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Briton dies in late-night ski run from mountain-top bar

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Quote:

One person was killed and one seriously injured (broken femur) here a couple of weeks back when, after a skinful they decided to toboggon down one of the black runs. A tree appeared and said hello. Sorry - no sympathy


Whilst it is hard to find sympathy for drunks who cause themselves and others harm in a ski resort from such antics I do believe that most (esp young) people turn up and view their resorts as simply one big playground and are simply not aware of the harm that can be done. Whilst its certainly not the fault of resort managers/owners that people do stupid things and hurt themselves I do feel that a little more could be done to make (particularly newbies) aware of the dangerous - thats drinking, altitute health, avalanche risks, the skiers code and I guess sledging - not suggesting a "nanny" approach just some facts that people should be equipped with before they put themselves and others in harms way. I have been skiing for about 20 weeks and still I find things on this forum about skiing/ mountains etc that I did not know (but should have). We have all experienced youth in our time (some of us are lucky enough to still be right in the middle of it!!) and surely we all did daft things that NEARLY every time only result in a few bruises and red faces. My condolences to his family.
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Its strange this is a Brit & its all over the papers & we are discussing it here.

If it had been a German or Dutchman I can guarantee, you would of not of even heard about it & it happens.
These kinds of incidents are not reported in the German or Dutch press. It would not even be considered news worthy.
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 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
I'll probably get lambasted for this, but I skied down that run past the Mooserwirt at about 4am 2 weeks ago. Luckily, I had the advantage of being sober (the climb to Galzig had expunged the last vestiges of alcohol from my body) and a full moon to light the way.
Have seen many people coming down from the Mooserwirt and the KK after hours and am amazed that there aren't more injuries/deaths.
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snowball, paper bag - you were lucky !! Laughing
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
For the hundreads of thousands of people that ski down that route every season there are very few injury's. I heard that there are actually more injuries to people who try to walk up the piste to the Moose & KK . Why they do this I dont know when theres a perfectly good road !
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Reading this thread reminds me of just how stupid I was a couple of weeks ago - in fact there are 2 other regular Snowheads who can corroborate this story. We had a great day's skiing and stopped off at a bar for apres ski, knowing full well that we either took the gondola at 4.30pm or skied down. Well, it was about 6pm before we left the bar, and light was fading fast, but we all thought it within our capability to get down safely. Everyone else in the party did, but I am clearly not cut out for skiing in the dark - when the light finally went it freaked me out to such a point that I couldn't ski on. The group had become separated, so I was only with 1 other. I was very frightened and my thought processes became totally incomprehensible (and no I wasn't really p¡ssed, but had definitely had a few beers that afternoon). I took my skis off and walked for quite a distance, which if anything was even more scary than trying to ski in the dark - pistes are just not designed for walking on in ski boots - the other person stayed on skis. I skidded and slipped down until I could see the lights of the night skiing slope and eventually got down to the bottom a complete gibbering wreck, about half an hour behind the other 5 in the party. I scared myself so much that my skiing the next day was the worst I have skied for years, and I've really lost my nerve. With reference to another thread, don't blame the Head C140's for being uncontrollable, blame the stupid skier (i.e. me).

For the average 1 or 2 week a season skier, leave night time skiing to those with local knowlege of the mountains and the skill to get down safely without putting yourself or anyone else at risk. I've learnt my lesson and lived to tell the tale - the others in my group shrugged it off, but for me it seems to have left a lasting and unpleasant memory.

Ice
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Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Frosty, they never listen! Sad
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After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
easiski - your 100% right as usual but it had to be said.
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Is skiing day or night under the influence particularly clever? I think not.

My first trip to the snow in 1996 was "highlighted" by my mate breaking his leg after a lunch time Stella. I vowed never to drink and slide after seeing how easily it occurred.

6 years later I was nearly killed due to numbed judgement being the result of a late, long one the night before. I shouldn't have been on the slopes in a half cut state.

Terrible to hear of this latest incident.
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I know this is politically incorrect but it needs to be said .

I really only improved my skiing when I done a few seasons in Austria & only skied with Austrian locals . This was an entirely new experience and an eye opener on how to ski.
The Austrians have two speeds, Stop & Very Fast regardless of who is on the piste. The aim is to get a much as much vertical as possible in the shortest possible time however, every other descent would involve sliding into one of there mates Mountain Bars for a round of Schnaaps, JagerTee or Gluhwein . The last run was always the fastest & I mean fast as we had to get to work. By the time we had got back to work via a quick schnaaps stop with one of the Families I can honestly say I was well set -up for the night Very Happy
Im not going to condone this but this is just how it was & it is still to this day.

This in Intrinsic to the Austrian skiing psyche so much so they are building more & more bars on slopes !

Anyone, who has been to World Cup Ski event in Austria will know where im coming from Smile

IMHO. This guy was probably way out of his depth.
I havent heard exactly how he died, was the crash the result of drink or drink & coronary ?
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I've been drunk in the KK and then skied down. It's obviously risky, but then so is skiing. I don't see that there is a moral difference.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
stanton,
I was invited to join in on "Crazy Thursday" while in StAnton, which sounded very similar to what you are saying. I declined purely on the basis that I might not be able to keep up (with either the skiing or the drinking!).
Kramer,
I agree entirely - there are risks involved in every choice we make in life. Personally, I would probably feel safer skiing down drunk from the KK than I would walking through my home town at closing time.
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Kramer, none at all so long as you don't endanger anyone else, which seems unlikely. I suppose that there is an argument like this:

1. We are all free to choose what we do so long as it doesn't harm others.

2. However, we have some kind of responsibility to our selves to look after ourselves (in the same way that many moral codes forbid suicide).

3. When we're pissed, we are not in a position to make a valid judgement about whether we're meeting 2.

4. We shouldn't get pissed in situations (such as piste side bars) where lack of such judgement might cause us to harm ourselves.

The weak link in this argument is of course 2., unless you believe that we have been put here as part of some great plan and that we owe the force behind that plan an obligation to look after ourselves (which I don't).
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
Quote:
A BRITISH man on an Alpine holiday died after a late-night ski run from a mountain bar when he crashed into a log cabin.


Where is there a log cabin on the run down from the mooserwirt? I can remember a wooden hut but not a log cabin.
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
richmond, whenever I've skied down from the KK at the end of the day the slope has been empty, and I've either been alone of with one other equally intoxicated friend, so I'm not sure that I've ever endangered someone else, just myself, and my complicit friend. If we have a moral responsibility to look after ourselves, then surely we should avoid all dangers, including skiing!

I do think that it's slighly reckless to do it, but we can't be sensible all the time! And just to be clear, I'm not talking about skiing when intoxicated during the day on a busy piste.
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
[quote="DB"]
Quote:
Where is there a log cabin on the run down from the mooserwirt? I can remember a wooden hut but not a log cabin.


It could be the cabin-shaped hut made from wooden logs. Does that help?
Seriously, I wonder if these hugely profitable bars (one assumes) could do their drunken punters a favour by padding any solid objects on the way down to the relative safety of the village?

Or are we saying that they have no moral responsibilities in this transaction?
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Kramer, I'm with you all the way (I meant that is unlikely that you endangered anyone else on your drunken ski). The moral question always depends on your point of view, but I have no problem with people doing silly things when they're pissed and killing themselves.
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 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
I have been told by a St Anton resident and a legendary drinker that the Mosserwirt sells more beer than any other bar in Austria.
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David@traxvax, they employ one person to stay in the cellar full time to change the barrels because they get through them that quickly.
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So there isn't a direct pipeline from the brewery?
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Kramer wrote:
they employ one person to stay in the cellar full time to change the barrels because they get through them that quickly.


Shocked Do they have rooms too Laughing
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marc. unfortunately not.
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I've always wondered what would happen to someone if they were drunk and caused an accident followed by injured third party telling his insurance company.
Would the intoxicated skier be open to some severe legal wrangling and maybe even liable for insurance company to sue his/her ass off to recover their loss?
I'm not trying to be judgemental or anything just curious if anyone has ever heard of this happening?
Would the local police be interested if an accident was caused by drink skiing?
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rockyrobin, if a third party was injured, the drunk person would probably have a tricky time.

The other point to remember is that if you injure yourself while skiing drunk (but not fatally) it is likely that your insurance will be invalidated....
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Tony Lane,

It will take a drunk to report to the insurance that he was under the influence of alcohol. Are skiers being breathalyzed after an accident? Is there is a legal limit for the amount of alcohol in the blood for the piste?
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Tony Lane, Makes me glad I don't drink and ski Smile
I guess with the way our insurance companies behave towards motorists in this country its only a matter of time before a case comes to the fore and the insurance companies wise up.
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 And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
I was in St A when this happened. I heard that he didn't actually crash into a log cabin but that he crashed IN a log cabin. He skied into a barn which had a door left open and into some form of agricultural equipment whereupon he was impaled.

Now, what I heard was just something I heard at dinner and I can not vouch for the truth of it. At that dinner was a local instructor who could not understand which barn that could possibly be.

As is usual and reasonable the details of the case will be kept quiet pending post mortem and coroner's enquiry I guess. A sad business.


Last edited by And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports. on Mon 14-03-05 11:44; edited 1 time in total
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 So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
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B00thy wrote:
At that dinner was a local instructor who could not understand which barn that could possibly be.


Yes, I can't think of a barn on the way down from the Mooserwirt either.
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
Frosty, I agree that we all do dumb things - I have done my fair share myself. But if something bad happens while doing said dumb thing, I realise that I have nobody to blame but myself. Whenever something bad happens nowadays, it always seems like people will blame anyone but themselves. This set of comic strips pretty much conveys my feelings:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php3?date=2005-02-21&res=l
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Quote:

He skied into a barn which has a door left open and into some form of agricultural equipment whereupon he was impaled.



Sorry, this is raising a smile now, beginging to look like some comical skking movie Madeye-Smiley
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
ive got bolloxed in obertaurn and boarded the last run back to our hotel.. its the run they use for night sking, nice n wide n easy and no one around.. obviously this time the lights were off but there was some moonlight.. i have to say its was a great laugh the 4 of us falling over everywhere.. but then we wouldnt have moaned if we had hurt ourselves, there was no one else around, you can see the resort and we knew the run well.. its was one of the highlights of the trip.. horses for courses really.. there is no way i would do it in a resort i didnt know or if it was remotely busy
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
The night I went down Saalbach at night, due to a msicalculation, it was in dense fog and snowing all the way. One can have a situation that the weather could turn nasty and there isn't another alternative but to ski down. Moonlight skiing is a totally different adventure but that is not guaranteed.
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 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Thought that this needed to get bumped up in order to correct the overall impression of this thread and to correct the assumption that (almost) everyone jumped to.

As it turned out, the post mortem showed that he had not been drinking...

see http://www.ifyouski.com/news/newsarticle/?ObjectID=7326515
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Tony Lane, thanks for that. A really tragic accident.
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I was in St Anton last week & the reports now circulating was that there was no Alchohol involved . The Hut In question is the second one below the Moose where snow has been piled up and it would be possible to make massive Air Sad
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The inquest results have been summarised in this article...
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Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
... which prompts the question as to why ifyouski's report, linked to 4 posts earlier, said the post mortem's results were the opposite.
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So it seems he was at least partially drunk or was he, the inquest says yes he was 3 times over the UK driving limit, however the if you ski article says the coroner found no alcohol in his blood, I think I'll take the inquest and Witness statements as being more likely to be correct, but it does show how easy it is to aquire different information on the same subject using the internet.

Still very sad none the less for the people concerned
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I am surprised that people are still questioning why there are conflicting reports over this accident. I understand that witness reports from several people in the Mooserwirt resort who were present that night have, right from the start, made it clear that the guy was very, very drunk.

Why is anyone surprised that St Anton resort authorities would have people believe a different story? They know the reputation that St Anton has for drinking as well as skiing brings in masses of skiers who like to do both. If you read St Anton season reviews you would be hard pressed I'm sure to wortk out that people have died in avalanches but of course it happens every season. Someone dying whilst drunk, on the way back from their most famous on-piste drinking hole would be something they would definitely want out of the press.

As anyone knows who knows St Anton there are dozens and dozens of snowsporters to be found making their way back into town from Mooserwirt, Krazy K, Taps, Griabli etc at 6, 7, 8pm etc every night, lurching around, falling over laughing etc. I know, I do it a fair bit myself. It was bound to happen sometime - it may have happened before.

Lets not try and suggest that the position of these huts was at fault. If you follow the main part of the piste down you won't go near the hut. At that point the piste must be 80-100 yards wide for goodness sake.

I can't see the authorities closing bars at a specified curfew time like 5 or 6pm so we have to just accept this death by misadventure and move on.
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B00thy,
Quote:

it may have happened before.



It's definitly NOT the first time.
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