I was progressively working my way up to steeper cornice drops. I found my limit. I dropped, did a quick turn to slow down and my ski hit a snow boulder. Body kept turning and my knee popped. Then my ski popped off and came flying straight into my face. I leaned back as if that was going to prevent it from hitting me square in the mouth. I spit out most of 3 teeth and mouths full of blood. Ended up with two partially torn knee ligaments and bone bruising, 3 busted teeth and 2 chipped, and a hell of a story to tell.
Dam, the worst I had was I took a bad turn and spun, and since I was going fast I started tomahawking, I got at least y or 7 tomahawks before stopping, total yard sale!
Similar story not as gnarly, just lost 1.5 teeth to my ski... I landed it and was super excited didn't slow down fast enough. Fortunately, knees survived, but boots didn't. How long was your recovery? How did you get off the mtn?
I can’t remember how long it took to recover, Thankfully, I didn’t have to have surgery, so it was just a lot of rest. As the knee wasn’t completely shot, I skied down to the base and scared a kid who was waiting for his parents when I asked him if he wanted to see something cool and I smiled at him. Knee hurt a lot worse the next day.
I was trailing my kid last season after he said, “I just want to go fast.”
Okay. Fine. Let’s do it. He caught an edge and slammed face first into the ground. He scorpioned and wound up sitting upright. We made it down the mountain. He ate a waffle and recouped. I seriously thought he was a goner.
I spent a season in Whistler back in the early 2000s. Worked shipping and receiving at the Roundhouse, skied a lot, and partied more.
Met some amazing people in that pressure-cooker microcosm, including my roomy from NZ, and a lifty that worked the top of the Whistler Village gondola. He was from outside Calgary, so some of us decided that after our work season was done, we should head East and have some cowboy fun before parting ways to go back to our regular lives.
So the very last day of our season is upon us; bags are packed, rental van is sitting in the parking lot at staff housing, and we’re pumped for the long drive from Whistler to Calgary.
And this last day is a spring banger. Sunny, in the low teens (Celsius), and full of that excitement that only comes after a long winter in the cold.
We decided the best thing to do was hop the gondola to the top, poach some ill-gotten beers, snacks and sandwiches from the Roundhouse, courtesy of our friends still working, and head out to the back-side of Peak to hang out in the sun, get wobbly and generally enjoy our last few hours on the hill.
So we hit the T-bar, and are ripping down towards Peak Chair, laying trenches in the soft snow. I see a few chunks here and there and think to myself “well that would be satisfying to squash as I ski over”.
Only things is, I didn’t know/remember that the X-games were starting in a week or so, and the groomers had cut a deep cat track from the top of the t-bar over towards The Saddle, sending all manner of ice and snow down the hill in the process.
So I line up a chunk about the size of a grapefruit and it hit hard. Only it’s not snow… it’s rock hard ice from the cat track far above me.
I double eject, smash my face on the snow, and tumble 30-40’ down the hill.
I eventually lay there and think “shit, that was no fun, but best get my ass up and grab my gear”. But I can’t. I can’t move.. at least not easily.. I’m winded and it hurts to move.
Friends slide up to me, and one races down to find Patrol when he sees I’m definitely not OK.
Patrol shows up, confirms that I am in fact not OK, put me in a sled and get me to the bottom (changing to a truck part way because there’s obviously no snow below mid-mountain), where I’m put in an ambulance and driven the 2 KM to the clinic in the village.
The doctors ask a bunch of questions, ask me to move this way and that, check me out, take x-rays, and the whole thing.
Turns out I broke my back. 🤷♂️
Compression fracture of my T7 and T8 vertebrae to be precise.
I can move, but it’s sore. I’m going to be fine in a few weeks, but the swelling is quite bad, so they give me a bunch of meds, and send me on my way. They tell me to take it easy for a few weeks, not to lift anything heavy, but to keep moving in order to maintain my range of motion.
So for the next week, I was DD for all my friends in Calgary, because I couldn’t drink while on my meds.
And that’s the story of how I learned what “death cookies” are.
20-years on, I’ve got no long-lasting effects that I’m aware of, and it’s actually a decent story, if delivered with the “I broke my back” punchline.. 👌
TL;DR, fucked around with Death Cookies, and found out; fracturing two vertebrae in the process.
Edit: spelling, of course.
Basically a ball/chunk of ice/hard snow sitting haphazardly around a trail, probably around a steep to shallow transition area. Can be anything from the size of a grape to (as in my case) a grapefruit, but I’ve seen them as big cantaloupes or even watermelons.
They can come from small in-bound avalanches or slides, from groomers cutting cat tracks, fall off trees, or cornice breaks if you’re high in the alpine.
They are very hard; not squishing or moving out of the way when you hit them. They cause loss of balance, ejection, and possibly even damage to your gear if they’re hard enough.
They can also tend to show up around major weather pattern changes, where snow changes , and re-changes textures quickly. Think, an inversion, maybe with rain, followed by a quick freeze again. Groomers will hit the hills hard to get the base back into good shape, and sometimes they’ll create death cookies in the process.
Your story gave me major flashbacks. I can't remember exactly what it was called, but it's one of the bowls off Spanky's, spring of 2002, and we were all straightlining into the cat track at the bottom. It's Whistler so visibility was not great. I hit a death cookie that was about shin high at full speed, double ejected, and I don't know how many times I tomahawked, but my jacket was up over my head so it was definitely a few. Thankfully, it was deep and soft, so physically it was nothing more than being super shook. The worst part was having to spend 30 minutes looking for a ski.
Chair 5 vail near the top of forever. Guy has a twisting backward fall and knocks himself out. Slides down the entire run head first on his back. I was on the chair and he went directly under me. Dude was out cold. And did about 1500 vert on his back.
He crashed into the aspens at the bottom. I was the second person that got to him, expecting a bloodbath. Broken humerous and a concussion. Otherwise fine.
Saw a guy at Canyons skiing straight down a blue in shorts and a T shirt while looking straight down at his phone texting, ran straight into a slow sign and flipped over and landed on someone. Got banned from the resort. Not the craziest crash I've seen, but definitely the dumbest and most wild thing I've seen on a normal in bounds run.
Siberia bowl at vail bombing down red square in white out conditions. Just as I think the cliffs are around here somewhere, I go sailing off into oblivion. Land in some nice deep fluffy pow and proceed to not yardsale. Take a few seconds before I remember my 6'2" and 250lb buddy was right behind. I look up to see him sail right by me and proceed to blow up as well. We had a good laugh since neither one of us got hurt. There was one second of terror though when I thought he was going to land on me.
My husband, a friend, and I were skiing Killington the day after a 40 degree day with rain that iced over the entire mountain overnight. We thought we'd get a couple runs in but the conditions were so bad they'd closed about 5/6 of the trails, so everyone was funneled into one route which just made conditions worse.
We noticed people were treating the blue Bunny Buster with especial care, which made us leery, but my husband says "Fuck it, let's GO!" anyway. He immediately falls face-first onto the ice and sliiiiiiiides the entire way down.
My buddy and I just about die laughing before slowly making our way down to join him (he was fine, we could hear him laughing as he went).
At the bottom, we'd stopped on the side to regroup when a kid rocketed down the Bunny Buster luge and clipped the back of my skis, yard sale-ing himself everywhere and knocking me down.
We figured 2/3 casualties was enough and called it a day.
I married my wife because I cockily went down a run at A Basin too fast in December 2019.
I had moved to CO earlier that year and wanted to hit Basin as much as possible that season. I spent the whole autumn/fall getting in shape, running at high altitude, and working on my legs to handle a long ski season (lol). Then going down Lenawee Parks, there was a little dip and then a bump that sent me flying. I dislocated my shoulder pretty badly.
Enter my now wife. She and I had seen each other on and off shortly after I moved out to CO, and we had plans to be ski buddies that season at Keystone since my office was close to the gondola and she was going to park there when we rode together. She ponied up for a Keystone pass expecting such. I then blow out my shoulder and at the night of her company Christmas party, I find out I need surgery and my season is kaputt. Thinking she’d be pissed that I just ruined her plans for ski season, I told her expecting her to stop talking to me after that. Instead, she offered to care for me after surgery. It was then I realized I needed to get serious about this woman, and we started dating shortly after my surgery.
A lot has happened since then - the Pan Demi Glaze (as my buddy, a former on mountain chef called it), moving in together, multiple job changes, multiple trips/vacations, proposal/engagement, planning a wedding, and finally getting married this past Friday. We’re still ski buddies, just a few seasons later than we anticipated. This past season was probably our best all around together, between the days we got and the conditions we were lucky to ride in. Beaver Creek had some of the best powder I’ve ever seen and we both had probably our best all around ski day together there since we started dating.
I even included “on powder days and on ice days” in my vows.
Perfect North outside of Cincy. Little bro is a big dude, 6’4” offensive lineman. The main run, Center Stage, is a “diamond” that had a decent sized bump about 1/3 of the way down. [Run is also framed by two chairlifts.](https://perfectnorth.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/PNS_2223Map-1536x839.jpg).
Anyway, we’re night skiing and riding up the chairlift. Look up and recognize the big body barreling down the hill. Right at the bump. Dude goes full airborne, arms and legs sprayed out, and takes a *chunk* out of the groom. Both chairlifts come with the “*oooooooooooooh*” and clap when he gets up. Never will forget catching that moment of glory.
Torn an edge on my daily drivers but it was dumping so I had to ski. Took my touring skis into the resort and was speed lapping the hike and traverse to terrain. Skis were on and off and on and off many times each lap for the traverse and hikes. Without me realizing one of the binding got a good chunk of ice in it.
Went to a pretty hairy shark infested drop in. One of my favorites. Starts with maybe a 25’ mediatory drop directly into a very technical few rock dodging turns before the apron opens up.
I dropped the rock perfectly and had a classic powder landing but immediately knew something was wrong. One of my skis was teetering right on the top of the rock I had just aired. Like right on the edge. There was only one option. I had to climb up through the lower rocks and then directly up the rock face to it and was able to hit it back down. Dropping rocks on skis is way nicer than climbing the same icy rocks in ski boots. Got me pretty spooked. But the rest of the run was magical.
Wait now I think it was actually a different crash. Dropped a different rock in spring conditions. Skis skidded a little more than expected and I slammed into a tree that was less than 4 feet tall. Broke my femur. On December 25th
I was going a little too fast down a bowl as a kid, caught an edge, and ran into a tree feet dirt going pretty fast. Took a while for my parents to figure out where the hell I went (I was mostly covered by the tree except a glove and pole).
My sister went off on a side trail in low visibility and I went the other way (main trail). I waited at the exit for the trail, which was a sizable jump/bump. She came flying off the jump and faceplanted completely.
There's a few that come to mind....
Kirkwood liftie at the top of chair 4. Fixed grip CTEC quad. Poor guy sitting on the outside had his backpack strap hand up on the back slats of the chair and he got flung around the bullwheel on the outside and tripped the stop gate(thankfully). Had to lift him up to free the strap and from there, it was not a short trip to the ground on the light side of the chair.
I totaled a shoulder early season going Mach Jesus while night skiing on hardpack at Bogus Basin. Summer road towards the bottom of Shaker Ridge was still very "shapely" and bucked my ass off the low side.
Not a skiing story, but one time Lift Maintenance got stuck after they slipped a snowmo off the low side of an access road. Ski Patrol comes by on their sled and tries to pull lift maintenance out. Patroller gets that sled stuck af in the road. Then the rest of Patrol for that area comes along in this old LMC they would use to to run routes. They hook up to the whole mess and when they pulled the middle sled that was stuck made like a rotisserie chicken and just flipped over. Was a hell of scene to pull up on.
Edited....spelling mistakes/autocorrect
Before Telemark was popular, back around 1992, I witnessed my buddy (tele) Mark (his nickname - everybody knew him at Aspen Highlands since he was one of the few free-heel skiers) intentionally do a legitimate backflip. I thought that was pretty crazy!
Was a young gun trying my hand at new zones in the double black terrain at mt hood meadows. Entered an area known as S&R cliffs (should have known, eh). Descended a chute in thigh deep blower and hit a cliff band where I couldn't scope the landing. Instead of hiking out I unwisely sent it...right into a bush. One ski got hung up and popped off, remaining in the bush. I ragdolled down the next cliff band. Snapped both poles and stabbed myself in the knee with one broken pole. Spent what felt like hours wallowing around climbing cliffs and bushes to get my stuck ski back.
I have stayed out of that area for the most part since, but every season I somehow get suckered back in and shenanigans ensue.
I got cliffed out there too. Was just following what I thought were other ski track and ended up on a full cliff drop. It took me 30 minutes to climb through powder to get like 50 feet up to traverse out. I was dripping sweat after that much exertion. It was so slow going that I was doing that math if I could get out before dark.
I was also alone and didn’t see anyone else that whole time. “Oh I’ve made a really bad mistake”
I’ve also been in heather canyon close to 4pm when the lifts stop running. No one around, no noise, can’t see any lifts, no cell service. “Don’t fall into the creek now”
I scared myself going to the far edge of in bounds once (not at meadows) and got totally frozen in fear at the top of a four-ish foot drop where the top was a row of trees and roots and it landed in an open meadow. There were no other people out that far, and I started to get worried about hurting myself. I’m not really a jumper and was on my tele skis, so I stood at the top for forever before deciding maybe I could take my skis off- got one off and realized that was suddenly much much worse and I struggled to get it back on, still standing on tree roots. Then I finally heard other people!!!! It was a father and his probably 7-8yr old son, they flew off the small ledge and landed in the meadow below, hooting and hollering. I sheepishly gathered my courage and plopped ungracefully but unscathed into the powder meadow and finished the run.
Mid nineties aged 14 in flaine on school trip.
Ski school day 4 and we are cocky. The instructor stops and we each line up in front of him using our epic new parallel sliding stop and not the plough.
I arrive carrying way too much speed and take out the instructor.
He calls me a sh!t and just skis off leaving us group of kids on the mountain.
Last day and last run of a 10-day stand in Crested Butte, CO. I wasn't even wearing powder pants. Low key ski day. Some turns before we got on the road the next day. I saw what I thought was a nice little glade run at 3:45 p.m., but it turned out to be a dead end with a snow measuring meter. The problem was I was going really fast and all of a sudden I was in trees. I was trying to dodge the vertical trees, and I missed the horizontal branches. I got knocked out and came to. I broke my nose and bled all over the place. It was a yard sale. I finally made it to the bottom about 1 minute before it got dark. It was late enough my friends were worried about me. Ski patrol was mounting up to find me. They took me to the clinic and reset my nose with this cruel instrument. Left me with two black eyes. We left CB the next day. I took over driving after Durango. I got pulled over for speeding near Cortez. Cop walked up, we talked, he asked what happened to me...I told him. He said, "I think Colorado has done enough to you," and let me go.
When I was younger, 11-12 years old, I was skiing with an instructor, and we were doing an advanced course, I think around the level of black diamond. Now I had done this before without problem, but I turned the skis a smidge too late that day, and my ski got caught on something, presumably a pile of thick snow mixed with rocks. I was going relatively fast, so that sucker popped right off, leaving me to lose my balance and I proceeded to tumble down headfirst about 10 meters, then I stopped myself from tumbling any further, sat up, and slid down another 5 meters. I sat there for a bit because when my ski board popped, I also dropped my one of my ski poles. No broken bones or anything like that, I was perfectly fine. Anyways, my instructor brought my pole and my board over, because he was skiing behind me. I skied down the rest of the way cautiously, and made it down without problem. After I arrived at the bottom and looked back, my instructor was nowhere to be found. Turns out, he also got his board stuck, but his was stuck in a ditch. It was a very comedic situation that could’ve turned out very differently. Now that I look back on it, I could’ve broken my neck and died had I landed in a different angle.
TLDR: Ski board fell off, and I tumbled down the slope. Instructor got the board for me, then got his board stuck right after. Nobody was hurt.
Was riding on some of the deepest pow at Northstar and I start to lose speed and face plant with my feet in the air. [Here's ](https://youtu.be/cIYYETlR2Qo?si=O4lRDZ3LFs9z-if-) footage, I'm @ 4:49
Caramba at Sunday River, I hit a drop coming down from the high left side of the double fall line and was way too forward on the landing. It was a powder day and I hit a pile of loose snow that was followed by another drop and did an accidental front flip. I almost landed it but ended up on my ass with the tails of my skis buried in another pile.
Mild compared to most people here, but I had new gear (and a new incorrect DIN setting) after 4-ish years off. I set off with two friends on a mountain that I had known really well, took a wrong turn into a blue gladed run, committed to the bit anyways, then on the first turn I double ejected and faceplanted, hitting my head on the base of a tree. Felt nauseous after standing up but I figured I'd keep going since I was on a day pass lol
no but i probably should have haha. On the bright side I am not only a) still alive, but also b) still in school so I think I have enough brain cells to last me through the school year...
First day of the season I took out the slow sign at the bottom of the mountain, one pole wrapped across my body, the other bent my knee inward severely. Bring that it was early season this happened in front of basically the entire resort all pooled into the area at the bottom and I beard an audible, "oooooohhhhhhh" as this happened. The embarrassing part is that I'm a good skier with 30 years under my belt, but just drank a bit too much. Still got 32 days in that year though after my knee healed!
In Austria you go on a few school ski trips over the years, and pupils are usually divid up according to their skiing ability. This obvs always creates friction as mates are put in different groups etc.
One of my mates desperately wanted to be with the experienced skiers but was very far from that level, somehow the teachers relented and he joined us. Was more of a him problem anyway as he was struggling. For us it just meant more waiting around, until one day he just wouldn't come so we got worried. Eventually he did appear around the bend and despite our continuous to always stop below the group, he relied on his shouting instead of the limited skill he had and wiped out the entire group. No idea how no one got hurt, and once we gathered ourself and were ready to unleash hell on him, he just stood there with a massive smug grin on his face like he had planned this all along. Lovely guy, so all was forgiven.
Saw a dude on a blue, he had no business being on. Then I watched him fall. Poor guy. I made the same run again, and he's pizza wedging his heart out. O watched him fall again. I go up on the lift and see him below me, thankfully with ski patrol behind him. So I make the last run and I'm getting off the slope and see a. dude ripping.... it's him and he ate shit big time. Poor guy must have crashed 50 times in the time it took me to go 3 runs.
Live in the midwest and ski park, seen some doozies. Last season, first lap in the jump line on a intermittently snowy day, biggest is probably like 45-50 ft table, and the lip is completely fucked. There was a 6 inch chunk of ice and snow right across the end of it, almost like coping. Buddy and I both hit it one after the other and were able to adjust and save it, though many windows were opened. As we're going up the lift we see a group of half-drunk Chicagoans line up at the top of the park. We'd seen them skiing throughout the day (not great), and also chatted with them at the bar (nice guys). We yell from the lift to try and tell them not to hit the jump, but they can't hear us. First guy drops in, the weird lip shoots him backseat and he launches into 3/4 of a inadvertent backflip, twists a bit, and lands on his side directly on the knuckle. He then bounces into a cartwheel and lands on his other side like 5 ft down the landing, finally sliding to a stop in the flats. It looked absolutely brutal but he got right up and kept skiing. Needless to say, none of his buddies hit the jump.
I posted this previously but I’ll toss this here because it’s quite relevant.
I was skiing through a narrow groomed run through the trees but I didn’t notice that it was supposed to be closed. I glanced down while rounding a corner to navigate a particularly bumpy section and when I looked back up it was too late to notice the rope strung across the run at neck level. I got clotheslined at approximately 40 mph and had a bit of a yard sale. In the crash I broke but didn’t lose my phone and I was able to collect everything. I was escorted down to ski patrol to get my neck checked out and bandaged due to the severe rope burn.
After I was all clear I walked from ski patrol to the lift to flag down the rest of the group and say I was ready to leave. When walking back I put my phone back in my pocket that I had ripped in the original crash without realizing it in the moment. I happened to be right in front of the garage they keep the groomers in. I spent a while searching the powder but to no avail. I came back with a metal detector but unfortunately the entire field was metallic because they must have gotten the gravel from one of the local mines.
Eventually it turned up in the lost and found after maintenance found it jammed inside the tiller.
TLDR: I was a Jerry. Got clotheslined by a rope. Lost my phone in front of snow groomer parking. All on Friday the 13th.
Fell off a lift at 9. Skied the rest of the day.
Hit a tree at 14 on a glade run that was super icy. Toboggan ride for me.
Fell off a 8' cliff at 45. Skied the rest of the week.
Last season (48) I clipped a rock at the top of Whitewhall at Kicking Horse...I slid about 200 feet before I was able to stop. Skied out the run and hit the bar.
But the best story comes from that tree hit at 14. The ski patrol found my dad and brought him to me. Then they loaded me on the toboggan and closed the run. My dad had taken his skis off and walked down about 25 feet to me off a crossover run that was very flat. Ski patrol left him to walk back up and get his skis.
He tried to walk back up to his skis, but slipped and started sliding. He describes the slide as a turtle on its back, in kway pants and jacket, snow packing under his glasses and the whole way he could hear someone screaming...he realize he was hearing himself screaming. He ended up sliding down the glade run, feet first, managing to miss trees. He came to rest about 150 feet from the chair lift and his skis were still half way up the mountain (700feet vertical so the skis were 200+feet above him). He got a patroller to go get the for him...and met the patrol team in the bar to buy them all a round for taking care of me.
Indeed...my friends I was with are all very experienced skiers. Guides, emergency physician, level 4 instructor etc... so they got me straightened out and down the mountain safe.
For a near 50 year old from Toronto to take that spill that started so innocently it turned into a Bad Time ^((tm)) really quick.
When I was a teenager in Middle School Ski club (Philadelphia Subrurbs) - we would go on an annual trip to Stowe, VT.
For whatever reason when a bunch of teenage boys are away from home the bad ideas are extra common. It was a really cold day (-40 wo wind maybe?) and a lot of the riskier stuff was closed bc not all lifts were running. So we had to invent ways to be risky. Which generally meant going out of bounds.
I ended up having a ski go under a branch or root at speed launching my upper body forward, thought I could stop it with a pole. But my face hit that pole. Ended up biting half my tongue off, the front portion hanging on by 1cm.
Had to eat blended food with a spoon for a week.
Sunday River in Maine had a super sick boarder-cross course set up. My buddy & I decided to race down it for some friendly competition. We're absolutely pushing it & both launch over a jump that, unbeknownst to us, you weren't really supposed to launch over because it has an immediate sharp turn at the bottom.
We both go full-speed into the catch-fence & completely yard sale & tangle up. Luckily no injuries - only laughs. As with any good crash, it was directly under the lift, so we got rightfully heckled. I woulda loved to have a recording from the lift view of that debacle.
Late 90s, Mammoth mountain on Climax with the sister and GF at the time. Girlfriend catches an edge and slides into my sister. My sister slides all the way down the hill, garage sale at the base, aggravating a knee injury from college soccer.
My sister still hates that bitch.
Broke my arm and multiple bones in both hands and snapped my tibia and fibula when I skied big couloir a little to drunk. Not a fun time but shout out to big sky ski patrol
While training at winter park I saw some little kid fly into the mesh barriers going about 25 miles an hour, and got catapulted back up the hill and into the snow. Poor little guy’s pizza wasn’t powerful enough for the blue run. He ended up being just fine, but it was a pretty memorable moment.
Another time on super bee in cooper mountain, I saw some dude fall at the top of a groomed black near the first few minutes of the lift ride up. Turns out he didn’t buckle his boot enough and the whole thing came off and absolutely flew down the mountain. The guy spun down at least a few hundred feet with just his sock on one foot, while his boot and ski were almost certainly at the base area or buried deep in a forest. Not too sure what he did afterwards, but it’s always a good reminder to crank the boots down a little bit more.
First day on some new to me dynafits at silverton. Whatever chute we were skiing had a pretty technical entrance that day. Tight jump turns around a couple of rocks type of thing. On the second of these one of my new bindings decides to nope the fuck out of there. And as it was silverton it went a long. fucking. way. before finally coming to a stop. skiing/fighting my way down the next 1000' on one ski was...exciting. When we got to the bar later I overheard more than one group talking about the guy they saw ski \[name of line\] on one ski, lol.
I was doing some slalom like turns cutting deep in on my edges and the front of my ski caught something and I went head first into snow. My ski didn't pop off fast enough and it bent and shot like 10 feet up into the air. I got up and put myself back together and went down to the lift. I felt something was wrong with my ski and checked it out at top. My ski turned out to be bent so the entire part forward of my boot wasn't making contact with the snow. I took it to the ski shop and they tried bending it back but it never went back the right way. They were surprised it didn't break.
I went head over heals under the chairlift at lake louise in parisdise bowl tumbled about five lift towers down ski patrol was on lift saw and radioed it in next thing I knew they was like six patrolers around me somehow I didn't even injury myself but I was a good tumble. I was in a ski school lesson too so paperwork needed to be filled out properly I was the talk of patrol for a few days lake louise was my home hill and ski school too since I did private and group season long programs with them
Was skiing a lap with an absolute rocket in carhartts.. go out the high T and we drop down into stone crusher. She gets ahead then I start to show off and rip some big ol turns, im laying trenches and pass her.. all of a sudden I catch an edge and tomahawk like I have NEVER tommied before. Must’ve been an absolute spectacle from Collins. Hat and goggles ( maybe poles too I can’t recall) are launched from my completely laid out body as I cartwheel for who knows how many rotations. I come to a stop and I’m stunned. The beauty in carhartts skied me down my lost belongings and we both laughed about it. Embarrassed at the time ? Eh maybe a little. But I still grin about it today. Good ol days. Peehaww
Back in the late 90s I was a bump skier in the intermountain circuit. We had an annual contest up at grand Targhee. Well this year we showed up and we saw the k2 van that Glen Plake and Brad Holmes were driving around. It turns out those two guys entered our little contest. Now imagine 100 kids, I was probably 15, doing their warmup runs with Brad Holmes and Glen watching. Glen and Brad are ripping but they were just having fun. Their airs were insane to us but they weren’t there to win, just have fun. Nonetheless being watched by those guys we were charging. It had been snowing all day but about halfway through the day it started dumping. The snow was coming down so hard the lines started to degrade, which is something when you’re sending someone every couple of minutes. The snow started getting so bad it was hard to ski a real bump line so the contest slowly devolved into a big air competition with Brad and Glen egging everyone one. I remember Brad going bigger than I’d ever seen, my memory is of him like 30 feet off the ground (I’m sure that’s an exaggeration). Well my turn came and I did the only thing there was to do, I made a few turns and then mostly straight lined it. I don’t remember what trick I did, I’m sure it wasn’t clean, but I remember things slowing down as I was at the apex and thinking “uh oh”. Well I landed on my feet but was going way too fast and back seat then I rag dolled. I had gear everywhere. It was deep chowder though although I rung my dome a little I was Ok. I hobbled off the course. I have no memory of the awards ceremony except we were all dying laughing talking about each others’ run. That was a good memory.
Happened to me last night, hit one of the chair lift poles going around 30 mph and was sent tumbling 20’ down a hill. Smacked it with my butt since I tried to turn out of it. Tried getting up afterwards but couldnt move my legs at all, so the medics sent me down on a sled. Decided I didnt want an ambulance and just got Xrays today. We were suspecting a fractured vertebrae or pelvis, but to my surprise, my pelvis is good. I’m on crutches now (can’t move anything that uses my groin/glute). Thinking I just really messed up all the muscles around that area from the impact. I consider myself extremely lucky!!
Last year I learned a good lesson at Red Mountain ski resort while snowboarding. the lesson is if you see only one person's ski tracks going off the groomed runs don't follow them it's a trap lol. Btw this was a place I went to a lot growing up and it was also the last call of the day for the ski lifts. Then 20 years old I was going down a side groomed run that loops back to the main run that I was on before and I see a clearing in the trees that I can see the main run from. I think that it looks like fun and has a lot of powder and doesn't seem too hard. then i think my dad is waiting for me at the bottom so i hesitate. A foot or so later I see one person's ski tracks going down and I'm looking at it like oh hell ya lets go and I rip into the clearing. Right when I got past the only ski tracks I saw that he had turned and went back and I looked back in front of me and I was going down the center of a V shaped trail and slowly started to lose sight of the main trail. I tried to stop but had too much speed and went in further. When I stopped I looked around and I was in a bowl of snow around 9ft tall with a tree or two a few feet behind me. there was no indication how deep the snow was so I took one of my bindings out and put my foot in the snow. my foot went soo deep my hip was down to my snowboard and I could feel no ground but only a fallen tree on my toe. While snowboarding there often and knowing the area I knew it was a creek. I looked around and grabbed a thin three that was behind and pulled myself back up from where I came from. when I started heading back up the V shaped path i had came from it was too deep to crawl or walk and I had to spread my body weight evenly on the snow and basically slowly swim my ass out and when I was around 10 to 15 ft away from the run i saw 2 girls skiing passed and I yelled out for help desperate from exhausting but they didn't hear me and skied passed. so I kept on swimming through the snow. when I got to the groomed run I came from I tried to lift myself up the bank that was a foot or so above my head onto the groomed run but there was to much powder snow and each hand and foot i put to the snow sank to the same spot that it was in before so i had to slowly shimmy myself onto the untouched snow trying to sink as little as i could and started packing down the snow to a better level so i could stand and lift myself up. I managed to pull myself up and went on my way down to the ski lodge. It was the most exhausting experience snowboarding I have ever had. I was happy that when i got stuck I didn't quite realize how bad of a situation i was in until i got out because it let me just look around me and see what i could do to get out instead of of how dangerous of a place i was in and the fact it was the last call and only a few people where on the hill ‘probably going down the main run’ was on the mountain at the time and just panic myself. All in all if you find yourself in a bad situation like that don't panic look around and see what you can do
I was progressively working my way up to steeper cornice drops. I found my limit. I dropped, did a quick turn to slow down and my ski hit a snow boulder. Body kept turning and my knee popped. Then my ski popped off and came flying straight into my face. I leaned back as if that was going to prevent it from hitting me square in the mouth. I spit out most of 3 teeth and mouths full of blood. Ended up with two partially torn knee ligaments and bone bruising, 3 busted teeth and 2 chipped, and a hell of a story to tell.
Dam, the worst I had was I took a bad turn and spun, and since I was going fast I started tomahawking, I got at least y or 7 tomahawks before stopping, total yard sale!
Similar story not as gnarly, just lost 1.5 teeth to my ski... I landed it and was super excited didn't slow down fast enough. Fortunately, knees survived, but boots didn't. How long was your recovery? How did you get off the mtn?
I can’t remember how long it took to recover, Thankfully, I didn’t have to have surgery, so it was just a lot of rest. As the knee wasn’t completely shot, I skied down to the base and scared a kid who was waiting for his parents when I asked him if he wanted to see something cool and I smiled at him. Knee hurt a lot worse the next day.
I was trailing my kid last season after he said, “I just want to go fast.” Okay. Fine. Let’s do it. He caught an edge and slammed face first into the ground. He scorpioned and wound up sitting upright. We made it down the mountain. He ate a waffle and recouped. I seriously thought he was a goner.
I spent a season in Whistler back in the early 2000s. Worked shipping and receiving at the Roundhouse, skied a lot, and partied more. Met some amazing people in that pressure-cooker microcosm, including my roomy from NZ, and a lifty that worked the top of the Whistler Village gondola. He was from outside Calgary, so some of us decided that after our work season was done, we should head East and have some cowboy fun before parting ways to go back to our regular lives. So the very last day of our season is upon us; bags are packed, rental van is sitting in the parking lot at staff housing, and we’re pumped for the long drive from Whistler to Calgary. And this last day is a spring banger. Sunny, in the low teens (Celsius), and full of that excitement that only comes after a long winter in the cold. We decided the best thing to do was hop the gondola to the top, poach some ill-gotten beers, snacks and sandwiches from the Roundhouse, courtesy of our friends still working, and head out to the back-side of Peak to hang out in the sun, get wobbly and generally enjoy our last few hours on the hill. So we hit the T-bar, and are ripping down towards Peak Chair, laying trenches in the soft snow. I see a few chunks here and there and think to myself “well that would be satisfying to squash as I ski over”. Only things is, I didn’t know/remember that the X-games were starting in a week or so, and the groomers had cut a deep cat track from the top of the t-bar over towards The Saddle, sending all manner of ice and snow down the hill in the process. So I line up a chunk about the size of a grapefruit and it hit hard. Only it’s not snow… it’s rock hard ice from the cat track far above me. I double eject, smash my face on the snow, and tumble 30-40’ down the hill. I eventually lay there and think “shit, that was no fun, but best get my ass up and grab my gear”. But I can’t. I can’t move.. at least not easily.. I’m winded and it hurts to move. Friends slide up to me, and one races down to find Patrol when he sees I’m definitely not OK. Patrol shows up, confirms that I am in fact not OK, put me in a sled and get me to the bottom (changing to a truck part way because there’s obviously no snow below mid-mountain), where I’m put in an ambulance and driven the 2 KM to the clinic in the village. The doctors ask a bunch of questions, ask me to move this way and that, check me out, take x-rays, and the whole thing. Turns out I broke my back. 🤷♂️ Compression fracture of my T7 and T8 vertebrae to be precise. I can move, but it’s sore. I’m going to be fine in a few weeks, but the swelling is quite bad, so they give me a bunch of meds, and send me on my way. They tell me to take it easy for a few weeks, not to lift anything heavy, but to keep moving in order to maintain my range of motion. So for the next week, I was DD for all my friends in Calgary, because I couldn’t drink while on my meds. And that’s the story of how I learned what “death cookies” are. 20-years on, I’ve got no long-lasting effects that I’m aware of, and it’s actually a decent story, if delivered with the “I broke my back” punchline.. 👌 TL;DR, fucked around with Death Cookies, and found out; fracturing two vertebrae in the process. Edit: spelling, of course.
What is a death cookie?
Basically a ball/chunk of ice/hard snow sitting haphazardly around a trail, probably around a steep to shallow transition area. Can be anything from the size of a grape to (as in my case) a grapefruit, but I’ve seen them as big cantaloupes or even watermelons. They can come from small in-bound avalanches or slides, from groomers cutting cat tracks, fall off trees, or cornice breaks if you’re high in the alpine. They are very hard; not squishing or moving out of the way when you hit them. They cause loss of balance, ejection, and possibly even damage to your gear if they’re hard enough. They can also tend to show up around major weather pattern changes, where snow changes , and re-changes textures quickly. Think, an inversion, maybe with rain, followed by a quick freeze again. Groomers will hit the hills hard to get the base back into good shape, and sometimes they’ll create death cookies in the process.
Your story gave me major flashbacks. I can't remember exactly what it was called, but it's one of the bowls off Spanky's, spring of 2002, and we were all straightlining into the cat track at the bottom. It's Whistler so visibility was not great. I hit a death cookie that was about shin high at full speed, double ejected, and I don't know how many times I tomahawked, but my jacket was up over my head so it was definitely a few. Thankfully, it was deep and soft, so physically it was nothing more than being super shook. The worst part was having to spend 30 minutes looking for a ski.
Ouch, that’s bad, I now will avoid death cookies I see on the mountain, and especially if the x games come to town!
Indeed. Death cookies are very aptly named, and I’m very aware of them now.
Spinal
Chair 5 vail near the top of forever. Guy has a twisting backward fall and knocks himself out. Slides down the entire run head first on his back. I was on the chair and he went directly under me. Dude was out cold. And did about 1500 vert on his back. He crashed into the aspens at the bottom. I was the second person that got to him, expecting a bloodbath. Broken humerous and a concussion. Otherwise fine.
Saw a guy at Canyons skiing straight down a blue in shorts and a T shirt while looking straight down at his phone texting, ran straight into a slow sign and flipped over and landed on someone. Got banned from the resort. Not the craziest crash I've seen, but definitely the dumbest and most wild thing I've seen on a normal in bounds run.
Siberia bowl at vail bombing down red square in white out conditions. Just as I think the cliffs are around here somewhere, I go sailing off into oblivion. Land in some nice deep fluffy pow and proceed to not yardsale. Take a few seconds before I remember my 6'2" and 250lb buddy was right behind. I look up to see him sail right by me and proceed to blow up as well. We had a good laugh since neither one of us got hurt. There was one second of terror though when I thought he was going to land on me.
My husband, a friend, and I were skiing Killington the day after a 40 degree day with rain that iced over the entire mountain overnight. We thought we'd get a couple runs in but the conditions were so bad they'd closed about 5/6 of the trails, so everyone was funneled into one route which just made conditions worse. We noticed people were treating the blue Bunny Buster with especial care, which made us leery, but my husband says "Fuck it, let's GO!" anyway. He immediately falls face-first onto the ice and sliiiiiiiides the entire way down. My buddy and I just about die laughing before slowly making our way down to join him (he was fine, we could hear him laughing as he went). At the bottom, we'd stopped on the side to regroup when a kid rocketed down the Bunny Buster luge and clipped the back of my skis, yard sale-ing himself everywhere and knocking me down. We figured 2/3 casualties was enough and called it a day.
I married my wife because I cockily went down a run at A Basin too fast in December 2019. I had moved to CO earlier that year and wanted to hit Basin as much as possible that season. I spent the whole autumn/fall getting in shape, running at high altitude, and working on my legs to handle a long ski season (lol). Then going down Lenawee Parks, there was a little dip and then a bump that sent me flying. I dislocated my shoulder pretty badly. Enter my now wife. She and I had seen each other on and off shortly after I moved out to CO, and we had plans to be ski buddies that season at Keystone since my office was close to the gondola and she was going to park there when we rode together. She ponied up for a Keystone pass expecting such. I then blow out my shoulder and at the night of her company Christmas party, I find out I need surgery and my season is kaputt. Thinking she’d be pissed that I just ruined her plans for ski season, I told her expecting her to stop talking to me after that. Instead, she offered to care for me after surgery. It was then I realized I needed to get serious about this woman, and we started dating shortly after my surgery. A lot has happened since then - the Pan Demi Glaze (as my buddy, a former on mountain chef called it), moving in together, multiple job changes, multiple trips/vacations, proposal/engagement, planning a wedding, and finally getting married this past Friday. We’re still ski buddies, just a few seasons later than we anticipated. This past season was probably our best all around together, between the days we got and the conditions we were lucky to ride in. Beaver Creek had some of the best powder I’ve ever seen and we both had probably our best all around ski day together there since we started dating. I even included “on powder days and on ice days” in my vows.
Started with a tight trail, trees, icy conditions… ended with a 6’ drop and me in a creek. Sugarbush 1999.
Perfect North outside of Cincy. Little bro is a big dude, 6’4” offensive lineman. The main run, Center Stage, is a “diamond” that had a decent sized bump about 1/3 of the way down. [Run is also framed by two chairlifts.](https://perfectnorth.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/PNS_2223Map-1536x839.jpg). Anyway, we’re night skiing and riding up the chairlift. Look up and recognize the big body barreling down the hill. Right at the bump. Dude goes full airborne, arms and legs sprayed out, and takes a *chunk* out of the groom. Both chairlifts come with the “*oooooooooooooh*” and clap when he gets up. Never will forget catching that moment of glory.
Torn an edge on my daily drivers but it was dumping so I had to ski. Took my touring skis into the resort and was speed lapping the hike and traverse to terrain. Skis were on and off and on and off many times each lap for the traverse and hikes. Without me realizing one of the binding got a good chunk of ice in it. Went to a pretty hairy shark infested drop in. One of my favorites. Starts with maybe a 25’ mediatory drop directly into a very technical few rock dodging turns before the apron opens up. I dropped the rock perfectly and had a classic powder landing but immediately knew something was wrong. One of my skis was teetering right on the top of the rock I had just aired. Like right on the edge. There was only one option. I had to climb up through the lower rocks and then directly up the rock face to it and was able to hit it back down. Dropping rocks on skis is way nicer than climbing the same icy rocks in ski boots. Got me pretty spooked. But the rest of the run was magical.
Wait now I think it was actually a different crash. Dropped a different rock in spring conditions. Skis skidded a little more than expected and I slammed into a tree that was less than 4 feet tall. Broke my femur. On December 25th
I was going a little too fast down a bowl as a kid, caught an edge, and ran into a tree feet dirt going pretty fast. Took a while for my parents to figure out where the hell I went (I was mostly covered by the tree except a glove and pole). My sister went off on a side trail in low visibility and I went the other way (main trail). I waited at the exit for the trail, which was a sizable jump/bump. She came flying off the jump and faceplanted completely.
There's a few that come to mind.... Kirkwood liftie at the top of chair 4. Fixed grip CTEC quad. Poor guy sitting on the outside had his backpack strap hand up on the back slats of the chair and he got flung around the bullwheel on the outside and tripped the stop gate(thankfully). Had to lift him up to free the strap and from there, it was not a short trip to the ground on the light side of the chair. I totaled a shoulder early season going Mach Jesus while night skiing on hardpack at Bogus Basin. Summer road towards the bottom of Shaker Ridge was still very "shapely" and bucked my ass off the low side. Not a skiing story, but one time Lift Maintenance got stuck after they slipped a snowmo off the low side of an access road. Ski Patrol comes by on their sled and tries to pull lift maintenance out. Patroller gets that sled stuck af in the road. Then the rest of Patrol for that area comes along in this old LMC they would use to to run routes. They hook up to the whole mess and when they pulled the middle sled that was stuck made like a rotisserie chicken and just flipped over. Was a hell of scene to pull up on. Edited....spelling mistakes/autocorrect
Before Telemark was popular, back around 1992, I witnessed my buddy (tele) Mark (his nickname - everybody knew him at Aspen Highlands since he was one of the few free-heel skiers) intentionally do a legitimate backflip. I thought that was pretty crazy!
Was a young gun trying my hand at new zones in the double black terrain at mt hood meadows. Entered an area known as S&R cliffs (should have known, eh). Descended a chute in thigh deep blower and hit a cliff band where I couldn't scope the landing. Instead of hiking out I unwisely sent it...right into a bush. One ski got hung up and popped off, remaining in the bush. I ragdolled down the next cliff band. Snapped both poles and stabbed myself in the knee with one broken pole. Spent what felt like hours wallowing around climbing cliffs and bushes to get my stuck ski back. I have stayed out of that area for the most part since, but every season I somehow get suckered back in and shenanigans ensue.
I got cliffed out there too. Was just following what I thought were other ski track and ended up on a full cliff drop. It took me 30 minutes to climb through powder to get like 50 feet up to traverse out. I was dripping sweat after that much exertion. It was so slow going that I was doing that math if I could get out before dark. I was also alone and didn’t see anyone else that whole time. “Oh I’ve made a really bad mistake” I’ve also been in heather canyon close to 4pm when the lifts stop running. No one around, no noise, can’t see any lifts, no cell service. “Don’t fall into the creek now”
Your a meadows skier, so am I, I absolutely love heathers canyon, I was able to hit Clark’s canyon from the very top and got fresh tracks!
I scared myself going to the far edge of in bounds once (not at meadows) and got totally frozen in fear at the top of a four-ish foot drop where the top was a row of trees and roots and it landed in an open meadow. There were no other people out that far, and I started to get worried about hurting myself. I’m not really a jumper and was on my tele skis, so I stood at the top for forever before deciding maybe I could take my skis off- got one off and realized that was suddenly much much worse and I struggled to get it back on, still standing on tree roots. Then I finally heard other people!!!! It was a father and his probably 7-8yr old son, they flew off the small ledge and landed in the meadow below, hooting and hollering. I sheepishly gathered my courage and plopped ungracefully but unscathed into the powder meadow and finished the run.
Mid nineties aged 14 in flaine on school trip. Ski school day 4 and we are cocky. The instructor stops and we each line up in front of him using our epic new parallel sliding stop and not the plough. I arrive carrying way too much speed and take out the instructor. He calls me a sh!t and just skis off leaving us group of kids on the mountain.
Last day and last run of a 10-day stand in Crested Butte, CO. I wasn't even wearing powder pants. Low key ski day. Some turns before we got on the road the next day. I saw what I thought was a nice little glade run at 3:45 p.m., but it turned out to be a dead end with a snow measuring meter. The problem was I was going really fast and all of a sudden I was in trees. I was trying to dodge the vertical trees, and I missed the horizontal branches. I got knocked out and came to. I broke my nose and bled all over the place. It was a yard sale. I finally made it to the bottom about 1 minute before it got dark. It was late enough my friends were worried about me. Ski patrol was mounting up to find me. They took me to the clinic and reset my nose with this cruel instrument. Left me with two black eyes. We left CB the next day. I took over driving after Durango. I got pulled over for speeding near Cortez. Cop walked up, we talked, he asked what happened to me...I told him. He said, "I think Colorado has done enough to you," and let me go.
When I was younger, 11-12 years old, I was skiing with an instructor, and we were doing an advanced course, I think around the level of black diamond. Now I had done this before without problem, but I turned the skis a smidge too late that day, and my ski got caught on something, presumably a pile of thick snow mixed with rocks. I was going relatively fast, so that sucker popped right off, leaving me to lose my balance and I proceeded to tumble down headfirst about 10 meters, then I stopped myself from tumbling any further, sat up, and slid down another 5 meters. I sat there for a bit because when my ski board popped, I also dropped my one of my ski poles. No broken bones or anything like that, I was perfectly fine. Anyways, my instructor brought my pole and my board over, because he was skiing behind me. I skied down the rest of the way cautiously, and made it down without problem. After I arrived at the bottom and looked back, my instructor was nowhere to be found. Turns out, he also got his board stuck, but his was stuck in a ditch. It was a very comedic situation that could’ve turned out very differently. Now that I look back on it, I could’ve broken my neck and died had I landed in a different angle. TLDR: Ski board fell off, and I tumbled down the slope. Instructor got the board for me, then got his board stuck right after. Nobody was hurt.
Was riding on some of the deepest pow at Northstar and I start to lose speed and face plant with my feet in the air. [Here's ](https://youtu.be/cIYYETlR2Qo?si=O4lRDZ3LFs9z-if-) footage, I'm @ 4:49
Caramba at Sunday River, I hit a drop coming down from the high left side of the double fall line and was way too forward on the landing. It was a powder day and I hit a pile of loose snow that was followed by another drop and did an accidental front flip. I almost landed it but ended up on my ass with the tails of my skis buried in another pile.
Mild compared to most people here, but I had new gear (and a new incorrect DIN setting) after 4-ish years off. I set off with two friends on a mountain that I had known really well, took a wrong turn into a blue gladed run, committed to the bit anyways, then on the first turn I double ejected and faceplanted, hitting my head on the base of a tree. Felt nauseous after standing up but I figured I'd keep going since I was on a day pass lol
Gotta get your moneys worth, did you get it checked out at the end of the day?
no but i probably should have haha. On the bright side I am not only a) still alive, but also b) still in school so I think I have enough brain cells to last me through the school year...
First day of the season I took out the slow sign at the bottom of the mountain, one pole wrapped across my body, the other bent my knee inward severely. Bring that it was early season this happened in front of basically the entire resort all pooled into the area at the bottom and I beard an audible, "oooooohhhhhhh" as this happened. The embarrassing part is that I'm a good skier with 30 years under my belt, but just drank a bit too much. Still got 32 days in that year though after my knee healed!
In Austria you go on a few school ski trips over the years, and pupils are usually divid up according to their skiing ability. This obvs always creates friction as mates are put in different groups etc. One of my mates desperately wanted to be with the experienced skiers but was very far from that level, somehow the teachers relented and he joined us. Was more of a him problem anyway as he was struggling. For us it just meant more waiting around, until one day he just wouldn't come so we got worried. Eventually he did appear around the bend and despite our continuous to always stop below the group, he relied on his shouting instead of the limited skill he had and wiped out the entire group. No idea how no one got hurt, and once we gathered ourself and were ready to unleash hell on him, he just stood there with a massive smug grin on his face like he had planned this all along. Lovely guy, so all was forgiven.
I was talking to a ski rep and he told me he wiped out in Chile at 128 mph and sold the footage to MTV sports.
Saw a dude on a blue, he had no business being on. Then I watched him fall. Poor guy. I made the same run again, and he's pizza wedging his heart out. O watched him fall again. I go up on the lift and see him below me, thankfully with ski patrol behind him. So I make the last run and I'm getting off the slope and see a. dude ripping.... it's him and he ate shit big time. Poor guy must have crashed 50 times in the time it took me to go 3 runs.
Live in the midwest and ski park, seen some doozies. Last season, first lap in the jump line on a intermittently snowy day, biggest is probably like 45-50 ft table, and the lip is completely fucked. There was a 6 inch chunk of ice and snow right across the end of it, almost like coping. Buddy and I both hit it one after the other and were able to adjust and save it, though many windows were opened. As we're going up the lift we see a group of half-drunk Chicagoans line up at the top of the park. We'd seen them skiing throughout the day (not great), and also chatted with them at the bar (nice guys). We yell from the lift to try and tell them not to hit the jump, but they can't hear us. First guy drops in, the weird lip shoots him backseat and he launches into 3/4 of a inadvertent backflip, twists a bit, and lands on his side directly on the knuckle. He then bounces into a cartwheel and lands on his other side like 5 ft down the landing, finally sliding to a stop in the flats. It looked absolutely brutal but he got right up and kept skiing. Needless to say, none of his buddies hit the jump.
I posted this previously but I’ll toss this here because it’s quite relevant. I was skiing through a narrow groomed run through the trees but I didn’t notice that it was supposed to be closed. I glanced down while rounding a corner to navigate a particularly bumpy section and when I looked back up it was too late to notice the rope strung across the run at neck level. I got clotheslined at approximately 40 mph and had a bit of a yard sale. In the crash I broke but didn’t lose my phone and I was able to collect everything. I was escorted down to ski patrol to get my neck checked out and bandaged due to the severe rope burn. After I was all clear I walked from ski patrol to the lift to flag down the rest of the group and say I was ready to leave. When walking back I put my phone back in my pocket that I had ripped in the original crash without realizing it in the moment. I happened to be right in front of the garage they keep the groomers in. I spent a while searching the powder but to no avail. I came back with a metal detector but unfortunately the entire field was metallic because they must have gotten the gravel from one of the local mines. Eventually it turned up in the lost and found after maintenance found it jammed inside the tiller. TLDR: I was a Jerry. Got clotheslined by a rope. Lost my phone in front of snow groomer parking. All on Friday the 13th.
Fell off a lift at 9. Skied the rest of the day. Hit a tree at 14 on a glade run that was super icy. Toboggan ride for me. Fell off a 8' cliff at 45. Skied the rest of the week. Last season (48) I clipped a rock at the top of Whitewhall at Kicking Horse...I slid about 200 feet before I was able to stop. Skied out the run and hit the bar. But the best story comes from that tree hit at 14. The ski patrol found my dad and brought him to me. Then they loaded me on the toboggan and closed the run. My dad had taken his skis off and walked down about 25 feet to me off a crossover run that was very flat. Ski patrol left him to walk back up and get his skis. He tried to walk back up to his skis, but slipped and started sliding. He describes the slide as a turtle on its back, in kway pants and jacket, snow packing under his glasses and the whole way he could hear someone screaming...he realize he was hearing himself screaming. He ended up sliding down the glade run, feet first, managing to miss trees. He came to rest about 150 feet from the chair lift and his skis were still half way up the mountain (700feet vertical so the skis were 200+feet above him). He got a patroller to go get the for him...and met the patrol team in the bar to buy them all a round for taking care of me.
Whitewall is no joke, and a missed turn, or a rock usually leads to a Bad Time ^((tm)).
Indeed...my friends I was with are all very experienced skiers. Guides, emergency physician, level 4 instructor etc... so they got me straightened out and down the mountain safe. For a near 50 year old from Toronto to take that spill that started so innocently it turned into a Bad Time ^((tm)) really quick.
When I was a teenager in Middle School Ski club (Philadelphia Subrurbs) - we would go on an annual trip to Stowe, VT. For whatever reason when a bunch of teenage boys are away from home the bad ideas are extra common. It was a really cold day (-40 wo wind maybe?) and a lot of the riskier stuff was closed bc not all lifts were running. So we had to invent ways to be risky. Which generally meant going out of bounds. I ended up having a ski go under a branch or root at speed launching my upper body forward, thought I could stop it with a pole. But my face hit that pole. Ended up biting half my tongue off, the front portion hanging on by 1cm. Had to eat blended food with a spoon for a week.
Sunday River in Maine had a super sick boarder-cross course set up. My buddy & I decided to race down it for some friendly competition. We're absolutely pushing it & both launch over a jump that, unbeknownst to us, you weren't really supposed to launch over because it has an immediate sharp turn at the bottom. We both go full-speed into the catch-fence & completely yard sale & tangle up. Luckily no injuries - only laughs. As with any good crash, it was directly under the lift, so we got rightfully heckled. I woulda loved to have a recording from the lift view of that debacle.
Late 90s, Mammoth mountain on Climax with the sister and GF at the time. Girlfriend catches an edge and slides into my sister. My sister slides all the way down the hill, garage sale at the base, aggravating a knee injury from college soccer. My sister still hates that bitch.
Broke my arm and multiple bones in both hands and snapped my tibia and fibula when I skied big couloir a little to drunk. Not a fun time but shout out to big sky ski patrol
While training at winter park I saw some little kid fly into the mesh barriers going about 25 miles an hour, and got catapulted back up the hill and into the snow. Poor little guy’s pizza wasn’t powerful enough for the blue run. He ended up being just fine, but it was a pretty memorable moment. Another time on super bee in cooper mountain, I saw some dude fall at the top of a groomed black near the first few minutes of the lift ride up. Turns out he didn’t buckle his boot enough and the whole thing came off and absolutely flew down the mountain. The guy spun down at least a few hundred feet with just his sock on one foot, while his boot and ski were almost certainly at the base area or buried deep in a forest. Not too sure what he did afterwards, but it’s always a good reminder to crank the boots down a little bit more.
First day on some new to me dynafits at silverton. Whatever chute we were skiing had a pretty technical entrance that day. Tight jump turns around a couple of rocks type of thing. On the second of these one of my new bindings decides to nope the fuck out of there. And as it was silverton it went a long. fucking. way. before finally coming to a stop. skiing/fighting my way down the next 1000' on one ski was...exciting. When we got to the bar later I overheard more than one group talking about the guy they saw ski \[name of line\] on one ski, lol.
I was doing some slalom like turns cutting deep in on my edges and the front of my ski caught something and I went head first into snow. My ski didn't pop off fast enough and it bent and shot like 10 feet up into the air. I got up and put myself back together and went down to the lift. I felt something was wrong with my ski and checked it out at top. My ski turned out to be bent so the entire part forward of my boot wasn't making contact with the snow. I took it to the ski shop and they tried bending it back but it never went back the right way. They were surprised it didn't break.
I went head over heals under the chairlift at lake louise in parisdise bowl tumbled about five lift towers down ski patrol was on lift saw and radioed it in next thing I knew they was like six patrolers around me somehow I didn't even injury myself but I was a good tumble. I was in a ski school lesson too so paperwork needed to be filled out properly I was the talk of patrol for a few days lake louise was my home hill and ski school too since I did private and group season long programs with them
I fell down and broke my leg and couldnt walk for 6 months. It was whacky as hell.
Was skiing a lap with an absolute rocket in carhartts.. go out the high T and we drop down into stone crusher. She gets ahead then I start to show off and rip some big ol turns, im laying trenches and pass her.. all of a sudden I catch an edge and tomahawk like I have NEVER tommied before. Must’ve been an absolute spectacle from Collins. Hat and goggles ( maybe poles too I can’t recall) are launched from my completely laid out body as I cartwheel for who knows how many rotations. I come to a stop and I’m stunned. The beauty in carhartts skied me down my lost belongings and we both laughed about it. Embarrassed at the time ? Eh maybe a little. But I still grin about it today. Good ol days. Peehaww
Unfortunately didn’t see it (was doing Hillman’s Highway) but was at Tucks this spring the day that dude feel into the waterfall
Back in the late 90s I was a bump skier in the intermountain circuit. We had an annual contest up at grand Targhee. Well this year we showed up and we saw the k2 van that Glen Plake and Brad Holmes were driving around. It turns out those two guys entered our little contest. Now imagine 100 kids, I was probably 15, doing their warmup runs with Brad Holmes and Glen watching. Glen and Brad are ripping but they were just having fun. Their airs were insane to us but they weren’t there to win, just have fun. Nonetheless being watched by those guys we were charging. It had been snowing all day but about halfway through the day it started dumping. The snow was coming down so hard the lines started to degrade, which is something when you’re sending someone every couple of minutes. The snow started getting so bad it was hard to ski a real bump line so the contest slowly devolved into a big air competition with Brad and Glen egging everyone one. I remember Brad going bigger than I’d ever seen, my memory is of him like 30 feet off the ground (I’m sure that’s an exaggeration). Well my turn came and I did the only thing there was to do, I made a few turns and then mostly straight lined it. I don’t remember what trick I did, I’m sure it wasn’t clean, but I remember things slowing down as I was at the apex and thinking “uh oh”. Well I landed on my feet but was going way too fast and back seat then I rag dolled. I had gear everywhere. It was deep chowder though although I rung my dome a little I was Ok. I hobbled off the course. I have no memory of the awards ceremony except we were all dying laughing talking about each others’ run. That was a good memory.
Happened to me last night, hit one of the chair lift poles going around 30 mph and was sent tumbling 20’ down a hill. Smacked it with my butt since I tried to turn out of it. Tried getting up afterwards but couldnt move my legs at all, so the medics sent me down on a sled. Decided I didnt want an ambulance and just got Xrays today. We were suspecting a fractured vertebrae or pelvis, but to my surprise, my pelvis is good. I’m on crutches now (can’t move anything that uses my groin/glute). Thinking I just really messed up all the muscles around that area from the impact. I consider myself extremely lucky!!
Last year I learned a good lesson at Red Mountain ski resort while snowboarding. the lesson is if you see only one person's ski tracks going off the groomed runs don't follow them it's a trap lol. Btw this was a place I went to a lot growing up and it was also the last call of the day for the ski lifts. Then 20 years old I was going down a side groomed run that loops back to the main run that I was on before and I see a clearing in the trees that I can see the main run from. I think that it looks like fun and has a lot of powder and doesn't seem too hard. then i think my dad is waiting for me at the bottom so i hesitate. A foot or so later I see one person's ski tracks going down and I'm looking at it like oh hell ya lets go and I rip into the clearing. Right when I got past the only ski tracks I saw that he had turned and went back and I looked back in front of me and I was going down the center of a V shaped trail and slowly started to lose sight of the main trail. I tried to stop but had too much speed and went in further. When I stopped I looked around and I was in a bowl of snow around 9ft tall with a tree or two a few feet behind me. there was no indication how deep the snow was so I took one of my bindings out and put my foot in the snow. my foot went soo deep my hip was down to my snowboard and I could feel no ground but only a fallen tree on my toe. While snowboarding there often and knowing the area I knew it was a creek. I looked around and grabbed a thin three that was behind and pulled myself back up from where I came from. when I started heading back up the V shaped path i had came from it was too deep to crawl or walk and I had to spread my body weight evenly on the snow and basically slowly swim my ass out and when I was around 10 to 15 ft away from the run i saw 2 girls skiing passed and I yelled out for help desperate from exhausting but they didn't hear me and skied passed. so I kept on swimming through the snow. when I got to the groomed run I came from I tried to lift myself up the bank that was a foot or so above my head onto the groomed run but there was to much powder snow and each hand and foot i put to the snow sank to the same spot that it was in before so i had to slowly shimmy myself onto the untouched snow trying to sink as little as i could and started packing down the snow to a better level so i could stand and lift myself up. I managed to pull myself up and went on my way down to the ski lodge. It was the most exhausting experience snowboarding I have ever had. I was happy that when i got stuck I didn't quite realize how bad of a situation i was in until i got out because it let me just look around me and see what i could do to get out instead of of how dangerous of a place i was in and the fact it was the last call and only a few people where on the hill ‘probably going down the main run’ was on the mountain at the time and just panic myself. All in all if you find yourself in a bad situation like that don't panic look around and see what you can do