Most Memorable Fall(s)

[mdf]

One of those photos will be engraved on my tombstone...

@epic was standing there watching... I was above watching @Philpug tumble. I thought it was @Living Proof was there as well? I didn't recall @mdf 's presence, but it was a long time ago now.

My tumble was just above where Midway cuts through at what is now the intersection of Goat and Lower Goat. My fall was caused by my ski breaking; i.e., the ski broke and then I fell. (That's my story and I'm sticking with it!). So I was able to get out on Bypass / National / Bypass again / Liftline to get down, doing a whole lot of one-ski sideslips. I encountered patrol about 100 yards from the bottom; they were wondering what the hell I was doing.

I remember @Living Proof had his own issues getting down; I think he had a memorable crash-and-burn on the headwall as well? @epic was probably drinking heavily by the time we all got out of there...

That was where I met you -- but you were already on the one-ski exit road. I stayed with you briefly but realized I couldn't do anything useful and Living Proof was already with you, so I left.

 

[Lauren]

Here's one DH like tells often...Picture east coast's finest, Jay Peak, with about two and a half feet of fresh snow. Myself, on a snowboard, slaying all of the pow, faceshots with every turn.

I come a stop on a fairly tracked out mogul in the glade. Toes facing uphill I begin to lose my balance. I start to catch myself, but relax too early and consequentionally I'm in a slow motion fall backwards...a$$ first...in a bush. Knees against my chest, and snowboard slightly above eye level, 100% stuck...nothing hurt, but my pride.

Eventually (once he got up from laughing so hard), DH came down the hill to unstrap my board and set me free. Though the story lives on, thankfully there is photo evidence of this certain mishap.

 

[Erik Timmerman]

Tuckerman Ravine. I don't remember the date, but I think this was 1994. At any rate, it was the day that Richard Nixon died, I remember the flags were at half staff when we left ate end of the day. We stayed overnight at HoJo's and started skiing after the snow warmed up a little. I think it was the third run. We were climbing as the clouds started to roll in. As we reached the steepest part of the climb, the wind came in hard and was trying to peel us off the face. The snow totally locked up, but we were high enough up that it seemed the easiest thing would be to keep going up and then ski down the easiest route. We put on our skis behind a rock cairn and then attempted to ski down skiers left of the Headwall cliffs. There was a kind if narrow slot that everyone was trying to sideslip down. There must have been twenty people in front of us who tried this and none made it. Roy who was probably the best skier in our group tried and failed. I decided to take a different approach. Straightline the slot and then bang a hard right under the cliffs. The first part worked OK, but when I bang the hard right, my Rossi 4Gs came off as I tried to break out of the frozen rut. I tomahawked all the way to the lunch rocks. Luckily young stupid 20-somethings are pretty durable.

 

[karlo]

I've fallen many, many times, but only one fall in 45 years of skiing (and falling) left me really fearful.

There are good memories and bad memories. This one's not so good. Glad you weren't hurt more seriously.

 

[neonorchid]

I don't really have one, but here is one not likely to be forgotten anytime soon -

 

[newboots]

Last year, I was following my daughter back to the lift, filming her with a gopro. I was gliding on my heels.

Wait, Mendieta, that's a poor choice! You are thinking.

We want to see the GoPro footage!

 

[Tricia]

I've fallen many, many times, but only one fall in 45 years of skiing (and falling) left me really fearful. Actually the fall itself was not a big deal, but the consequences of falling were terrifying. I caught an edge dropping on to "The Wall," at Kirkwood last year. The snow was hard and I fell head first. As soon as I hit the snow I started sliding faster and faster. Neither ski released. I remember thinking that I needed to self-arrest, and that I had no idea what I was sliding towards. I was terrified, and I was upside-down. I managed to dig into the hard snow with something ( my elbow, pole grip?), which spun me around so I was sliding feet first, face down. One ski released in the spin. I finally could spread out and dig in and eventually stop. I took a lunch break and 600 mg of ibuprofen. I skied the rest of the day, but later started to feel my very bruised ribs. The next day I felt like I'd been hit by a truck. This season I've been pretty afraid on the steeps, pretty much avoiding them unless the snow is soft.

This sounds similar (but not the same) as my fall in Wipeout chute, described earlier.

 

[Tricia]

Here's one DH like tells often...Picture east coast's finest, Jay Peak, with about two and a half feet of fresh snow. Myself, on a snowboard, slaying all of the pow, faceshots with every turn.

I come a stop on a fairly tracked out mogul in the glade. Toes facing uphill I begin to lose my balance. I start to catch myself, but relax too early and consequentionally I'm in a slow motion fall backwards...a$$ first...in a bush. Knees against my chest, and snowboard slightly above eye level, 100% stuck...nothing hurt, but my pride.

Eventually (once he got up from laughing so hard), DH came down the hill to unstrap my board and set me free. Though the story lives on, thankfully there is photo evidence of this certain mishap.

Pics?

 

[Jilly]

Years ago, first run of the season at Tremblant. We were open top to bottom for a change. Came to the top of the Johansen Pitch and didn't stop. Not sure what happened...hit something, crossed tips, whatever....over the handle bars, yard sale (no helmet days). I stop sitting up and start laughing. Nothing hurt. This women comes up to me....are you OK, that was nasty. All I could say....I am so glad I got that over with early!!

3 years ago we had a powder day. We were supposed to race at the Summit Club. Not with that. Instructor takes us into the trees - I catch something under the snow, double eject. Somehow I knew I was going, and knew I needed to head left a bit, superman style. Missed the rock, a little shoulder twinge where I landed on it. That one shook me up for a while. I then had binding/boot problems after that. My Technica's have a little indentation just above the heel piece. The binding on the Axials would catch there insted of on the top of the heel piece. Before I figured that out, I was stepping out of bindings on flats.

I think the worst is falling in the trough of a mogul and you can't get out!!

 

[Lauren]

Pics?

That day was before the 'camera-on-every-cell-phone' era; so no such evidence exists.

 

[luliski]

This sounds similar (but not the same) as my fall in Wipeout chute, described earlier.

It does seem similar. I was too stunned to scream, and I didn't go ski it again (I was hurt and shaken up)....I didn't go to Kirkwood this (ongoing) season but next year I should probably ski it.

 

[Carolinacub]

Mine was back in the early 80's. I was living in Aspen and skiing at Highlands. Now at the time I was in my mid 20's and basically skied everyday that the mountain was open. It was the end of the day and I was doing my final run down so I could get to my job at the Holiday Inn at the base of Buttermilk. Was going down the Golden Horn and Thunder Bowl skiing the skiers left side of the run. It had been snowing most of the morning and it was that semi wet thick stuff that happens in the spring. Well for some reason the mountain had run a snowcat down that side of the run and being the idiot that I am I decided to tuck and run it. About 15 seconds into the run I said to myself "self this is stupid". I stood straight up held my arms out and tried to do some turns to slow myself. Now remember this was a single cat wide and the snow on the edges was thick as can be. Right at the bottom of Golden Horn where it becomes Thunder Bowl the snowcat had done a hard right turn over to where the bottom of the slalom was. I continued straight on into about 15 inches of wet nasty concrete snow. I stayed on my feet for oh maybe 2 feet and proceeded to double eject and do a superman imitation. This went beyond a yard sale it was more like having your suitcase fall off the roof of your car on the highway. Ski Patrol showed up a minute later to check on me and proceeded to tell me that what I had done was the stupidest thing he had seen all day. I will hand it to him though, between fits of laughter he did ask all the right questions regarding my physical well being.

 

[Ken_R]

I did not fall much all season and no ski releases at all but my worst "fall" in a while was this one when I went over a roll on one of the chutes in Steamboat during a 3 foot storm cycle. As soon as I made my first turn I was sliding down, kept my skis out of the snow and spun around so they were downhill across the slope. Yes, I did yell ahhh like a little girl and then avalaaaanche. When everything stopped moving I looked up and saw the small crown above. Tried to get up and the snow started moving again then it stopped and I gently put my weight on the skis and traversed across the slope to a "stable" area. Exiting the chute I triggered another small slab (you can see it in the last image) but kept skiing infront of it so no issues. This was all inbounds.

 

[Pat AKA mustski]

I have 2... the worst was at Solitude and I still can't remember which run we were on. It wasn't very hairy and not too far above the roundhouse where I drank copious amounts of wine afterwards. It was slick and fast conditions and there was a kid who had been cutting me off and not in control. I pulled over to let him pass me and instead he tucked and cannonballed into me. Our skis got all tangled up and we were sliding off a "cliff" together. His dad grabbed us, released his son's skis and tossed him down the run and dragged me back up by sheer strength. Bob was scrambling back up and got to us in time to keep me from going over. I don't think the drop was too big, but I was teriffied!

Most Embarassing: I was 12 and just learning to ski. There was a kid on our ski bus who was a bit of a geek and carried "rescue" equipment such as ropes. Nobody was too mean to him but everyone kind of teased a bit. I was skiing down a green run and skied right into the only tree on the run. I look up and here comes Larry- looking for someone to rescue. I crawled as far into the bushes as I could, but to no avail. He rescued me. All the way home on the bus, I heard, "Hey, Larry. Tell us again how you rescued Pat!"

 

[Moses]

I was once training GS that had a very steep, long top section and I hooked a gate out of the start and ended up tumbling a few metres down and losing one of my skis. It went flying down to the bottom of the pitch where it leveled out (and where there was a load of coaches, plus more higher up on a knoll). I stood up, picked up my other ski and started boot skiing down, but only a few more metres further I tripped and ended up sliding the rest of the pitch on my stomach & face with my arms and legs splayed, to the sound of a load of coaches who couldn't hide their laughter by that point

 

[luliski]

I did not fall much all season and no ski releases at all but my worst "fall" in a while was this one when I went over a roll on one of the chutes in Steamboat during a 3 foot storm cycle. As soon as I made my first turn I was sliding down, kept my skis out of the snow and spun around so they were downhill across the slope. Yes, I did yell ahhh like a little girl and then avalaaaanche. When everything stopped moving I looked up and saw the small crown above. Tried to get up and the snow started moving again then it stopped and I gently put my weight on the skis and traversed across the slope to a "stable" area. Exiting the chute I triggered another small slab (you can see it in the last image) but kept skiing infront of it so no issues. This was all inbounds.

View attachment 24833 View attachment 24834 View attachment 24835

It's a strange feeling when the snow is sliding under you. Happened to me at Squaw this spring. It was very small, but I couldn't figure out why I wasn't stopping as intended. Then I realized the snow under me was sliding. Luckily it was towards the bottom of a steep pitch.

 

[Bad Bob]

Skiing Snowbird on a very low visibility day somewhere on the west side of Gad Valley. In the trees going through some tighter aspens. Had my arms just this much too wide. You've seen cartoons of skiers feet going out from under them and just dropping? That is what happened, came down flat on my back with both skis still onn. Sore with nasty bruises on both biceps but no lasting damage. My partner thought it was very funny; guess it is all in your perspective.

 

[karlo]

This was all inbounds

That's scary, inbounds avalanche. Of course no one has avy gear. Lucky it wasn't worse.

 

[Ken_R]

That's scary, inbounds avalanche. Of course no one has avy gear. Lucky it wasn't worse.

Ski Patrol does an awesome job making the terrain safe throughout the season. This was just a case of very heavy snow falling during a few hours after mitigation on a very steep slope. The new snow was not bonding well to the existing snow and it was VERY touchy. It was an exceptional event and due to the terrain being inbounds and controlled throughout the season it was just a very small slide. The backcountry on this same day must have been really dangerous and scary.

 

[Erik Timmerman]

Another memorable one for me was at Jackson Hole in the early 1990's. Iraq had invaded Kuwait a few weeks before and troops were moving to the Persian Gulf. Again, I was not a good skier, but strong and sound and had watched Blizzard of Aahhh's many times.... My brother and I were skiing what I think is called the Tower 3 Chutes. We were trying different lines. I tried a harder line, I don't really remember the fall, but it was one where I tumbled all the way to the flats at the bottom of the chute. I came up with a bloody/numb face, the kinds of fall where you need to feel your face and make sure your teeth are still there. Bright red blood was quickly pelting onto the snow and freezing on my skis top sheets. What made it memorable though was that when I looked up, Dick Cheney (then Sec. Def.) was standing right there with his secret service guys.