50 mph barrier

Jail time and/or Law suite if you hit someone.

Not necessarily careless. Time and place for everything. Like I said don't hit anyone at high speed. Definitely no high speed skiing anywhere near children. Hitting a child has always been my biggest fear while skiing.

Clearly stupidity (if you're trying to pull this off inbounds at a resort).

I did however do it once at Keystone (at least I think I did). We were using those rental GPS tracking devices and it was Spring. So the slopes were absolutely frozen solid (running ridiculously fast) first thing in the morning. I forget the run, but it was completely empty so we just hit it to try and get a good top speed stat on the GPS record. The GPS stat said I did 52 mph. All I know is it felt like crazy stupid speed. I can't even imagine what it's like for the top GS, Super G, and downhill racers.

It's the skis.

Two things to consider are the skis vibrational stability at speed and the ski's turn radius.

For the stability, different skis will have a different speed limit due to construction, rigidity and damping. An Atomic SX11 has a higher speed limit than an SX10 or Salomon Equipe SC for example.

The radius is very important, not so much in limiting your top speed, but in making that speed a little safer. A ski cannot carve a pure arc at a radius higher than it's sidecut radius on hard snow. It will be tearing along with some slip at the edge, which will not feel quite as "locked in on rails" on hard snow. On softer snow or crud you run a very real risk of hooking a tip and having the ski suddenly try to snap off a much-too-short turn.

When I go 50 mph on my old SG skis it feels SLOW. When I go 50 mph with my WC SCs it feels fast.

Oh, goggles help avoid the frozen eyeballs. If you want to ski really fast (I used to), you will need some tape to tape over the ventilation holes in the goggles and you will need to pray they don't fog up.

Do it on a sunny day.

For hardpack or ice I use the side-cut radius printed on the ski or I use this http://forums.epicski.com/showthread.php?t=2681

For soft snow, you pretty much have to go with the manufacturers stated natural turn radius, if you can find it. Suffice to say that softer longitudinal flex = smaller turn radius.

I would just caution you against skiing at gs or sg speeds on a sl ski, unless conditions are hardpack and icy enough for the tip to skid rather than grab at high speed.

What skis were you skiing on?

I hit 50mph nearly every day I ski. It's not that fast.

esp after racing some DH. 50 is nothing to me now.

Here we go again... Another d!*# swinging contest about how fast a person can or does ski.


Hasn't this been done too many times?

48 mph on a Metron 10 is scary fast.

Do yourself a favour and get a ski with a longer turn radius, more dampening and stiffer construction before hitting those speeds again. That ski would fold up in an instant if you hooked a tip, and it would take a lot longer for your leg to heal.

Also want to add, stability or lack thereof is more noticeable on hard snow, somehow the softer deeper snow helps smooth things out.

No. I don't think we've done it yet this year.

Slider, I actually race downhill. It's dangerous enough going 60mph on a prepared track that's closed to the public, and fenced in the fall zones. Doing it on a recreational trail, on smaller radius skis, is more dangerous. Not only to the tucker, but to those around him. 60 to zero happens slow, whether on your feet or not, unless a hard object such as a tree or another skier assists in the braking. You should see the distance it takes people to come to a stop as they go through the finish line. And at 60, quick adjustments to avoid unpredictable zig zagging skiers has a coin toss success rate.

Be careful. Better yet, come join me in a masters speed event.

No, that ski is actually stiffer and has less sidecut than most Metrons.

The ski won't fold up, you'll just eat yor knees.


I'll have a talk with him. Slider is a hell of a skier, and we have the open slopes, but Max and I have a garage full of better skis for this game.

Yup, my stiff bros took 50+ like nothing, obsetheds felt like I was going to die and mojo 94's are somewhere in between. Caught an edge once at speed and the ski turned around, catching the brake backwards and it ripped the binding apart. Tyrolia RF2 hd. Slid a LONG time before stopping and my knee hurt for a while, was very lucky.

Save the speed for empty runs with lots of run out, it's fun hitting that point where you stop accelerating going downhill. Not so fun figuring out how to stop the first time.

Another thing, not sure if anyone said it, try to stay slightly on edge the whole time and watch out for even the slightest bump/2 inch drop. If you hit either at the wrong moment, you are done.

I also must say that your brain takes some training to work fast enough, just like how easy it is to out drive your headlights, going so fast that you only see or notice things before it's too late.

The type of ski definitely has a lot to do with how "safe" you're feeling at speed. When I did the 52 mph at Keystone I was on the old Volkl 5 Stars - not really a ski you want to take over 50 mph. Guess I was just young and stupid .

I did 46mph on 165 SL skis last weekend. I feel I could have gone a lot faster.

So, I'll get this thread jacked up a bit here, and assure Slider just how stupid I can be. Feel free to flame away.

I skied the first half the afternoon on my 181 Dynamic GS skis. The groomers were super smooth and nice, skies clear. I then switched to my 171 Metron 10's, and remembered I had thrown in the GPS. The skis actually felt as good or better than the 181 GS skis, so I thought I'd see what speeds I got.

I've skied fast before---I raced some downhill in my day, and practicing for the super g leg of our spring Pole Pedal Paddle the GPS read 58-62 every run. I also skied a little speed trap set up with good Swiss timing on the last pitch of the Lauberhorn DH course. Hit 100 kph (62mph) on that one wearing some floppy clothes. It felt fast but not too scary.

I did a few runs normal speed....came in 36-40. I then went to Cliffhanger, a run which is pretty empty and used for racing. I tried to get to terminal velocity, but the big rollers scared me and I pulled out of the tuck before I was done accelerating. Still, I got to 54 there.

I then went to Leeway, where I had gone 60 for the race. It had a big empty outrun so I tucked it in from way up and held it to terminal velocity. The skis seemed really skittery and scared the sh*t out of me, but I was sure I went faster than I had done that run before. I would have thought 65, but the GPS read 71.5.

I reset the max velocity over and over the last few runs, and driving home, and never got a weird number, so I guess, based on how the 100 kph felt in Switzerland, I believe it.

Slider, I knowthe M-10 is the wrong ski for these games. I'll bring out the 200 cm Betas next time.

Realskiers puts the radius of the metron 10 puls TI at 13.5 m.

Ok on flat groomed, but not so good off the hardpack for going a mile a minute on.

Although I've had my SCs up around that speed several times. It did feel fast, but not out of control. The same speed on the SGs felt slow.

newfydog: ... but the GPS read 71.5 mph

On 171cm Metron 10? Ooooooooooookay.

Ghost: Although I've had my SCs up around that speed several times. It did feel fast, but not out of control. The same speed on the SGs felt slow.

Ghost, I skied Blue Mountain many times. It would be hard to reach 71.5 mph on DH skis, in a full tuck and racing suit. You have 500-600 feet vertical at best and none of the runs are that steep. How on earth do you reach these speeds? Let alone on 11m radius SL skis.

The radius would only be a problem if I had the bad judgement to turn. Anything something longer and damper would be better. As I said, it wasn't all that smart of a thing to try. Last time I tucked that in the PPP race I was on a friend's US Ski Team stock 191 Atomic GS skis and it felt pretty solid.

What he said...

...all kinds of people say to me "Wow...downhill racing is really dangerous!" My answer: "It can be, if you're stupid and unprepared, but what's really dangerous is skiing with the public."

Data Points: I've crashed, three times, going 70 plus in DH or Super G, walked away from all 3 with bent skis and minor tweaks only, thanks to (a) knowing how to do the Rag Doll Thing when things go upside down and (b) the fact that God (or whomever) watches out over fools.

My last injury? About 5 years ago, in early November, skiing Schoolmarm at Keystone (OK...I admit it...I have a "I'm stupid...please kick me..." sign on my back)...standing off on the side, watching all the skiers/boarders/tele skiers turning their skis left and right...and never changing direction...when I got turfed by a snowboarder coming out of the trees (result: broken left collarbone, minor concussion, strained left MCL)...who said, and I quote, "Dude...you were on my line..."

I hate to put ideas in anyone's head here. I skied all afternoon, and never shared a chair with anyone. The woods are crusted and nearly unskiable. Even then, I would never let them rip if I didn't have a good clear view of empty trail.

Those conditions never exist at many resorts.