When we got to Whitetail tonight, patrol was bringing someone down in a sled. We noticed patrollers taking notes, taking pictures, etc, on the edge of Limelight, and a chopper came in not long after.

Any idea what happened?


aaron

Yes. An 18 year old snowboarder hit a tree. DOA at washington county hospital. Pray for his family.

Also, were your helmets. I was at the hospital and another snowboarder came in with lacerations to his head from hitting a rock.

Another with a broker collar bone and yet another with a tweaked leg.

I was only there for 4 hours when all of this happened.

Tragic. So young, a life just beginning. Sincere condolences to his family and friends.

Be careful everyone. Ski and ride in control. A helmet won't prevent the possibility of death in a collision with a tree.

Those two big lumps next to each other on skier's right of Limelight are the granite-type of ice.


Anyone see the 300 foot head first belly slide on Far Side?

It was a wild weekend.


Sidewinder tends to be particularly crowded with flailers, since it -looks- like the tamest possible way to get back down to the bottom of the green lift.

Ugh. I ran into a friend today and stopped him to see if he knew anything about the fatality. He hadn't heard about that, but told me he'd broken his back that day. He maybe the guy who came in with a suspected collarbone. The shoulder/neck was just badly bruised I guess, but they found a fractured vertebrae in his lower back.

Season pass holder, he's been riding for 3 or 4 years. He was very enthusiastic about snowboarding, but now he's done for the season, maybe forever. I think he will recover fully, but may not return to the sport. The bloom is off the rose for him at this point, I can understand why.

Overshot a landing in the terrain park.

I hate to hear stuff like this, it's tragic. I was at the 'tail tonight and the conditions were crap. I think it got warm enough today to cause some melt and then tonight it froze. Be careful out there...

I know this is a subject that sparks much debate, and while a helmet might not have saved this person in the whitetail incident...I worked a skier vs tree incident where the skier died about 6-8 years ago...he hit his head on a tree...and it was reported that he would have had a chance if he was wearing a helmet...

...I also built and ran two terrain parks for about 6 years and about 90% of the backboards would have been avoided if the folks where wearing helmets...I bet those backboards wouldn't even have been incidents...

...can't go wrong with a helmet IMO...I have never heard of a helmet killing anyone, but I have heard of and seen many instances wear a helmet has saved people from serious injury or death...

the best advice is the advice that Rodsmith gave to ski in control!

I should have said that helmets do provide protection and can save your life, but wearing one is not always enough. You still need to use your head. Like wearing an avy beacon doesn't make it OK to get buried. Or having a whistle and a partner makes it safe to go upsidedown in a treewell.

Rereading the post I was replying to, I realize willy was referring to the head laceration injury specifically when he recommended using a helmet. A helmet can prevent injury or lessen the severity of injury in the case of a collision with a tree also, I just wanted to point out, that you can still, you know... die.

This stuff makes me not want to ski.

Ugh, this freaks me out. That makes fatalities two years in a row at Whitetail. I'm not sure there is a way to totally mitigate all the risk inherent in this sport, but my kids are getting a lecture on ski safety tonight.

I read a good ski helmet is only rated to something less than 20 mph of impact -- and since I read this on the internet sometime in the past it must be true.

Even assuming that it is true, it seems likely to me that wearing one will confer some level of protection at impacts above this -- and while I don't know for sure -- my feeling is I ski above this alot and I'm not alone in this regard.

My wishful thinking means that a lid might be just enough even in those cases...

Of course it's even better to avoid these situations but who can make such guarantees?

IMO both helmets and 'ski in control' are secondary and tertiary issues.


TAKE A LESSON!

TAKE A LESSON!

TAKE A LESSON!

Getting that into people's heads is what will solve the problem.

I pulled a girl out of the rope fencing on sidewinder who had never taken a lesson and didn't want to take one.

I fixed a binding for a ~17 year old Indian on Limelight who had never taken a lesson and didn't want to take one and who couldn't *snowplow* instead of bombing down the trail.

I was hit, when stopped in front of a tree on Angel Drop, by a skier sliding in from above who got up, pointed them downhill again, and proceeded to wedge-bomb down Drop-In.

Helmets are meaningless to these lot. 'Ski in control' is meaningless to this lot.

Want safety? Teach them skill.

Why would WhiteTail (or other resorts, for that matter) not install soft fences to prevent people from skiing off the slopes. Of course, it is our responsibility as skiers to maintain control, but things happen and these fences (something along the line of slalom fence) would at least soften the fall/impact.

This Sunday I watched two 200lb teenage boys race side by side down a beginner trail at Winterplace. When they got to the bottom, neither knew how to slow down or turn and both ended up yard sale-ing just in time to avoid slamming into a snow gun. They weren't exactly traveling at break neck speeds but they were going more than fast enough to severely hurt any of the dozen or two children on the slope that average about 1/3 of their weight.

Although he didn't witness this particular incident, it's stuff like that that led my daughter's instructor to warn us about the dangers of skiing at Winterplace.

...a patrol'er at winterplace told me that they had more incidents per skier visit then any other resort in the country...don't know if its true, but figured if that patrol'er was working there then they had a $%&^ load of incidents whether they were number 1 or not...

TIP YOUR INSTRUCTOR!

TIP YOUR INSTRUCTOR!

TIP YOUR INSTRUCTOR!

Seriously?

Maybe we should all wrap up in bubble wrap too?

I'm guessing cost and maintanence would be two big reason not to do it. Anyone feel like resetting 40000 ft of fence everytime it snows?

If you forget to put a fence in front of just one tree, someone is going to hit it and sue your pants off.

Maybe a better idea would be to learn how to properly control one's equipment and try not to get in over your head. That would unfortunately require personal responsibility. Even then, accidents happen. These mountains aren't a sterile, computer monitored Disney World amusement park ride.

BTW, condolences to the family and friends of the deceased.

I've heard the same about Winterplace.

It is crazy, but isn't that how a lot of people treat these small mid-a mountains. I know I have personally seen a lot of this going on. I am always amazed that there aren't more serious injuries.

This weekend I also saw multiple people riding their snowboards like sleds. Not strapped in, just sitting on top of them. Talk about human bowling balls.

While I agree with all of your statements about taking a lesson and skiing/riding in control, I don't understand how 'Indian' is a qualifier or if it has anything to do with the ability or lack of ability of this skier

'Indian' relates to the conversation I had with him and is a direct consequence of how I remembered him.

While I'm sure there theoretically could be H4B visa holders from Bangalore with highly developed skiing skills, this young man was not one of them.

For completeness' sake, the girl in the fencing, and her friend standing over her, were Nigerian. Working on pharmacy degrees.

There are three types of bombers -- the novice thrill seeker, the novice out of control skier/boarder, the expert or at least pretty dang good skier/boarder.

Lessons are great but no guarantee - a fair number of experts or at least the skilled kill themselves or someone else on the slopes every year around the world.

I'd like to see some stats but I bet medium difficult runs that are smooth and straightish and a level of good or better skiers/boarder are the worst for accidents that kill.

And let's face it, our modern shaped ski and "railing" technique makes it a heck of lot easier to go way fast on the slopes and *feel* in control than the "pencil ski" of yore... The same applies to boards (in fact who hasn't marveled at the expert boarders ability to hold a graceful arcing edge at high speed?)

One possible solution would be to make skiers & boarders turn more sharply and often on certain slopes.

But then who doesn't like to bomb a run or two?

Not that it matters much, but did the kid hit a tree or one of those (2?) big round snowballs? And what are those, are they rocks covered in snow? All the other rocks had some rock surface exposed. Those things were completely snow/ice covered.

Not good. Sorry to hear this.
Everyone needs to learn a few things that racers learn. How far are you going to slide if you catch an edge, how to deflect. (not leading with the head)

At 30 mph a person can slide 32 feet. hit an object is like jumping from the third floor.

this is a cool doc that spells this out.

Skidome - risk reduction

Those big round snowballs were big round snowballs. Before we open trails we make big piles of snow. Most of the unfrozen moisture drains out, but when we push the snow around to spread it out, some snowballs form similar to when we make snowballs out of regular snow. Most of the snowballs get crushed and flattened by the grooming process. Some sneak out to the side and (IMHO) aren't worth dealing with until there's enough snow to open the whole trail width.