I only recently joined and I'm just having a blast at PugSki, how about you? Want to entertain ourselves by sharing our most memorable falls? Let's do it, share I mean. I have two.
Courchevel, late 70's, relatively new skier, maybe third season. Spalding Squadracourse (spelling?) skis with Alsop bindings, the ones with the peg, and mating hole drilled into boot sole, rather than a friction plate. Yellow rubbery plastic boot straps. Orange boots, can't remember which. Modest trail, easy blue, pretty flat except three rollers, kinda like a staircase. I decide I'm going to be a downhill racer, you know Jean Claude Kelly - I'm in France after all. I'd seen skiers tuck, done some myself. I'd been told what a pre-jump was. I figure, this is an easy course, how hard can it be, and I'm off. Aerodynamics wasn't so refined in those days, so my tuck was probably passable. First roller, I did it! Pre-jumps work, I've got some speed going! Second roller, wow, I guess I didn't get the timing right. I go into the air, both my skis pop off and they just drop. I mean, the skis are on the snow. I'm up in the air over the skis and I'm thinking, let's try to land in the bindings and click in! You know the rest; I did land feet first on both skis though. But, bam! Boots slide off them, hit the snow, and it was head over heels, over and over and over. My cousin had the pleasure of having a front row seat, saw the whole thing. Neither of us thought it was survivable.
Second. Whistler in the 80's. Can't remember the gear. I took a ski school class, one of those with the same instructor and students for a few days. Last day, class ended, have time for a couple more runs before heading in. I can't remember the run. I recall steep, some big bumps at the top, then funneling into a narrow gap between two cliffs (or two HUGE rocks, I don't recall, but big enough that they might as well be cliffs.) I drop in. I ski over a pole. OK, yes, it was my pole, and it was a yard sale. I know the cliffs are down below. I try to arrest, digging my boots in. Should have learned from the previous experience. Head over heels again. Gotta get control, cliffs! I just spread out, went limp, ended on my back head first, sliding straight down, I'm a torpedo. Cliffs! No helmets those days, not that it would have made a difference, so I just wrap my hands and arms around my head and pray. Again, you know the rest; I'm here aren't I? Yup, I threaded the needle, as Sean Connery and his sub did, just as suspensefully, in Red October, and continued the long, long slide down, head first, on my back. Came to a stop on the apron, picked myself up and looked at how far I had to climb to collect my gear. I get to a ski. Do I leave it and collect my other ski and poles further up first? What after that, I slide down to get the lower ski? uh-uh. There's the story of my first boot pack, with one ski.
Epilogue. Later that evening, I attended a ski school reception. Here's the thing, at the bottom of the run, skier's left, in the distance is a chairlift. My instructor comes up to me and asks, "was that you...?" It's Whistler. What are the odds? That day, I was both lucky and unlucky.
Please, share your falls with me, this community, and for posterity. And, if you know a friend or friends with a great story, implore them to share as well.
Courchevel, late 70's, relatively new skier, maybe third season. Spalding Squadracourse (spelling?) skis with Alsop bindings, the ones with the peg, and mating hole drilled into boot sole, rather than a friction plate. Yellow rubbery plastic boot straps. Orange boots, can't remember which. Modest trail, easy blue, pretty flat except three rollers, kinda like a staircase. I decide I'm going to be a downhill racer, you know Jean Claude Kelly - I'm in France after all. I'd seen skiers tuck, done some myself. I'd been told what a pre-jump was. I figure, this is an easy course, how hard can it be, and I'm off. Aerodynamics wasn't so refined in those days, so my tuck was probably passable. First roller, I did it! Pre-jumps work, I've got some speed going! Second roller, wow, I guess I didn't get the timing right. I go into the air, both my skis pop off and they just drop. I mean, the skis are on the snow. I'm up in the air over the skis and I'm thinking, let's try to land in the bindings and click in! You know the rest; I did land feet first on both skis though. But, bam! Boots slide off them, hit the snow, and it was head over heels, over and over and over. My cousin had the pleasure of having a front row seat, saw the whole thing. Neither of us thought it was survivable.
Second. Whistler in the 80's. Can't remember the gear. I took a ski school class, one of those with the same instructor and students for a few days. Last day, class ended, have time for a couple more runs before heading in. I can't remember the run. I recall steep, some big bumps at the top, then funneling into a narrow gap between two cliffs (or two HUGE rocks, I don't recall, but big enough that they might as well be cliffs.) I drop in. I ski over a pole. OK, yes, it was my pole, and it was a yard sale. I know the cliffs are down below. I try to arrest, digging my boots in. Should have learned from the previous experience. Head over heels again. Gotta get control, cliffs! I just spread out, went limp, ended on my back head first, sliding straight down, I'm a torpedo. Cliffs! No helmets those days, not that it would have made a difference, so I just wrap my hands and arms around my head and pray. Again, you know the rest; I'm here aren't I? Yup, I threaded the needle, as Sean Connery and his sub did, just as suspensefully, in Red October, and continued the long, long slide down, head first, on my back. Came to a stop on the apron, picked myself up and looked at how far I had to climb to collect my gear. I get to a ski. Do I leave it and collect my other ski and poles further up first? What after that, I slide down to get the lower ski? uh-uh. There's the story of my first boot pack, with one ski.
Epilogue. Later that evening, I attended a ski school reception. Here's the thing, at the bottom of the run, skier's left, in the distance is a chairlift. My instructor comes up to me and asks, "was that you...?" It's Whistler. What are the odds? That day, I was both lucky and unlucky.
Please, share your falls with me, this community, and for posterity. And, if you know a friend or friends with a great story, implore them to share as well.
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Done!
)not good and as I was approaching the steep area I noticed that there were 5 people stopped at the top of the steep area on the left 1/3 of the run. Well, I started to panic because IF I went to the left of them I would be lengthening/widening my turn thus gaining a lot more speed than I was capable of controlling. Option 2 was to knock several and up to 5 people down in one fell swoop. Option 3 was to ski off the run to the left into a snow bank (luckily there had been a huge snow for two days prior to our arrival). I chose option 3 as it would spare me of excessive speed on a steep slope, and it spared me from wiping out 5 people in my first skiing accident.
