Radar is not just for the roads!

Thought folks might be interested in this tidbit from the web. Seems that last year, Liberty Mountain was early jumping on addressing a bad trend in the industry - reckless skiers/riders. Expect more Ski Areas (not less) to pick up and continue efforts. And just in case you thought this was exclusively a U.S. clamp down generated by reckless sliders, its EUROPE that's using radar and speed limits on the slopes!!

http://www.yahoo.com/s/779043

Wow - the Swiss are limiting them to 19mph. To be honest, I have no idea how fast I ski. I mean, it's not like your car where you can look down at the speedometer....

How fast do you ski? If I remember correctly the famous Herman Meir (spelling?) was doing near 90mph when he won a race in Europe. Anybody have a better memory?
The Colonel

I believe most experts are in the 45-50mph range, but speeds can go into the 70mph range if you believe GPS and radar data people have posted on EpicSki. Most recreational skiers are drag/friction limited to roughly 80mph according to some numbers I ran a few years back:

http://forums.epicski.com/showthread.php?p=469386#post469386

Here's another thread with gps and radar data:

http://forums.epicski.com/showthread.php?t=55337

I checked out those numbers and was impressed. Haven't seen calculations like those since physics a few semesters ago. Speaking of physics, I need to start recalling that stuff for the MCAT. How about we do a weekend physics study session? Say maybe at Timberline in February? I am sure that I can review a ton on each lift ride up.....

Heck, with that slow lift we ought to be able to develop new theories of physics!

WHAT!! 19 mph!!! thats no fun... takes the fun out of skiing groomed advanced runs. I can defiantly understand for kids that are out of control but for an advanced skier who knows what they are doing and does not put oneself or others in danger that is a ridiculous law