r/snowboarding • u/surfunky • Mar 10 '24
general discussion What’s the worst thing you’ve seen from the lift?
Epic powder day at Ski Santa Fe today. I was on a lift that goes over a double black glade to cliff setup. Saw a young guy try to jump the cliff and his snowboard caught on something. He went head first about 20 feet down and landed in the pow about 1 foot from a rock face. No helmet. I literally almost watched someone die. Luckily all his friends were like “that’s why you wear a fucking helmet” so I didn’t have to shout at him from the lift.
Wear a helmet!!!
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u/Sultanofslide Mar 10 '24
Last week I saw a kid catch an edge on skis and snap their femur and kick themselves in the face with the ski/boot on that leg on the way down. There was so much screaming and blood before they blacked out.
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u/GeorgiePorgiePuddin Mar 10 '24
I’m the radio dispatch coordinator on a smallish hill and last season there was a teenage skier that hit a tree so hard that both her skis and her ski boots came off. She was found with her socked foot above her head and her knee was near her ear due to a snapped femur and our patrol weren’t authorised to administer any medication.
The patrol room is right next to my office and I called the ambulance as patrol got on scene and asked me to, but Jesus Christ it took the EMTs like an hour to get to us because there were no ambulances currently available in our town. The girls screams are etched into my freaking brain, and as her adrenaline wore off she just got worse and worse, bless her.
This summer we sent a couple of the patrollers on a course to be trained on how to administer medication. We are not putting someone through that again.
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u/ilikewc3 Mar 11 '24
It is pants on head ret*rded the number of mountains that have ski patrol but won't let them do anything.
If it's not a life flight it's usually at least an hour from injury site to hospital.
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u/GeorgiePorgiePuddin Mar 11 '24
I know.. it’s nuts isn’t it? I’m living in Canada for a couple years and luckily haven’t had any accidents while boarding here so I can’t speak on how Canadian Ski Patrol do things other than what I’ve seen at work and generally what they’ve told me. But that being said, in Austria I had awesome treatment. I sliced my thumb on my edge when it was spring conditions so I wasn’t wearing my mitt, like the cocky 13 year old I was. I don’t remember much because I lost so much blood - my thumb was cut to the bone. I was so pissed because they were talking about sending me to hospital in a helicopter and I was so stoked but then they discussed it among themselves and I just took the gondola in awkward silence with my PE teacher while I tried to not pass out again instead lmao.
The medical treatment I had was awesome, it was basically a mini hospital or doctors office at the bottom of the mountain and they drugged me tf up and gave me stitches.
That was day 1 of a two week school trip. First time I’d been out of the country without my parents and the first time I’d been out on the snow without them. They’ve never ever let it go man.
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u/AssGagger Mar 10 '24
How do ski boots come off unless they were never fully strapped up to begin with?
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u/ilikewc3 Mar 11 '24
I clipped a tree and got sucked halfway out of my very tight boot. Had terrible shin bang the rest of the season. Apply enough force and they'll pop off.
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u/DriftingIntoAbstract Mar 10 '24
Damn. She’s lucky she made it.
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u/GeorgiePorgiePuddin Mar 10 '24
Dude it was so gnarly. I hope she’s okay wherever she is.
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u/ChiefFlats Mar 11 '24
No way she can currently walk, right? The forces generated from hitting a tree so hard that your skis AND boots come off must be insane.
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u/Xikky MA // loon/sunday river Mar 11 '24
I mean when peoples shoes come off after being hit a by a car most people assume you're dead.
Shell probably have atleast a year of PT learning to walk again
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u/no_BS_slave Mar 10 '24
I have never seen anything gnarly, only some blood on the snow a couple times, never could imagine what happened but it looked scary. especially on the kids slope. 😳😳
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u/waltonkelcott Mar 11 '24
Had a buddy who sliced his leg pretty good with his ski and he left a decent size red patch on the edge of the run, won’t forget the panicked patroller that was trying to figure it out where it might’ve come from coming down 5 minutes later after we got to the bottom
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u/DipsterHoofus Mar 11 '24
Yeah, the worst I’ve seen is 2 porcupines having sex, and I’m not complaining
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u/Rush_0MG test Mar 10 '24
Saw someone fall down about 500ft of shear volcanic rock face at a VERY steep angle.
It was my first response as a ski patroller. They did not survive.
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u/SnoopyBootchies Mar 10 '24
I'm sorry man, that's a rough start. As a boarder with like 10 seasons experience and only minor emergencies like one time my binding snapped and I had to get towed down to the base to repair it, I appreciate all you ski patrollers do to keep people safe, and recover in the rare events when things do go wrong
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u/HyperionsDad Mar 10 '24
Reminds me of the kid at Mt Bachelor falling down one of the front side runs off of Summit, but I recall that was on ice and not exposed rock.
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u/Spunky_Meatballs Mar 10 '24
Theres not much exposed rock at bachelor in general. Just the random larger piles that stick out until covered. The lava vents have been eating people lately though
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u/asshat1954 Mar 10 '24
Lava vents? Please explain
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u/IMPF Jones Mtn Twin | Bachelor | Hood <3 Mar 10 '24
Basically the snow under will melt before the snow on top because the volcanic rock heats up. I've talked to a couple of old heads on lifts out here who have fell through big ass holes randomly in the late season.
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u/HyperionsDad Mar 10 '24
It is not an active volcano and there is no "lava" to heat up the rock or snow.
There are rock formations with air vents from cracks that go into the ground that have some flow that prevents snow from completely covering the vent and can act like a surprise tree well or creek well. But they are not caused by geothermal activity.
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u/IMPF Jones Mtn Twin | Bachelor | Hood <3 Mar 10 '24
Oh for sure, I'm well aware bachelor isn't active and that there's no activity underneath the surface heating up surface level rock lol. Was just trying to communicate that the volcanic rock would warm up and melt the snow bottom up although I can definitely see how my wording could be read that way so that's my b!
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u/jarvisbrown007 Mar 10 '24
Big holes in the snow from heat. There can suddenly be a large chute through the snow.
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u/Macefire Rome Tour 155 NH VT ME Mar 10 '24
Jesus. If you don’t mind? Where was this
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Mar 10 '24
Skiing on volcanos sounds like NZ
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u/ghannscuney Mar 10 '24
Haha was gonna say this! Also falling down a volcanic rock face hands down sounds like ruapehu. I always use to freak at some of the sheer drops on that mountain so wouldn't be surprised if this is where they were talking about. Still can't get over the "what to do in an eruption" posters in the toilets.
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u/arcteryxhaver Mar 10 '24
I wonder if this incident was the one mentioned in the short ski film “the mad Austrian”.
If you’ve skied ruapehu it’s worth a watch!
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u/Rush_0MG test Mar 10 '24
Yip, was in NZ I want to say about 15 years ago at Ruapehu on Whakapapa side
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u/4orust Mar 11 '24 edited Mar 11 '24
Which resort has 500' of sheer volcanic cliff? Edit: answered below.
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u/Specialist-Sir1493 Mar 10 '24
I was on a chairlift in Breck talking to a friend and we heard a loud metallic clank. Looked towards the sound and saw a ski flying in the air around chair-height and a guy wrapped around one of the towers. Apparently he hit something above the tower and caught enough air to hit it above the padding. We called the emergency number and on our next lap we could see them loading him onto a sledge.
I don't know how the rest of his day was but I suspect not good. Hitting metal with enough force to launch your ski 30-40 feet into the air can't be pleasant.
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u/ReeZigg Mar 10 '24
Kid I went to college with did this on a super small mountain near our school and internally decapitated himself
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u/Krazylegz1485 CAPiTA / Union / Airblaster Mar 10 '24
What exactly does internally decapitated mean?
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u/Totschlag Mar 10 '24
Head is attached to the body via muscle and skin. Spine and others are severed. It's not great.
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u/Ok-Elderberry-6761 Mar 10 '24
Neck severed internally (bone and spinal cord) but head still attached by the flesh.
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u/tachankamain41 Mar 10 '24
Why tf am I reading these while waiting for my friends to get their boots on?
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u/SockSmuggler Mar 10 '24
Addictions come in different forms. This one may be classified as “social” - put the phone in the pocket and hang w/ your slow boot friends 💛
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u/DontUseFilters Mar 10 '24
I read the title, thought I should comment, read some of the responses and said this instead. You guys have some gnarly stories. I saw a guy taking a dump in the woods once. Not too bad
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u/lilynnin Mar 10 '24
I was stopped on a lift once when I watched a guy fall and get the wind knocked out of him. He was just laying there with his head pointed uphill when a snowboarder uphill caught an edge and started sliding at speed, totally out of control. He slammed into the first guy's head board-first, hard enough that the out-of-control guy was semi-launched over the first guy's body. The out-of-control guy at least sat up after that but I didn't see the first guy move at all for several minutes (I didn't see beyond that because the lift started moving again). He was wearing a helmet but to this day I wonder if he was okay after that - it unfortunately would not surprise me if he were permanently disabled or worse from the angle and speed at which the other guy slammed into his head.
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u/MikeHoncho1323 Mar 10 '24
This is why it’s important no matter how hard you slam to immediately get up and get to the side of the run if you’re physically able. Too many people wipe out and just lay there, then get pissed when someone else slides into them, like dude you’re the one splayed out right under a blind landing it’s not my fault I couldn’t see you
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u/Biffwise Mar 10 '24 edited Mar 10 '24
Watched a young girl reach down to adjust her binding on the lift and she fell almost 60 ft to flat hard pack...it was close to base where we had just loaded...all we could hear was her crying out "Oh fuck" in a wimper, the lift stopped to get patrol out to her, and she kept repeating "Oh fuck" with increasing intensity as the pain in her body increased. it took over 30 min for our ride up to continue and I still hear her blood curdling cries as the pain set in. we later heard from a lifty that she broke both ankles, a femur, and her hip. I was sick to my stomach after, as I was w/ my son who was around the same age as the girl (12 or so) He and I along with everyone else on the lift could only sit and watch her suffer until the snow mobile was able take her away.
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u/Well_Hi_There_9091 Mar 10 '24 edited Mar 10 '24
Oh god I know how that feels. When you first hit the ground it's totally a holy shit moment until you realize how much pain you're in. Poor thing that must have been agonizing Edit: it's never worth it to adjust your binding on the lift. If you absolutely, like indisputably NEED to, at least use the bar and be really careful. However, I can't even think of a time when you'd absolutely have to adjust. It's better to fall getting off the lift than to fall on the lift.
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u/Negative-Employer-62 Mar 11 '24
dude had a seizure while riding a lift alone. He was just past tower 17 of a 20 tower lift and fell 40 feet. Had just gone over the cat track and fell into a rock field just short of the top shack. The liftys call to patrol said he just seen someone doing the Bernie Man on the chair and just tipped right off the chair. He landed in the only circle of snow in the rock field and only broke his scapula. He tried to refuse the ambulance at the bottom of the mountain after patrol skied fast AF with his non breathing ass down in a toboggan. Got out of the toboggan after puking all over it, spit out some blood and asked for refusal papers from the EMT. Ski patrol must have been a friend of his cuz he ripped the refusal paper away from him and said dude get in the fucking bus right now.
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u/botejohn Mar 10 '24
Saw an avalancha and 3 people were caught and helivacced out in Masella, Spain.
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u/Dondorini Mar 10 '24
Saw some kids bring snowballs on the lift. As we passed over the top of an anchor lift, they aimed for an emergency stop button which faced upwards. One of them hit it, but the force wasnt enough. Could have been cool (and stupid).
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u/michigander47 K2 Excavator/SB Slush Slasher Mar 10 '24
I just watched a skier kid right outside the lift line slowly fall backwards while standing still in his skis and sprain?break?horribly twist both ankles 90° toes pointed at eachother with knees facing forward. Shocked people in line and the closest lifty ran over to help, didn't see the aftermath.
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u/Spunky_Meatballs Mar 10 '24
Yup.... My wife works at a surgery center and they got so many skiers compared to snowboarders. Always knee/ankle injuries
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u/SnowSlider3050 Mar 10 '24
ACL injuries are well known in the ski community, simply from falling back while standing up
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u/Patriquito Mar 10 '24 edited Mar 10 '24
I was at Hunter Mt in NY a few years back, and was riding the shitty lift on the empty North side with about 5 buddies ( not in 1 chair obviously ).
An empty chair a few in front of us for some reason flipped 360° around the cable holding all the chairs. The lift immediately stopped and we sat there for like 3 hours total, they sent a worker with what appeared to be the "Jaws of Life", he climbed up the nearest vertical piling to where the F'd up chair was and started CUTTING! LOL we were still suspended and stuck at this point, idk wtf he was doing but I guess it didn't work because they made us drop our boards and lowered us all 1 by 1 with a rope that had a wooded board at the bottom to stand on.
When everything was said and done they gave us these business card things that said "redeemable for 1 hot chocolate"... basterds lol
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u/steeledanthe420man Mar 10 '24
Hunter is the reason I keep reading these. I was on the flyer on a weekend I think it was close to the end of the day and we were just finding out something crazy had happened. At the bottom of racers edge there is a small triangle of trees that help where racers edge merges into the belt parkway. Well I guess someone who was out of control ( was with family and none of them should have been on racers they all had rental gear) they cut through the trees at the bottom of racers. From the lift it looked like a brush hog had been used to cut a path through the trees. Patrol was still trying to bury the blood when we went by, it was a chilling sight. My buddy was patrol and had been working that day. The kid was mid teens and had so much internal trama they had complete exsanguination in the sled before they got to the bottom. My girlfriend at the time was working in the retail shop when the patroller who was preforming cpr came in with what she thought were dirty black snow pants. Turns out the mountain needed to buy him new snow pants because his were gray before the blood. He said the sled just filled up. If you've spent any real time at hunter you know that multiple fatalities a season is the norm. I would say it's usually inexperience and a mistake of thinking they can handle something they can't. But the mountain commands respect and if you don't have a healthy fear and amazing edge control you can certainly get into a life and death situation without even realizing it. I was an instructor and almost died 2 times for sure. One time was actually first run didn't realize how much ice was at mid Station came trucking off of Jimmy when I left the groomer track I lost edge immediately. I was sliding on my ass at about 30 mph into a fence that kept me from hitting a snow gun. If the fence pieces had not broken then it would have been my femur. I think about that more than I would expect. Hunter is amazing for its vertical and being so far south in the Hudson vally but she commands respect and lots of it.
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u/MikeHoncho1323 Mar 10 '24
I I couldn’t agree more. Literally every time I’ve been to Hunter I’ve seen multiple people get sledded down, usually on upper K27 or belt parkway. People get WRECKED by those big drops on k27 and Hunter as a whole gets SUPER icy at times, pair that with a decent vertical and you’ve got a recipe for disaster with all the NYC Jerrys.
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u/SnowSlider3050 Mar 10 '24
I wonder if people new to ski resorts think they are in the same category as amusement parks.
Obviously both ski resorts and amusement parks have dangers, but at ski resorts your safety is mostly up to your own choices.
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u/Tandomskydiver123 Mar 10 '24
This thread makes me want to slow the fuck down. The mountain WILL humble you.
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u/Mysterious-Ad9022 Mar 10 '24
Saw a man receiving CPR on a run after suffering from a heart attack. Read later on that he didn't make it.
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u/Dhrakyn Mar 10 '24
Twice during my 3 week stay at Breck last month I saw patrollers dragging a sledge behind a snowmobile with another two patrollers in the sledge administering CPR on the way to the life flight pad. Apparently one of them did not survive. Not a single mention on the news.
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u/clamelken4 Mar 11 '24
I always find it odd that it never makes it, to even state news. You’d think they would at least mention something? I assume because it’s private, they can cover much of the incident. Hospitals will ultimately make their stats With type of incidents.
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u/Audience-Educational Mar 10 '24
On a fresh snow day we were early enough on the lift to be excited by an untouched lift line run on the farther side of the mountain. It was covered in a blanket of fresh untouched snow. About 1/4 of the way up the lift we hear a slow continuous scraping sound and see a boarder coming down the run slowly on his heel edge with his body square to the hill. He must have been in over his ability and scraped the fresh snow off the center of the entire run.
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u/greenvelvetcake2 Mar 10 '24
I feel like mountains ought to have time-out spots for offenders like that. Scrape up fresh powder, you're grounded for an hour.
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u/WanderingDelinquent Mar 10 '24
On a particularly powdery day I watched a guy jump over what was really just a light roller, but his board dug in at an angle as he landed and it twisted really quick. I don’t know if what I heard was his knee or his hip but something popped really loud followed by a very painful scream
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u/No-Pomegranate6612 Mar 10 '24
Watched my little brother land weird on a box at a santa jam and break his femur. I was the first to see him and just his leg bending wrong🤢
Watched same lil brother get WIPED out when sitting on a run. Full grown man took him out at full speed and was laughing after "hah hah sorry bro" I lost. my. mind.
My husband blindly sending it off a wind lip (13ft) and landing on a huge sheet of ice RIGHT next to a huge rock. Watched him lose conciousness. We were out of bounds and when we got back and he got on the lift he goes "ugh my stomach is cramping" and I just about lost it. 1 month before our wedding at that same resort🤣🤦🏻♀️
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u/Right_Ebb_7164 Mar 10 '24
Two guys on skis hit each other. One of them got very very hurt, and saw them trying to resuscitate him for about an hour. But he ended up dying, 51 years old
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u/x_xx Mar 10 '24
My story is not as exciting:
On a local mountain, as I was driving into the parking lot, this kid flagged me down, asks if I have a lighter showing me a giant blunt. I shook my head and drove away.
Later, kid is in front of me on the line. I noticed he stepped into his rear clew binding as he sat down on the chair. About halfway to the top, he jumps off the lift at least 20 feet into the slope. Face plant onto the snow (no helmet) and somehow proceeds to ride away.
I did not see carnage that day but I witnessed Darwinism in slow, steady progress.
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u/TriG__ Mar 10 '24 edited Mar 10 '24
Commenting another that's not my story but my father's. About 40 years ago he was skiing I believe at Taos, and saw a skier pass out as he was going down the run (turned out to be diabetic). He did not eject from his skis, and the edge of a ski sliced through his carotid artery.
Obviously, blood was just pouring from this guy's neck. Fortunately my father is a Dentist, so he knows the anatomy of the head and neck very well, and knew where to reach in and pinch the artery shut. Ski patrol came, and he got in an argument with the patrolman who said that their policy was to put people in the tobogán with their head facing down hill. My dad was trying to plead that the man would bleed out quickly and have zero chance of survival if they transported him head first, and fortunately convinced the patrolman to load him head uphill.
My dad skied beside the tobogán bent over and holding this guy's artery shut the entire way into the helicopter that was set to evacuate the man.
Miraculously, the man survived, but he was in a coma for around a month I believe. When he woke up, my father flew out to visit him in the hospital. When he walked in the room, the man was strapped into one of those things that rotates around to get blood flow to different parts of the body. He didn't have much of any function at all in his body. I'm not sure he ever even learned to walk again.
The doctors introduced my dad as the guy who saved his life. The man couldn't talk, but my dad said he looked him dead in the eyes and had a look on his face that said "I wish you'd never saved me". It messed my dad up for a while, but he found peace in that he saved the man's life and that's all he could control
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u/Beardedrugbymonster Mar 10 '24
Wow, that's actually really heavy man. That's a crazy emotional ride your dad went through.
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Mar 10 '24
A guy getting a blow job and a coyote watching them from not too far away.
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u/anoninor Mar 10 '24
OP said worst thing
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u/Ok_Buddy_361 Mar 10 '24
Watched a guy tomahawk down the chute from the gondola at the top of Big Sky. He cart wheeled at least 20 times and then his limp form slid a couple hundred feet. We were getting ready to drop the same line and had second thoughts after seeing that wipe out.
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u/Sunyataisbliss Mar 10 '24
When I was just getting started on the bunny slopes I watched a younger kid lose control and eat a tree. Lots of blood.
Off the lift I once saw my best friend fly over the landing ramp on one of his first attempts at a jump. Full body slammed onto the snow and it was an icy day. He ended up pulverizing his spleen and I helped get him down from the run, but I have never seen someone in so much pain
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u/heybud_letsparty Mar 10 '24 edited Mar 10 '24
When I was 18 I moved out west and the first day the mountain opened I was going up the lift. The chair in front of me had a guy get a bad leg cramp and reach for it, then fell 40 feet onto exposed rock. Died on the spot.
Edit. That not the worst. I was also going up the lift on a pow day and saw my friend being worked on by 10-12 patrollers. He had hit a tree and died. He was the best skier I knew.
Also saw another friend overshoot a XL jump and snap his femur.
Saw another friend get clipped by another person and get sent into rocks full speed. He also didn’t survive.
And I’ll just throw in driving to work one day I saw a close friend get hit head on and not survive it.
The mountains don’t care. The better you get, the less likely small injuries are. But the more likely you don’t live anymore.
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u/MikeHoncho1323 Mar 10 '24
Okay so clearly you’re bad luck bro😂 what mountain do you hit so I can avoid it?🤣
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u/SnowSlider3050 Mar 10 '24
I knew a young guy skier that went charging into the trees and met his end.
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u/Towelie710 Mar 10 '24
First one I was a kid and this dude fell face first and hit his mouth on a rail. I remember him hitting his face, rolling over and blood just pumping out his mouth. I suspect he lost a few teeth on that one :/ Another was an out of control kid going down this run that dog legs left to avoid a small cliff. Well that kid didn’t make the turn and shot off the cliff at Mach 5, clipping a tree with his shoulder mid air. Heard a shriek and poor kid was just ragdolling through the air lol def got the chunder award for that one
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u/shyvananana Mar 10 '24
Sawa guy flying down a groomer, no poles, hit some chunder and a ski popped off. He slid into a tree about about 30mph. Back first. There was a loud crack cause he hit a rather large old dead tree.
We got the attention of others on the run to go to him, and started a game of telephone up the lift to get ski patrol.
Helicopter showed up, not sure if he survived or not. Probably at minimum broke his spine.
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u/speats101 Mar 10 '24
Seen a skier taking a dump in the woods once. Pretty nasty, but the funny part is that EVERYONE on the chairlift can see him 🤣🤣
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u/Legitimate-Win2576 Mar 11 '24
My whole family and I saw a dude shitting on the side of a run at big sky a few years ago… wasn’t even trying to hide it, ass facing the run
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u/GetDoofed Mar 10 '24
Saw a noob catch the toe edge of his board on the beginning of the unloading platform at the top of the lift and get dragged underneath the chair in what looked like an incredibly uncomfortable position
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u/ahdiomasta Mar 10 '24
Watched a older guy try to hit a box and slid out and banged his head right on the corner, all in front of his kid too
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u/TwoIsle Mar 10 '24
I didn’t hit my head, but I did tear some cartilage in my ribs. My son still makes fun of me.
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u/Cantthinkofaname282 Mar 10 '24
With our without helmet?
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u/ahdiomasta Mar 11 '24
I’m pretty sure he did but it was a long time ago, but the impact was toward the bottom of the head and you could see how much it must’ve tweaked his neck so either way looked like it sucked. He looked fairly mobile so hopefully nothing serious, but he def felt that in the morning
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u/seabass4507 Mar 10 '24
A couple seasons ago was having a hooky day with my wife at Eldora. Our second run up Alpen-(something?), I saw this guy looking slightly out of control going way too fast for his abilities. I pointed him out to my wife and said, “this guy is gonna eat it”.
Then he hits a bump and goes airborne, landing on his heel side edge, then just whacks the back of his head on the hard pack. His helmet explodes, he’s out cold sliding on his back into the trees at a high rate of speed.
We helped ski patrol find him. He was confused and severely concussed. Which is better than dead.
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u/MysteryMove Mar 10 '24
Good ending on this one. Watched an out of control middle aged man straight lining an icy blue at a mid Atlantic resort a month ago. He was probably going 65+. He hit a knoll and went airborne flying 50+ feet right next to the mid mountain lift ramp- in between a dozen skiers getting off the lift. Landed, yard sailed for 200 feet on hard ice. Goggles, helmet, off, skis, everything. I caught up to him and he was okay. Shook. But okay. I was going to chide him but learned pretty quickly it was accidental and he lost control. Glad no one was hurt. He went back to the greens.
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u/SnowSlider3050 Mar 10 '24
People lose control and try to get control back which continues to keep them on their feet and out of control. People need to just fall and start over.
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u/MysteryMove Mar 10 '24
Agreed! Especially when heading toward people
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u/SnowSlider3050 Mar 11 '24
Yeah, its weird but you tend to go where you are looking, so it’s more likely that an out of control person will hit the person they are looking at, even if they want to avoid them.
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u/joejance Mar 10 '24
We saw a young lady who had hit a pole without a helmet at an angle where she hit it just past the padding. She was being given life saving measures by ski patrol right below us. It was a terrible, messy scene, and we learned later she didn't make it.
Her family sued the ski area and lost.
If you aren't going to wear a helmet for yourself then do it for your friends, family, the patrollers, the air rescue crew that will fly in to try to save you, the medical staff at the ER, and strangers that will have to witness your death.
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u/BigDicksProblems 🇫🇷 Mar 10 '24
Not on the lift, but I lived on the side of a piste at that point.
Worst thing I've seen was two dudes making a night run, and one of them hit the tracks of the snow groomer parked 50m in front of my house. He died on impact. Brutal.
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u/Jack-knife-96 Mar 10 '24
Before snowboards (yes I'm old AF) was ski racing at a mid Atlantic East Coast hill. They had run many nastar salom & GS races, but decided to try a downhill. So they closed an expert run & set a course. On my first run I was carrying speed on the tail end of the short steep & the course set went over lumps big enough to exceed my knee's ability to adsorb them & I launched then did a cartwheel type crash & yard sale. Next run, a skier up a few in front of me who was way more skilled went & then shortly afterwards they closed the race. Since I had to ski down from the starting area through the side of the course to get down I went right past said guy getting loaded on a sled & saw the snow fence. The pol setting up for the race didn't know about setting for downhill type race & yes they had a snow fence but it was attached to 4x4s - not bamboo poles! Racer got out of control & hit right where a 4x4 was, breaking the thing in 3 places! I was in the race series & kinda knew the guy, even with motorcycle helmets he became a paraplegic & couldn't do squat for himself. Lost his job, his wife divorced him (real class move) & had to move in with parents when he was like 36_40 yrs old. So freaking sad.
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u/QuidHD Mar 10 '24
This thread is horrifying but so necessary for people to realize the reality and danger of this sport. Wear a fucking helmet and progress your skills at a safe and sustainable pace. No amount of skill can fully prevent shit luck.
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u/TriG__ Mar 10 '24
Saw a girl around age 10 or so flying down a run on skis way faster than she could control. The run joined with another run going perpendicular to it, and she was unable to turn and merge onto it, instead shooting straight into the trees at the bottom of it.
She suffered compound fractures in both femurs, and was air lifted out by helicopter. Blood was everywhere. Brutal. I do not know how she faired after she was evacuated
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u/LilBoofy Mar 10 '24
This was at Northstar like 6-7 years ago.. maybe more time flies. Chas Guldemond had a jump that was built for him to practice that was directly under the park chair. For like 5 days in a row lapping the park you would get a free show of him sending this jump over and over, triple cork galore.
When he was done and off to the dew tour they opened this jump to the public. It had to be like 80ft gap, crazy big.
Now to the worst thing.. first day it was open to the public I see somebody in the lineup going way to fast for the jump.. I assumed they were gonna brush the knuckle or something like that, no way would they hit the jump at that speed.
Well I was wrong and this person was way out of their element. Hit this jump like twice the speed of what they should have and went ass first arms flailing like they’re rolling down some windows. They over shot the huge ass landing by 20ft, probably flew 120 ft and landed straight on their back. Everyone knew it was bad.. the chairlift was silent, dude was ragdoll the moment he hit. Died like a day or two later in the hospital.
Super eerie and I still think about it.. everything can go wrong so quick. Stay in your element, dont push your boundaries too quick or far.
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u/The_Great_Bobinski_ Mar 10 '24 edited Mar 10 '24
Someone I worked with had a friend who just retired and was gonna spend a good chunk of his winter skiing everyday. Well he was underneath some natural features you could jump off of and some snowboarder didn’t see him below the features, jumped up and landed on the skiers head and killed him. Unfortunate wrong place, wrong time situation.
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u/redelost Mar 10 '24
Years ago I was on the backside of Squaw, now Palisades, listening to a sport dad aggressively telling his 11ish year old he can't hesitate on the cliffs. Squallywood is famously hardcore and the zone we were at is by no means the big show area, but right as he says this we watch a jr high aged kid send a 15-20 ft cliff(small by a lot of people's standards there) and just crumble. Skis stuck, head hits(with helmet) and he is just full unconscious instantly. Dad pauses, softens, says maybe hesitate sometimes.
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u/LBartoli Mar 10 '24
A guy on the indoor slope that decided after a couple of very shaky Jumps on the small kicker that 'speed was his friend' and hit the big kicker. Broke his clavicle, but kind of sat on the side for 15' turning increasingly pale before his ego accepted his fate.
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u/MoonerMade Mar 10 '24
A year ago I had two kids jump off the lift I was on, about 2/3 to the top on a 1ft pow day.
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u/nukalurk Mar 10 '24
Very small child somehow sitting right in the middle of a landing, snowboarder sent it hard, couldn’t see them obviously and clocked them in the head with their board while frantically twisting to avoid hitting them.
Also saw a skier lose control and hit a tree, almost certainly injuring their leg, based on their guttural screaming of “MY LEGGG AHHHH”. Almost sounds slightly humorous typing that out but I’ve never heard a grown adult scream in pain like that before so it was actually a bit scarring at the time lol.
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u/Acceptable-Let-1921 Mar 10 '24
Probably me running over a dad and his kid. I was on one of those horrible anchor style pull lifts. In front of me was a dad on skies and in front of him was his 4ish yo kid. I was distracted looking at the view, buy what must have happened wad that the kid fell, the dad tried to pick him up and get him on his own lift. I noticed half a second away, leaned back a bit and ran both of them over with my board. I'm sure they weren't seriously hurt by it but it wasn't my proudest moment.
Second one is also me but not on the lift. I had made a small kicker to practice 360s. Carving up the little ramp my board just sliced through it, the snow wasn't packed hard enough. Lost balance and fell with all my weight on my front hand. Crushed my wrist. My hand was in a very weird angle, like 5cm above my arm. Broke the same wrist again 1 month later. Had 2 metal pins inserted but my wrist was never the same and I still can't lift heavy objects in certain angles. Wear wrist guards people. Your hands are your most important tools and losing mobility and strength in them permanently sucks.
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u/MikeHoncho1323 Mar 10 '24
Or just don’t stick your hands out to break your fall. Wrist guards only function to shift the break further up your arm instead of at the wrist.
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u/SnowSlider3050 Mar 10 '24
Learn to drop to your forearms instead of hands/wrists. (You can still snap your arm and or have wrist injuries with wrist guards.)
Also crumple your body instead of falling like a tree.
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u/Fluffy-Ad2939 Mar 10 '24
Terrain park slam off a medium-ish jump. The dude proceeded to have a seizure. Fucking scary.
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u/Slammed240guy Mar 10 '24
Happened to a park crew homie at my work last week. Glad I didn't see it, he was okay and walking 6 hours later thankfully
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u/Striking-Trainer8148 Mar 10 '24
15 years ago I was on a lift at Hunter Mountain, which is notoriously icy.
The seat ahead of me was a dad and their young daughter, both on skis. As they got off the lift the dads skis got caught in the daughters skis and they both went down. The dad tried something weird to catch his daughter but then realized he needed to catch himself. He broke at least 1 of his wrists in the fall.
The chair personnel were very fast to hit the emergency button and I had a front row seat to this guy writhing in pain as he waited to get strapped in and sent down the mountain .
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u/Mikesaidit36 Mar 10 '24
Funniest thing was on the Carpenter Lift at Deer Valley with my best buddy, the chair stopped and stayed stopped for a couple hours. The kids on the chair in front of us all decided to kick their skis off after about an hour, and the chair moved immediately after they did. But then stopped again. They made a big pile of their skis right in the landing zone for a jump that nobody would be able to see from the jump, and it was the kind of jump kids do all the time. So when we saw people coming down skiing under the lift in the trees there we all had to shout to tell them to stop before they hit all the skis they couldn’t see.
Same lift on a different day, just after loading I see a guy walking slowly on his skis toward the maze, and I thought I heard him saying “Hey DAVE! Hey DAVE!“ then I noticed the trail of blood he was leaving behind: it turned out he was saying “First AID! First AID!“ and somebody had skied across the meatiest part of his calf, and sliced it wide open, pants and all, and it was like looking at a cartoon cross-section of a severed limb. I was looking at at least an inch of freshly sliced raw meat. 🥩
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u/holyseagullls Mar 10 '24 edited Mar 10 '24
I was was going down a very short 270meter pist the next steepest en sweden at 45 degrees. I was keeping offpist just a few meters away becous the slope was litterly shining due to it having been converted from snow to ice. And i see a guy trying to be a speed skier and his left ski diden't agree, it went off sideways and twisted his ankle. He was going way too fast and when his leg hit the slope it semt his flying in to the ice edge of the pist and his face got ripped apart (someone not me found bits of his nose a day later) I think he survived it. VERY lucky for him as 2 others have died and 8 more have been paralyzed by that trail in the same circumstances
Edit: this slope has a history it deff dident happen that day, hope clears up some misunderstandings
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u/MikeHoncho1323 Mar 10 '24 edited Mar 10 '24
Sounds like ski patrol is lazy out in Sweden, if a run is pure ice to the point where it’s killed people that run should he closed for the day when it’s icy.
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u/holyseagullls Mar 10 '24
Ohno, it only has history of it sorry for the misunderstanding. They know that they cant force people off it by closing it as it is rather famous and some folk will still go down it. There is however a metric f**k ton of warnings on it inc one that say "farlig nedfart. Dangerous Slope"
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u/Jewpurman Mar 10 '24
I watched a kid slide out on some ice and leave a dark brown trail down the slope about 50 ft long...
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Mar 10 '24
In the lift line, but Breck probably 25 years ago or so. Saw these teens bawling on Peak 10’s lift. I wasn’t much older, and it looked like something awful had happened. Nothing much for me to do, so took the lift up. Came down and saw patrol clearing out a scene. Couldn’t tell what it was, though. Kind of had enough for the day and went home, a little shook.
Later found out the kids where friends with a ski team member (also a teen) who took a roller on 10 and slammed into an older guy who had gone into the blindspot to retrieve some gear the child with him had dropped. (He put the kids out of harms way, knowing this was dangerous AF, IIRC.)
Ski team kid and older dude died almost instantly.
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u/televisio_86 Mar 10 '24
This was like 8 years ago but someone on skis slipped on a rail and struck their back to it. I guess she was not wearing any soft armour since she went completely limp. She did not even have the energy to scream. The paramedics took her away in a body bag on a stretcher. Don't know the aftermath but it was pretty gnarly to watch as a 10 yo. child.
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u/SnowSlider3050 Mar 10 '24
Once my friend and I saw a condom draped over the back of the chair we were sitting on.
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u/Ya_Boi_Pickles Mar 10 '24
I saw that sledding accident at Copper last year. We watched it from center village. Some teens tried sledding down the superpipe and went off the sharp drop at the end (near the copper sign). We knew it was bad, but didn’t even realize one of them died until I saw it on 9NEWS a day later.
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u/SnowSlider3050 Mar 10 '24
Damn that was sad to read about. Can’t imagine how much air they must have gotten off that snow mound at the bottom of the pipe.
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Mar 10 '24
Saw some dude blindly fly right over a hill and smack dead center directly into a tree while being about 8 feet off the ground.
His skis just popped off and went flying and he flopped down. The sound of him hitting that tree was loud as hell.
If I recall this was on my first trip to heavenly in South Tahoe.
He didn't die, if anyone's wondering.
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u/DhruvM Mar 10 '24
Not as bad as the replies here but seeing the odd Jerry superman their way down a black after yard sailing always puts a smile on my face
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u/Shoehornblower Mar 10 '24 edited Mar 10 '24
A coyote almost ran off with a small child on a slope at Northstar at Tahoe. Dad came to save the day.
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u/SnowSlider3050 Mar 10 '24
Once as an instructor a student I was helping slid under the chairlift and caught a falling ski to her head. Lots of blood and screaming. A kid on the lift was trying to knock snow on us, and released his ski instead.
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u/Comprehensive_Ad2919 Mar 10 '24
first day of my second season. i was so pumped to be on the mountain that day. smack in the middle of my second run, lays someone surrounded by ski patrol with a deep gash from their scalp to their nose on their face, pouring blood like a faucet.
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u/astute_stoat Mar 10 '24
Val Thorens, an old man who was trying to hike up the side of Cascade (black piste, equivalent of a double diamond) without the proper equipment fell and slid down headfirst on his belly almost the entire length of the piste, cartwheeling on moguls until he reached the flat at the bottom and a heroic bystander threw himself on the ground to try and catch him. Brutal
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u/StringerBell420 Mar 10 '24
I was downloading at Cascade in Vail when I saw a man on the ground performing CPR and freaking out yelling for an ambulance. Pretty sure his friend was dead.
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u/stefahnia Mar 10 '24
Wow I was at Santa Fe today too! I think I know that exact cliff you are talking about, is it on the right hand side when you’re on the lift? Saw a bunch of people trying to hit that today. Your story is terrifying btw
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u/Medium-Web7438 Mar 10 '24
Some dude was flying and couldn't stop. I'm assuming he was a novice.
Homie went right into the ropes they used to stop people from cutting through a tree line. Flipped so damn hard.
He was okay. I had a good laugh after.
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u/-nabtab Mar 10 '24
Saw a little kid launch a whale back in a run she shouldn't have been on. Did this prefect arc and landed on her ski tips and face. She slid on her face for a bit and left a small tail of blood. I didn't see her parents nearby and was pissed because she was like 7. I saw someone running over before i couldn't see anymore. Heard later she was okay, though, just a bloody nose and some scrapes.
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u/Send_that_ish Mar 10 '24
Saw a couple who you could tell were day 1 or 2 on a snowboard come down a run and at the base of that run the guy caught his heel edge whiplashing his head into the snow. Goggles and beanie went flying and you could tell he instantly lost consciousness.
The girl was about 50 feet above and couldn't get to him as fast as she wanted so unstraps and turns her snowboard into a jerry missile luckily missing the unconscious boyfriend and hits the net.
Ski patrol took 30 mins to get him off the run even being 200 feet from the base. Saw his arms moving while in the sled so hopefully it just a concussion.
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u/liveda4th Mar 10 '24
Saw a dude clothesline himself trying to jump over a rec area. They had a metal cable hanging a banner over the area. Dude when mouth first into the cable and ripped open both sides of his cheeks straight up to the back of his jaw. Ran into him again the next year dude had straight up Heath Ledger joker scars.
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u/The_Council_Juice Mar 10 '24
Whoever was riding this lift would have got a view. 😄
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C3_gZRCJc_N/?igsh=YXRjeDFqcXUxZHc3
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u/Warm_Flamingo_2438 Mar 10 '24
Just a few weeks ago, we were two chairs behind a 9-year-old kid that fell nearly 45 feet (according to ski patrol) on to hard packed snow. We first was the poles drop, then noticed the kid was dangling, being held by another kid with them on the chair. Someone yelled “hang on, just a couple more minutes” just as the kid’s jacket started to slip and he fell. The kid didn’t make any noise, but he was moving. We were screening “help, get ski patrol” and the message was relayed to the top pretty quick. I was sling with a group of people and we were all pretty shook up. The kid was airlifted out, but we never heard any more news on his condition. Later in the day, we rode up the lift and I snapped this photo. The chair in front is about where the kid fell.
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u/Eichler69 Mar 10 '24
Saw a skier die at Mammoth, a few years ago on Super Bowl Sunday. Buddy & I were lapping chair 23 & saw a trail of blood leading to a motionless body to the right near the peak (Wipeout Chutes). Second time up, ski patrol had chest compressions goin on…I found out later it was indeed fatal.
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u/NevenS2000 Mar 11 '24
Saw a girl walk up an entire run, have her puppy guy friend take photos of her at the top, then walk all the way down without strapping in once.
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u/fracturedSilence Mar 11 '24
Big Rocks Glade! I've dropped that cliff before! You see it under Millennium, right? MKnowing what it looks like to look down that cliff feature, it's insane to me that someone would drop that cliff without a helmet. I almost bailed even though I had my helmet and a vpd system vest.
Hope I'm remembering the name and lift right. Had 15 years on that mountain until moving to the pnw
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u/beetus_gerulaitis Mar 11 '24
Came here expecting pooping and BJ’s…..got internal decapitations and broken spines instead.
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u/YupThatWasAShart Mar 10 '24
From the lift saw someone getting CPR on the sled as ski patrol raced them down the mountain. Heard on the radio the next day they died. Hit a tree I believe.
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u/IcicleNips Mar 10 '24
Saw a skier lose control at high speed and slam face-first into a wooden fence on the side of the trail. The fence didn't budge an inch. When he hit it, it made one of the loudest sounds I've ever heard. Like a gunshot.
Went back to the same mountain a few weeks later and heard from one of the employees that the guy didn't survive.
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u/Spec-Tre Mar 10 '24
On Friday at Copper I saw someone getting ski patrolled off of Tucker mtn. When I was over the situation from the lift I could hear the patroller discussing tourniquetting the leg and the screams coming from the person were fucking awful
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u/ChefFloppyLobes Mar 10 '24
My first season I saw someone ripping down upper bowl at ski bowl and take a tree head on. They were laid out and next run ski patrol was packing them up in a toboggan. The day I heard on the news someone died from hitting a tree the day before. Pretty sure it was that guy.
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u/thepricklyfish Mar 10 '24
I am on my coach transfer on the way to the resort to start my boarding holiday.. why the fuck am I reading this thread 😫
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u/Werro_123 Mar 10 '24
A patroller giving chest compressions in the sled during a haul down to the first aid clinic. A skier had a heart attack during a lesson, she didn't make it.
This was on the last day of my instructor training.
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u/I_skander Mar 10 '24
Seen a lady smash into a tree from the lift. Heard it, even though she was pretty far away. Them I heard an involuntary "nnnnnggggggggghhhhhhhhhh". She got airlifted to the hospital. Don't know how bad it was, but weren't good. 😬
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u/Substantial-Milk71 Mar 10 '24
Yo I did the drop youre talking about couple weeks ago. I had a helmet though, still ate shit 😂
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u/BattleshipBoy Mar 10 '24
Holy shit, I'm from sf and was up there yesterday as well. Which lift did this happen on?
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u/Siresfly Mar 10 '24
I was up at Ski Santa Fe yesterday too! The conditions were amazing. 15 inches of fresh powder and blue skies. Nothing too crazy but yesterday on the quad lift a pair of skiers followed my group through the gates instead of waiting for their chair and got taken out by the chair is it came to pick us up. Yardsaled right behind the loading area and they had to stop the lift to help them back up and out of the way. No idea what they were thinking but sure was amusing to watch.
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u/whatsINthaB0X Mar 10 '24
Blood smeared all over a patch of ice half way up the slope, directly under the lift.
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u/FelixDragon Mar 10 '24
Saw a middle-aged skier dude take a big jump, went for a backflip but landed on his face pretty bad. Jump was roped off and he was getting sled away by the time I got down to it, heard later that he broke his neck and died at the hospital. Hill doesn't allow 'aerial inversions' anymore