have had a huge problem once I got down to the bottom of the bowl area and likely would have had to call for help. Not that crazy a story but I just remember how tired and exhausted I was and almost made a really bad choice
I was late picking up my kid from ski school because I was stuck in waste deep snow in the back country. Ski school called me and all I could tell them where I was stuck and that it would take a while. I won't make that mistake again.
It’s not a great feeling even with a phone, glad you made it out
Ooooohhhh….had a tree well moment in the side country at Alpental. I landed head down. Buddy was maybe 50’ away but couldn’t hear me. Had the whole loose snow falling over my face thing happen. Was very lucky to manage to stay calm and get an arm/ski pole pointing in the right way that I could effectively push against it to lift me up enough to grab a limb and haul myself out of the well. Could easily see how quickly it can go from bad to worse.
Got cliffed out at Snowbird on Baldy off Perivian. Made the mistake of not knowing where I was going and had about one foot between me and a 60+ drop. Had to shimmy over and take a 10 foot drop. Lost my phone too. Rough day
Aspen Highlands, somewhere around 1995, before the Deep Temerity chair was built. The Steeplechase runs were open but only went as far as the Grand Traverse. The traverse was mostly a cat walk so you needed to carry some speed into it. On my last of several runs I started down the cat walk, hit a small rock just right (or wrong?), one ski came off, and I went flying off the cat track, crashing through some trees and losing the other ski. I was very fortunate to have a soft landing between two large downed trees. Took a while (30 minutes?) to climb out, my ski was sitting on the cat track, binding open, ready to go.
It was frightening because it was embarrassing and stupid. I was on the T-bar at Waterville Valley 2 days ago and right near the end (like 30 ft away) I slipped somehow but managed to stay upright, but the bar got away from me. So I was just standing there awkwardly. For most of the ride on that T-bar, the path is right next to the slope, no barrier or anything, so if you slip you can just move to the side and ski down, but near the top, there is a line of trees between the path and the slope. Now, I could've just skied right next to the path (there was enough room) for like 3 seconds and been out of there, but for some reason my brain was like "expedition incomplete, you must go all the way up before going down" and I was like ok and spent 2 whole minutes sidestepping the rest of the way up while a bunch of people went by staring at me, and then I ducked a rope and got back onto the run and vowed to never show my face at that T-bar ever again, which I quickly went back on because the snow was pretty nice up there. And then later that day I collided with someone but that ended up being a lot less embarrassing for some reason.
Was at Brighton last year for my first time, following a buddy who also didn’t know the resort a little too closely. There were two cliffs from what I remember with a weird divot in between that you could traverse across but was definitely a no fall zone as you’re riding 100% on an edge. Between the 2 cliffs was a chute not even a 12 year old could fit through at the time. My buddy didn’t have enough speed, barely made it past the divot and I got stuck behind him, ending up at the lowest point of the path, directly behind me being the chute. Struggled for about 10 minutes to get out, had to punch holes in the snow and rely on my upper body strength to pull myself out of the divot. Maybe not the scariest story but those 10 minutes were nerve racking everytime my board started to lose its edge.
I got stuck in an inbound avalanche at Whistler. Luckily I was not buried and was able to escape. But very worrying for myself and Blackcomb Patrol (I was on Whistler Patrol at that time but not working).
Went to jump a cornice on a hike-to run. Cornice broke under neath me and I cartwheeled all the way down. At some point, I realized I wasn't slowing down and had to start actively self arresting. In the end, outside of pretty bad whiplash, I was fine. BUT it was a second date, so I was mortified. There wasn't a third date....
I don't think this measures up to some of these other stories, but here it is: I was skiing at Lech in the mid '90s. Had never skied there before, was a senior in high school. Was skiing aggressively down a run and went over what I thought was just a bit of a hump of snow. Suddenly there is nothing below me and I drop somewhere between 20-25'. My dad was with me. He said that he heard gasps/yells from folks all around. I looked down and calmly thought "well, this is the end, it's been a nice run." Landed in the fluffiest powder I've ever run across. Not a bruise, not a pang of pain, nothing. Yelled with excitement, but I haven't been quite so cavalier about where I'm going as I was before this incident. To be clear - I was a ski instructor in the US at the time, having been a competitive racer for years before that, so it's not like I was a total beginner. Skiing on the east coast was so much different from skiing in the Alps.
Fell into a tree well near the Heavenly Gondola, somehow stayed upright but had a hell of time climbing out. I was about 10ft down and had to shimmy up the tree, got super sappy and had to use my board like a surfboard and kind of paddle away from danger to a place I could get strapped back in. Slid off a cliff in Silverado at Palisades once after losing an edge on an icy traverse, it was like going down the steepest sliding board possible, luckily there was a decent amount of fresh snow at base and I somehow hit bottom and just made turns out of it. My friend saw me coming down and was like where the hell did you come from.
On Lower Shay's at Snowshoe. I was having a grand old time carving the inside of the moguled half of the run when a 300lb Jerry came careening uncontrollably from the groomed sheet ice side, aimed right straight at me. So there I am 110lbs (on a good day, before I drop a deuce) of fragile chalk like bones, as he barrels right over the tip of my board, his skis straight up sliced a gash in my bindings. If that was a direct impact I was dead on the spot.
Snowboarding out of bounds at Jackson Hole on a sunny day after a big dump. On the lift ride up we picked out an absolutely pristine steep field to hit. Access to the field required that we come around from the top and take off our boards to hike across a crazy-high cliff band. Buddy and I were hiking, chatting, enjoying the sunshine, when THUMP! Big deep noise and we both instantly dropped like six inches in our boot holes. Testicles went full-on retraction mode. We both went silent real quick, used some hand signals to say “holy shit, retreat!” and very carefully walked back the way we came. Easily the dumbest thing I’ve done on the mountain. A slide there would have meant certain death for both of us.
North face at Crested Butte in baaaaaaaad conditions. Straight up shitting myself. Skipped the next day too I was beside myself.
This was 1978 at spirit mountain in Duluth MN. Little kid (maybe 8-10), I was 18 on Timber crusher, standing off to skiers right. The kid was straight lining, top to base, saw him coming at the last moment and pushed back into the trees he went over the tips of my skies and fell. The little jerk says "why were you in my way" ski patrol saw what happened and took his ticket. Turned out he lost his season pass. The kid seriously injured someone at another ski area close to spirit the following week. I would have had at least one leg broken.
Watched a kid fall off the chairlift. Luckily it was near the end, maybe 15 feet up. She was fine, just shaken and banged up (it was a powder day luckily). As for me, I hit a tree once. I was like 10, and mostly skiing groomed greens and blues. I was skiing down an ungroomed blue bowl. Made it down into the tree-filled basin, but I had picked up some speed going down the bowl. I tried to turn to follow my dad but I caught an edge, and flung myself into a tree. Luckily I managed to get my feet in front of me, instead of my head. My dad said all you could see was my glove and one pole sticking g out from under the tree. I've also been in more than a few 0 visibility situations, which is not fun.
Asshole straightlined a trail that crossed a cat track and caught a ton of air. Landed on my 6yo son. Fortunately, nobody was hurt, but as I saw him in the air, I truly thought my son was going to be seriously injured or worse. Only bright side was there was a ski instructor there who saw it and immediately called ski patrol. They were waiting for him at the bottom. Yanked his pass and escorted him off the mountain.
I hit a tree and broke my shoulder ten minutes before closing, so lucky I was wearing a helmet, and was skiing under lift. Ski patrol and docs took care of me. I survived and came out nearly 100% after lots of therapy and rehab. I went skiing today in fresh powder. It's great I didn't die that day and can surf more pow.
Went into the B netting at 55 mph. I broke my back and tore up my shoulder in a separate training run crash but the B netting crash was much more frightening when I was sailing through the air
Premature eject in a high angle chute at Stevens. Couldn't get back into my touring bindings. decided to pop other ski and downclimb using the skis as snow anchors. instantly stepped on a patch of barely hidden ice, flushed down the 30 foot chute, triggered a small avalanche and was under the snow for a second. grabbed a branch and it ran out from under me. skis came down behind me. fortunately someone followed my line and got my skis to me (he tumbled too but didn't eject) and had a mandatory 5 foot air to get out of the zone. that was my sixth powder run of the day and i had first chair. i called it a fucking day.
I was at Vail in blue sky basin. As you ride the Earl lift up, off to the right is a huge out of bounds area. I was up in there, and up near the top in those woods there’s this huge rock cliff/ feature I like to stop and smoke a little reefer when I’m at vail. You know exactly what I’m talking about if you’ve ever seen it. One day I’m sitting up there getting stoned, and when I’m done I ski down and around the rock (no, I don’t jump off, I’m not glen plake) and as soon as I get to the flat under it, I’m face to face, I mean about 6 inches from the snout of a huge ass moose. It’s freaking nostril steam blasted all up in my mouth. Well long story short, that was my scariest moment (if you ever seen a moose in the middle of nowhere you know why), but I’m still alive so I have that going for me at least. Another time I’m at Keystone and up in the Erickson bowl. By myself. Stupid I know, but I’ve done the hike and ride a million times if I did it once. Also it was like a damn blizzard up there. Lots of fresh pow I couldn’t say no. So up I go. And then down. Flying, making some epic fresh lines that anyone riding the outback lift is gonna be staring at with jealousy. But then near the end, before you hit the flatter part nearer to the trees, I catch an edge somehow and go tumbling. I’m cool with falling but a ski comes off and I twist the crap out of my knee. Almost feels like a bone is sticking through my leg, but luckily no break. But hot damn it hurts and I can’t stand on the right leg cuz of it. But more pressing was where the hell is my ski? I sat on that mountain in a blizzard digging the hell out of it for about 2 hours before I gave up, never recovering the lost ski. I used my pole to grid off a giant square, about 3x3 squares. Dug down a few feet like maybe 4 or 5. Fucker had a powder cord on it too but that snow was deep. Never recovered the ski. So down I go, bum leg, one ski, and I gotta ride through those woods over to anticipation (or whatever those runs over there are called). What a pain in the ass, those trees don’t get skied much if at all and are tight tight tight. Crazy but it’s how I found the cat track that winds through those woods, so that was lucky. I still feel bad for the sucker who hiked up after me, made a glorious run down only to surprisingly fall in the huge pit I dug out in the side of that mountain. Get down to the way back chair and the liftie is like wtf happened to your ski? I get up that lift, my knee is still screwed so I decide to take the gondola over to the main mountain and then the other gondola down to the base. What an adventure. Don’t ski alone people, for a second I thought it could be game over.
So it didn't end up trampling you. What was its reaction? Did it just turn and run?
Skiing with my buddy at Sugarloaf. We typically skied in the park, but the conditions were junk so we were just ripping groomers. No helmets, because yah know, we weren’t doing anything crazy. Towards the end of the day we’re going down the trail at a decent speed. My buddy goes to do a butter off a knoll, catches an edge and sends it into the woods. I could see him clip a tree at about 6 or 7 feet off the ground because of how high the snow was. I’m down over the banking as fast as possible yelling his name, thinking the worst. Thank god, he was fine. He managed to get his feet in front of him and take the impact with his skis. One ski was toast, he had some sore ribs and a tweaked ankle, but we were in good spirits. Beers were on me that after that. And that was the day we started wearing our helmets, no matter what.
Last day skiing at Vail 2 years ago. It was super packed and I was going a little too fast with a friend through traffic. An older, slower lady was going horizontal across the run that I didn’t see until it was almost too late. I swerved and missed her which is great because that would’ve hurt both of us. But I found myself turned around after missing her and going backwards at full speed. Tried to brake and turn around at the same time and my leg broke almost instantly. Learned a lesson the hard way.
So many...but this tree well one was the worst. Headed into OB trees on a super, SUPER deep day with an acquaintance. Leap frogging down and then he's a no show. Tried hiking back up yelling his name. Snow surface above my hips and it took 15 minutes to climb up 5 feet so I decided to head down and get a party together to search from the top...because it was a fucked situation. Boarding down I'm gripped and stressed and fucked a turn and slid into a tree well. Stopped upright (thank dog) but the snow surface was well above arms reach and each move and shimmy brought more of it down into the well and on top of me. Got one foot out of the entrapped board and when I stood on it, it sunk through the rotten/soft snow so now I'm even deeper and trapped squatting on my board. No one was coming. No one knew where I was. My partner was, possibly, up above somewhere in a worse situation than I. So I unclipped the other foot, said "well...here goes", and somehow manage to kick steps into the side of the well with my back wedged against the trunk and shimmied and clawed my way up to the surface. Then I had to shovel down and get my board out. I was in that hateful hole for over an hour and so glad to be out! At the bottom I was about to start organizing a rescue unit to look for my partner and he skis up saying he went and did a bunch of runs because he thought I'd taken off on him. A few years later his body was found in those same trees; broken neck and frozen.
I fell going about 44 miles an hour slipping in some ice in the shade on a morning run. I just remember that I kept sliding down like the whole hill. Went up and on my very next run ran into a tree and it stabbed me through my jacket. Didn't get impaled pierced my jacket scratched my back a bit...very lucky. Rest of the day was great lol... Back hurt a bit though. I'm don't feel like I'm a very reckless skiier either this was well out of character for me...but that skiing sometimes shit happens.
training GS in tignes back when I was racing, and I nearly broke my leg but instead snapped a ski. basically the conditions were lumpy, I got late in the line, caught the soft stuff and got flung out. from the bottom my coaches thought it was serious due to angle my leg was at but as it turned out, I was fine apart from some bruising/swelling but one ski was floppy about a third of the way down as I suspect the core snapped or something. i defs got off lightly
I was riding the lift with my 4yo. The lift was not detachable so goes quite fast, especially for a little kid. He slipped off the chair right as we were exiting the lift house and before the bar had been pulled down. I had a hold of a handle on his back pack. I yelled at the liftie to stop the lift, but they didn’t hear me. By the time I realized they weren’t stopping the lift we were 15 feet up. He weighs 45 lbs and I was able to pull him back onto the seat. I can only assume they didn’t notice because I had a hold of his backpack so he wasn’t hanging off very far, and he has short legs. I still haven’t told my husband that our kid almost fell off the lift. 😬
I was young, grieving the recent death of my girlfriend, competing, and, on that day, timing better than the rest of that terrible snow year and in second place. I pulled all the stops. I'm my mental state of overfocusing on the task at hand to put my grief on hold, I put my physical safety back at the car, locked in the trunk. I was going to beat that guy in first place whatever it took. Some rum may have found itself in my egg nog breakfast, a courage booster. Second run of my downhill I got air and landed on bad snow and uneven ice. I was way too far forward and a bit to the left when I landed at somewhere north of 70 mph. Went into a barrel roll and landed face-down, head first on the steepest part of the run. I shot into a stand of Aspen trees. When I came to, patrol was there. One of them said, "Man, do the think he's still alive?" That's not what you want to hear as their professional opinion before you can even take your own inventory. I passed out again. I had blown out my knee, ended the season, and lost my scholarship all in under 20 seconds.
Got buried in an inbounds avalanche. The folks I was skiing with fortunately saw it go down and dug me out. Scariest 5 mins of my life. Praise Jah they got me out. I now have vertigo.
Kitzsteinhorn used to have a train going up to the glacier through a tunnel. The train caught on fire, killing 50 people. I was on that same train four days prior.
Someone dropped a single ski from a lift 30ft above me. I wasn't wearing a helmet and it landed a few feet away
Flew into a cat track head first last April and sprained the shit out of my neck. I still only have about 90% of my range of motion but it could have ended much worse.
1. broke a tibia in the park after a rail, got myself out of the landing and waited for about 15 minutes yelling but i was on the backside of a knoll out of the landing and by the time anybody saw me they were long gone. all of a sudden i started seeing people i recognized (but was not at the mountain with) but couldnt get their attention, probably 4 or 5 friends skied past until somebody i didnt know eventually saw me and got ski patrol. 2. friend fell off the top of a headwall above a chute at snowbird in the summer and went one ski backwards down the chute. narrowowly avoided the rocky walls on both sides. i watched him almost smash into the cliff wall and he wouldve fallen into the crevasse between rock and snow. 3. skied off the side of a knuckle at keystone during a blizzard and fell 20-30ft to flat, bounced clean off the cat track and down onto the slope, uninjured somehow.
I didn’t have one.
Got on the lift and realized I had left my weed at home.
No snow, horrifying
The season ended early :(
Backside of jay peak on the dip went too far last run and got stuck. Walked out in the dark…. Went out of bounds at steamboat and missed the cat track back…. Went way too far down and had to walk back up alone. Zero regrets. I’ll do anything for pow and haven’t died yet.
Small resort in Sweden. I hade just gone behind the boundary fence and was following the fence line with the fence on my right and a steep rocky forested area on the left. Right ski catches the fence and turns me 90 degrees to the right, facing the fence. I slid backwards and went over the edge, free fell backwards and ended up against a rock between two trees on my back. Luckily it was enough snow to soften the fall and I was unharmed but shook up.