How often do you fall? - Page 8

Today I was skiing the backside of Alta and it was good powder so I was going pretty fast and out of no where I hit a patch of sheer ice from where all of the powder had blown off of and my skis flew out from under me and I slid sideways for a long time almost hitting many trees, it was so scary

Fall rarely. Sometimes ski a week without falling.

I don't worry about it. If it happens I let it happen.

 

My few falls are mostly in hard icy moguls or  balance issues in very deep powder

(18' or more)

For the last couple of decades, my average has been about one fall per week of skiing. Most of my falls are while skiing the woods at MRG (my mountain), the woods are pretty tight and you never know what is around the next corner, and sometimes you have to bail out. If I skied nothing but the groomers I'd probably fall once very few years. 

 

Last year my average was blown by one day where I fell 3 times, it was windpacked, chunky powder and I had narrow skis. That day made me decide I needed wider boards. This year I have 19 days and 1 fall, although it was really a bail out rather than a fall. The patrol opened the cliff below the birdcage and I went sailing over it without controlling my speed enough at the top, found myself going faster than I'd gone in a couple of decades, chickened out, did a momentary sit down, then recovered and finished the run. 

 

When I was younger I fell more because I pushed the limits a lot, and I was still learning. Nothing wrong with that, it's part of the sport. I ski more conservatively now that I'm older, you get more scared of getting hurt. But I do ski relatively fast and aggressive for someone only a couple of years from 60, so I guess I haven't gotten totally sensible. 

 

Fell today pretty hard in a Macomber Cup race. Was two gates from the finish and on a killer run (was about 5 seconds out from the lead before I ate it). I had just corrected my line from an earlier mistake, and right above the second to last gate I lost it somehow. Video shows that I hit a rut at an odd angle with one of my skis on the transition, or hit something of the sort. Ended up flipping twice and twisting out of my right ski. Did something to my left arm, right knee is starting to feel the burn. Coughed up a little blood on the way into the lodge, and have had chest and back pain all day. Tomorrow is going to be fun.

I'm sorry to hear about your wreck. Heal quickly.

Good luck with the recovery, hopefully it will not be too bad.

Racing falls are extremely painful. sorry to hear you crashed hard, especially with a good run going.  rest and see how things develop.

I fell last Tuesday. My avatar shows the results.

 

I ducked under a branch in the trees. As I was coming back up, I snagged on a branch and was twisted. I kept my skis going in the planned direction but my body was directed at a tree that hit me in the face. I twisted my body to make it a glancing blow. My goggles protrude beyond my helmet and were forced into my face by the tree. My twisting and the impact caused me to land back first in the snow. No concussion. A few stitches, a lot of ice and I'm back to normal.

 

I never ski faster than I am prepared to hit something. Part of the problem is that with all the snow we have the space between snow and branches is significanlty less than usual making snags more likely. I'll be taking a new sense of caution with me the next time I'm in the trees.

Glad you're not badly hurt. what part of your body, clothes, gear got snagged? curious about jacket design making that more likely.Would the interface betw goggles and helmet have an effect, flush with or proud of the helmet? Since the tree was only 3" diameter, do you think it absorbed some of the impact, vs a tree that is 2 feet diameter. If it was 2', would you have run into it anyway?? I'm trying to glean knowledge from your mishap...what an opportunist!

Speed wasn't much of a factor as when I have to duck, I go moderately slow just because this type of thing is most likely to occur in that situation. If I have sight lines, the size of the trees has little influence on me. When I'm ducking or blinded by obstructions, I slow down. The area this happened in was realtively flat, a run out from some nice open stuff. The biggest problem was the depth of snow vs. branches. It wouldn't have happened last year, for instance, when our snowpack was less deep.

 

The coat was a DNA shell. It showed no damage. It fits well but isn't tight. Snags happen. I'm more worried about penetration than getting twisted as in this case.

 

If the goggles had been flush with, or recessed from the helmet, the impact would have been less to my face and more to the helmet. It may be time for a new pair of goggles that aren't so deep. I got the ones I was wearing to try to use glasses when I skied. Failed experiment. I don't use glasses now. I'm glad I didn't have them on for this fall. The injury surely would have been worse.

Interesting enough, the goggle frame construction is a factor too... Went head first yesterday (caught edge in the heavy snow we had yesterday afternoon), helmet pushed on goggles:

 

Goggles pushed down with these pointy protrusions:

 

 

not too bad, but I'm switching goggles for sure.

 

Vlad

The Smith Regulator used to have all those pointed forms, kind of a sci-fi look I guess. Not a great idea if the goggle is going to function, in part, as a face mask. With a cap, I guess goggles would likely be shoved around, pushed off, slid out of the way. With a helmet they are more fixed in place, and function / malfunction differently in certain crashes. My Smith Phenom has taken some hits and absorbed, distributed the blow rather than focusing it at certain points. Thanks for the very obscure gear safety insight.

rise to the top , feel better fast!

Got caught out in a crash on Saturday, skiing the halfpipe, third run or so, just starting to push it a bit and ended up landing way too deep in the transition, way too far forwards, pretty much took everything on my head and shoulder. Thought I had broken something, but physio reckons I have just strained all the muscles in between my collarbone and shoulder blade and some of my neck/chest, hopefully only be a few days before I am back on the skis. I figure hurting myself every now and again is the price of pushing myself and having fun though.

The funniest thing I ever saw was at a Nastar race at Mt Snow years ago.

 

The racer "explodes out of the starting gate" screams to the first gate and crashes.

 

The course starter & I laughed our heads off after seeing why he crashed.  His start

was so violent that both baskets broke off and were laying on the ground at the start house.

I fell on day 17 of the season for me.
First run of the day, on the top pitch of Minya Konka, i was warming up making turns from side to side, getting my balance, when my edges slipped on a patch of ice hidden by some snow, and I fell towards the slope.
Until then I'd had a perfect season.

Proper prepartion of the start by the NASTAR crew might have avoided that problem. I ran NASTAR at Breck a few weeks ago for our camp and they crew hadn't bother to re-build the area where you place your poles after all the snow that they had received. They had 'Launch Pads' installed, but with all the new snow, they were 4 inches below the surface your skis were on. It was like cutting four inches off your poles at the start.
 

Quite often (1-4 times a week), but usually doing stupid fun stuff like this:

 

 

Some of my "falls" are from my downhill ski rattling off my boot while holding a carve through rough crud at high speed (~40mph). Still trying to sort out how to fix this problem without cranking the DIN way up (I like my knees).

 

However, I did have an exceptionally real crash that day too (very rare, maybe 1 a year at most?). Going pretty fast, probably 40-50mph (SG turns), down a groomed Genghis, I thought I could make it across the drainage cat-track and up the other side of the drainage to the upper cat-track leading to Orient, so I pointed it. I misjudged how fast the pitch changed uphill on the banked drainage cat-track (I totally should have known better). The compression caused me to double eject at full speed, launching my face straight into the drainage cat-track, and causing me to tomahawk uphill. This was pretty hard snow since it was morning after a warm few days after the last snowfall. My face left a 5-8" deep crater in the cat-track. Worst crash I've had by far.

 

I was left with a minor concussion, a cut on my forehead, a cut across the bridge of my nose and a nice shiner on my left eye. To say it could have been a lot worse is a major understatement. I feel pretty lucky. Got up, dusted myself off and continued down towards Orient for some sidecountry fun. One of the guys I was skiing with, who used to race, said it was the gnarliest groomer wipeout he's ever seen outside of the World Cup. Must have been impressive to watch, only wish I had my helmetcam on at the time - at impact the helmet cam goggle mount blew apart, sending it flying. The girlfriend was a little freaked when I showed up for our v-day date that night.

 

So, if anyone saw a crater in the drainage cat-track at the bottom of Genghis on Sunday, now you know the story.

Edited by Brian Lindahl - 2/16/11 at 4:00pm

You probably need to pressure your outside ski a more and try not to sit back.
 

Thanks. I can't imagine that I'm in the back seat, as I'm always driving forward pretty hard, but I'll try giving the outside ski more pressure - that could be it. I'm guessing the hard part is maintaining that outside ski pressure while also absorbing the crud (keeping the leg loose) to avoid being bucked? The inside ski is easy, since the leg, by nature of being under the body, can't be doing as much loose absorbtion, and will rarely (if ever?) be bucked.

BL,

 

Post some video of yourself (not pov) and I'm sure we can help. Separation of the upper and lower body, building angulation (not inclination) and a bit of outside focus (point your chest towards your outside ski tip) can all help get pressure on the outside ski.

 

That cat track face plant sounds brutal.

 

MR

Went most of the summer without any notable falls, a few hand/hip to the snow moments though. Winter came around and I was having my first few runs down a ski cross course for the season just before Christmas, got out of shape just before the final jump and ended up pitching forward as I came off the lip and going at considerable pace. Cue the running-man! Landed on my face and came to as patrol were putting the neckbrace on and strapping me to the spineboard. After about 6 hours in the emergency room, countless X-rays and a CT (plenty of morphine too!) I was discharged.

 

My only injury? A sprained thumb.

 

Did the same last Sunday watching wife wife on blues no release, I took them off because it was easier to get up that way  LOL

 

Trith to tell I went that whole summer without a fall ... at least no while sober :)
 

I'm nicknamed roly-poly....

This past Sunday (yesterday) after the second fall I thought of this thread...(and yes, I was home ill, down with flu, three days last week, but since saturday I felt ok, I took a last minute decision and go to ski on Sunday...mailny because It was planned, with some friends, to attend a "freeride awareness" event taught by a mountain guide and held/organized by ski trab (with tests of their skis)
One was while skiing on a black run behind Prickly (and trying to keep up with him) and resulted in spreading aroeund a bit of my equipment and not finding anymore the emergency whistle
I keep in one of the backpack "breast" pockets...Nothing was injuried but my pride (and quite shaken...)
The second was in mid shin pow while skiing it with a pair of "Volare" ski trab skis (168 cm w/ fritschi diamir bindings, typical AT ski, too short for my tastes), when I lost balance...
After this second tumble I felt the packpack had become a bit heavier, I imputed the feeling to tiredness, but when I stopped to eat I found out that it had been loaded by snow ("automagically" in the tumble)

The amount of snow shown in the picture is what was left after about one hour inside the mid mountain lodge...

And that was not the last fall I took...decidedly beat my average since quite sometime

3-4 times a week, and that's probably a conservative estimate. If you fall less than that, you're not pushing yourself anywhere near your limit. 

I fell six times today, but I only hit the ground three times.

 

If you didn't hit the ground the other three times. Where did you go? 

Sailed off into space??? 

 

Was pronounced an advanced intermediate by my instructor at A-basin (Leon Littlebird, an excellent instructor), and I fell maybe 5-6 times that day.  Every time I got a huge laugh out of it. I totally agree with Goasyouplease.