Could quite easily have broken a leg

A snowHead

I learnt today, what "could" have been a very painful lesson.

I'd just skied down from the top of the Chillfactore, reached the bottom and turned round to see how my mate was doing. Only to be immediately taken out by a large guy who was going full tilt and was out of control. He fell backwards a split second before he collided with me; which meant his skiis were leading. Luckily I was leaning on my poles which were in front of me. One of them took the full brunt of the impact, bending it at quite an angle. His ski edges gouged a small chunk out of my poles. Had I been skiing without poles my shins would have been in the firing line. I managed to straighten out the pole (ish).

The lesson I take from this is to ski through the gap in the cushion barriers and then stop for a gander. Don't stop and loiter on the slope side of the barriers, even for a few seconds. Sad

A snowHead

@Awdbugga, I don't know how central you were but when it comes to skiing on real slopes the lesson is always to stop at the side of the piste. This leaves space for the out of control chaps to continue on their way.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

@Awdbugga, Glad to hear you are OK. Poles can be replaced. But do remember what @Alastair says.

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@Awdbugga, Never replace a pole because it's a bit bent. It'll cost you a fortune. Slightly bent is normal. snowHead

BTW, also glad you were uninjured.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Equally, don’t try to straighten alu poles, they’ll just break sooner rather than later.

Glad you are otherwise fine.

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Thankfully most pistes are usually quieter than a snowdome, or at least you can wait by the side of the piste until the rush passes. Also the indoor places in the UK seem to have a higher percentage of people that are, frankly, dangerous. Whenever I make the long trek to Hemel I'm amazed by how some people ski, and that they don't get taken off the slope. At Oktobertest there were some very competent SnowHeads being told that they had to wear helmets, but people that were unable to stop normally (i.e they fell at the end of every run) were allowed to continue happily. It seems to me that they're far too happy to hide behind the fact that everyone signs a waiver to say that they can control speed on the slope.

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yep, some downright dangerous skiing in these places that goes without comment from the staff. I do always ski through the barrier thing at Chillfactore though, not for safety, just to save pushing to the lift. Glad you didn't get injured

After all it is free

IMHO and experience, all too common an incident at CF. As you say, don't stop at the bottom ( your own speed and other unintended factors permitting) but get through the barriers and out of the way. Mind you, lost count of how many people I've seen actually demolishing the barriers and coming crashing straight through and/or over.
As said above, all too many out of control idiots. Look out for #1, sadly. Same's true on the piste - as I unfortunately learnt all too late this year

Wow that sounds really close call.

I see it a lot at Hemel, its usually the kids straight lining it top to bottom in a sort of snowplough. This seems to have got worse lately. Having said that on wednesday night a guy nearly made it through the first net and out the second, there was a kid in his line of attack and he missed and landed by him by a few cm's, took out half the netting. We had to fish the net off the boy, he took it well but he looked quite shaken.

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It was heaving there today. I've not see it that busy. Around lunchtime time there were at least three learner courses congregated at the top. Two lots were doing edge and slide exercises in the the top one third of the slope, so they were all strung out down the upper part of the slope, almost stationary. At one point it was simply impossible to descend and try to pick a safe line through them. They were everywhere. Even a couple of the instructors said they'd never seen it so busy. Thankfully it thinned out a lot by about 2.00. On the plus side, it was the best days skiing yet. Made some good progress today. snowHead

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

Glad you’re okay@Awdbugga. I did think of joining you on the slopes at CFe today but decided against it for work reasons (best not to overtire myself before a night shift). But anyhow - if we are ever there at the same time it would be nice to say hi and meet up. (Couldn’t make it to the Oktobertest North unfortunately at the last minute)

Keep calm and carry on! snowHead

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@aewynia, that would be nice. I'm up there on a pretty regular basis. I only work three days a week now, so have the benefit of being able to go there Mondays and Fridays.

week days during the day are quite, w/ends & evenings never - madness... Puzzled

Glad you were not injured, poles can be replaced, shins take a lot longer...

You know it makes sense.

Ski Dubai is a fantastic education in how not to do it. The locals have a bit of a cultural objection to learning how to do things. They don't have to learn to drive, for example - they just get a driving license. Because, well, being Emirati means that you're such an amazing person that you can just drive from birth. This is unfortunately how they actually think.

So the sport of Emirati skiing basically involves going to Ski Dubai, paying for a 2-hour lift pass and then getting all the rental kit on, taking the chairlift to the top of the slope (which is about double the length of ChillFactore and has a very steep 'black' section down one side) and then basically pointing your skis down the slope and pushing forward. You then travel in a ruler straight line until you crash into the barriers at warp speed.

But what happens next is the best bit. Because they're so amazing - they can't have possibly caused the accident. They get up, look at the skis with suspicion. Look around the slope. There must be something here that's caused me to fall off... I couldn't possibly be to blame. Then they ski on to the bottom and have another go. Same thing. At this point they usually leave the skis wherever they feel like (that's somebody else's job) and go home.

The ski patrol can't do anything about it because if you upset a local you might well go to jail. So they have to just smile and be friendly. Same with the annoying kids who ski backwards down the drag lift track - berate one of them and daddy will get you jailed or deported. Just not worth it.

@Awdbugga glad you're OK mucka but devastated to hear of your funky orange poles. Don't worry - as Alastair alluded to, if your poles aren't bent you're not going hard enough.

@SnoodlesMcFlude perhaps the reason they make experienced Snowheads put helmets on is to protect them when they get wiped out by an idiot. I personally think that the problem for the slope staff is that in places like that, they're never properly represented by management. The management would always rather slander an employee to save face for customer services... because that's what customer services middle management ladies' front bottoms do. You can boot somebody out for being unsafe but when they complain to the management, you'll get thrown under a bus for being too strict and rude and bad for business. They're probably paid too little and not protected enough to actually throw people out.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

@dp, sh#t, glad I don't ski in Dubai. Kinda reminds me of the buses in Malta in the 1970's. Every bus had a statue of the Virgin Mary and a small altar at the front. The driver sat offset from the steering wheel, because God was driving the bus, they were just helping him steer it. So if you were ever involved in a car accident with a bus, and it was clearly the bus at fault; forget it, as God was driving it and you can't take God to court.

Annoyed about my poles, but as you say, they can be replaced. Might have to try and source some fluorescent orange paint to touch them up, cos they are scratched to bu##ery. I've started doing pole plants turns now, so I'll soon find out if they are going to fail; but they were cheap enough at £19.95 to replace if they do fail.

A snowHead

@Awdbugga, yep same kinda deal in Dubai. Car accidents are investigated - and decided - on the spot. (You hit somebody you literally don't move your cars - no matter how much of an obstruction they're causing - then the police turn up and decide who did it). The same sort of rule applies - the blame is based on a system of hierarchy, based generally on ethnic origin. Typically speaking, the person lower down the scale did it. There is a story that a local once wrapped his Ferrari around a lamppost at 200mph and somebody from the roads construction company got into trouble because it was deemed that the lamppost was in a bad location (by the side of the road - who'd put a lamppost there?) which was the underlying cause of the accident .

With your poles... at £20 they're likely made of thin wall aluminium tube - so they'll bend easily and break if bent back. Snowdomes are full of nutters, personally I'd use CFe's poles when you're in there and keep yours nice for the mountains. Don't worry about painting them, you get gnar points for battle damage.

A snowHead

@Awdbugga, my first day on skis in Tamworth snowdome, we were on the baby baby slope surrounded with huge big blue soft things. It was side step, side step, wheeee. Side step, side step, wheeeee. We were skiing all of two metres.

Yet someone in my class managed, somehow, to crash into the side in such a way as to be stretchered off with broken somethings.

Fortunately natural selection means that by the time you get on to an actual mountain, the incidence of this sort of thing is greatly reduced. Very Happy

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

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@Dmitri, the guy who took me out was very apologetic and wanted to pay towards new poles, but I said no. I watched him descend a couple of times afterwards whilst I was going up up on the lift. He was skiing on the very edge of his ability, both times. I know the only way to improve is to push yourself, but he was a big guy and was tanking down the slope almost out of control trying to use a snow plough with varying to little success when he realised he was loosing it. The place was packed with beginners, including kids. He was lucky he took me out and not a littleun.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

@HoneyBunny, you should definitely still go. It's an incredible facility... you'll be amazed just seeing it from the outside. Off the top of my head I think it's about 400m long on the piste which is really quite substantial... there are blue, red, black and park areas - the grading system is a bit suspect but still the 'black' bit is pretty steep and still as long as most UK indoor slopes in their entirety. The other thing that will shock you is that they have an indoor chairlift (don't use it though it takes forever - use the drag lift).

Normal snowdome rules apply - go in the morning, there'll be good snow and nobody there. Evenings are busier, Fridays are armageddon (just don't even try). Sundays are fine because the Dubai week runs Sunday-Thursday.

The Arab skiing thing is fantastic but it's mostly on Fridays and Saturdays so if you can get a weekday morning you'll be laughing on what'll be an almost private slope.

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@dp, thank you - I've been looking at videos online and really want to go there! What a place. Our flight gets there very early on a Monday and we only have one day, so despite the tiredness/jetlag we will go there in the morning. Then husband wants to go up the Burj Khalifa and we'll leave Dubai in the early hours of Tuesday. I might nab you for some tips nearer the time x

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@Awdbugga, yes big guys can find it a challenge to control their speed sometimes.

Fortunately most instructors seem to develop a radar for that kind of skier and subtly move their charges out of the way. Sounds like youre developing your own too wink

Help!!

Could quite easily have broken a leg

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