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Ways to seriously hurt yourself whilst off-piste...

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Prompted by another thread I thought this might be interesting, in an educational and slightly schadenfreudian kind of way Twisted Evil . Obviously there is much focus on Avalanche, which is certainly most effective, a media favourite, and has the bonus potential of being a team-sport; but there are so many other ways to seriously do yourself a mischief...

I'll get the ball rolling with the one from the other thread, the unexpected and unavoidable encounter whilst blasting down through dense trees, of a forestry/logging track cut in across the slope. Often with a drop into a submerged drainage trench on the uphill side which neatly stops your skis dead, leading to the classic double-release high-speed face-plant into the road proper. Given the relative angle of road-to-mountain it feels like skiing into a brick wall; common injuries being winding, jaw whiplash, tongue bite, broken rib, punctured lung etc.

Over to you guys for more tried-and-tested techniques of how to really mess yourself up (for fun!), and perhaps the associated wince-worthy anecdote of how you came a cropper... Shocked Skullie rolling eyes ( Laughing )
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Got a similar example - coming off off piste onto a "built" up piste and ending up with ski tips caught under the hard edge of piste - a fabulous somersault and broken binding ensues - lucky none of the injuries.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Fortunately, nothing more serious than skiing off piste in very flat light, and the opposite to @countryman, skiing off a piste machine cut 6 foot drop back onto the piste. In previous years it was a smooth transition.

I came very close in Japan to skiing into a low leafless lower branch that was pointing directly up the hill, and saw it just in time to duck and deflect it with my helmet, rather than taking it in the face. Similarly, again in Japan finding snow covered liana type vines at head height across the slope and pretty much invisible.

On a more serious note, one of the skiers on the previous tour to mine (with the same guiding company) in Japan last season, hit a tree off piste with sufficient speed to require specialist surgeons and equipment to flown up from Tokyo to rebuild his pelvis Shocked


Last edited by Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see? on Sun 4-02-18 18:41; edited 1 time in total
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Hitting a rock under the snow and performing a perfect scorpion with my ski boots pretty much hitting the back of my helmet and a large crack noise from my back.

Was lying there worried what I might have broken, but apart from feeling very sore for the rest of the week there wasn't any noticeable damage (apart from to my ego)

My one friend who saw it was worried that I was dead, then after I'd clarified that I was okay, told me it was the most painful looking crash he's seen
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Yeah in bad vis the whole off-piste to piste transition is a recipe for disaster... Bend ze nees at all times!
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Mine was a fairly predictable one: I was skiing in the trees. Clipped some underbrush and lost my balance, slammed into the trunk of the next tree. Fractured ribs in 2 places. Fortunately not affect the lungs. I continued skiing the rest of the week.
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For sure, trees present a clear and present danger, although are no less fun for that. I think we know what we are potentially letting ourselves in for with trees, though.

I've always felt that rocks and ice present a more significant danger than avalanche. Without even talking about backcountry, either of those are capable of putting a serious spanner in the works, and they're often not foreseeable.
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Meadow skipping at high speed into low/submerged barbed wire 😣 Does absolutely nothing good to shins, ego or sallopettes but thankfully nothing lasting...
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Not off piste, but when the Inferno start man says, careful of the bumps after the first bend, the best reaction is probably not to exclaim, “bumps, schmumps”, and head off at full pace... Embarassed
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Quote:

I've always felt that rocks and ice present a more significant danger than avalanche.

I think for most off-piste skiers, rocks and ice are taken pretty much as tree trunks for tree skiers. You go at a speed you "feel" you can change direction fast enough to avoid any rocks and ice, and can stop quick enough when encountering a cliff or big drop off.

When I slammed into the tree trunk, I wasn't going at great speed. Hence the pain and injury but not a more serious one. The same is true when I'm meadow skipping at faster speed: I scan the terrain far ahead to choose a more favorable line.

Of course, all of that could be wrong and hence we do fall and sometimes get injured. But it's part of the risk I accept. Even skiing on piste, things could still go wrong after all. It's skiing. There's some risk, period.

Avalanche has a much more serious consequence, IF one is caught in one.
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@Pyremaniac, yup...

Trees
Stumps
Fallen trunks
Tree wells
Etc
Etc
Etc

A boring list

So....a story.

I complete long, soft, beautiful virgin snowfield, with Ant on my right, a couple of friends far left also having a great time. And then the slope levels out so it's time to straight-line it to get the 2kms to the piste. More joy. Then 'click click' and I am tumbling at high speed, gathering snow like a rolling snowball. I have no idea what happened. I have all my gear apart from my skis. I am completely unhurt. My DINs were set at a reasonable level. Right....a long trudge back up to the first hole in the snow where I fell. Waist deep powder, so this takes a while. Right, I can see two holes where my skis came off, this should be an easy one. Only I find that the reason I released was that 30cm below the surface there is the edge of a 10cm-thick sheet of ice. I dig a bit and see that this ice sheet is big. I then realise that this is a piste machine track which is only occasionally used, and they vary where they go up the hill so they have left this HUGE sheet of ice covering this area of the hill. The skis have powered in under the sheet, the impact clicked me out but hit my boots rather than breaking both shins into broken stumps. I can see two channels where the skis went but they are going to be a LONG WAY IN. I try to break the ice but jumping on it, whacking it, and shouting at it doesn't do anything at all. Nothing gives. OK, there's only one option, tunnelling. So that's what I do, eventually joined by Ant when he sees that I have mysteriously disappeared from view. I find the skis at the point at which I think - sh+t if this lot collapses on me I am well and truly b======d. Which, by the way, is a long way in. Just one more way of putting yourself at risk on the hill.
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abc wrote:
Quote:

I've always felt that rocks and ice present a more significant danger than avalanche.

I think for most off-piste skiers, rocks and ice are taken pretty much as tree trunks for tree skiers. You go at a speed you "feel" you can change direction fast enough to avoid any rocks and ice, and can stop quick enough when encountering a cliff or big drop off.


Sure, but I probably wasn't explicit enough about what I meant. I was more talking about lightly-covered sharks and ice which are not really predictable (unless you ski the entire hill as if every centimetre were dangerous) but which can screw you up if they knock you off your line, and if your line is make-or-break then...
Perhaps not as unfortunate as valais2's example (ouch!) but along those lines. Not looking for a Four Yorkshiremen sketch here, but simply claiming that the things that can crop up are often not as easily internalisable as the avvy bulletin that we consume for breakfast.
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(Depends on the terrain to a large extent, of course. In-bounds on meadow is quite different from in-bounds where even weeds struggle to get a foothold.)
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I was told a story today by an Arab a transfer story that during the '14 snowmageddon there, a local was tripped up by a telephone cable strung between telegraph poles.
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if your line is make-or-break
Quote:

I was more talking about lightly-covered sharks and ice which are not really predictable (unless you ski the entire hill as if every centimetre were dangerous) but which can screw you up if they knock you off your line, and if your line is make-or-break then...

That's a risk one must decide to accept, or not.

I don't accept such a high level of risk. So I don't ski any line that are make-or-break. Others may choose to do that and accept the risk.

And I think that's precisely what makes avalanche risk special. A low avi risk is still a serious risk. It only means it's less likely to happen on a particular day. But if it does happen, it's just as serious as on any other day in terms of doing you harm. Whilst a lightly-covered shark can mess up your line. But if your line aren't make-or-break, you just end up with some bruises (or even some broken bones).

Put in another way, avi risk are ALWAYS serious risk. It may vary on the likelihood of happening on a given day. Rocks and ice can be serious, or not, depending on their location. One can choose to ski terrain that a fall won't kill you. Then the risk of hitting some unseen obstacle becomes acceptable risk.
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I managed to get my right ski stuck about 8 foot up a tree when i totally failed to see a drop while thinking i was skiing straight back onto a piste. Saw the drop as it happened, saw the tree at the same time, flung myself to the right. Missed the tree with most of me.... when i landed and recovered I went looking for my ski... spent 4-5 mins moving snow till i looked up.... what i still can't figure out is how it was my right ski that got stuck when i ended up to the right of the tree! Very very lucky it wasn't more serious.
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Forget your skins and watch your powder "buddies" set off for the line of the season.....that hurts
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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 once took off from a bump in the forest and had to double kung fu kick a pine tree to absord the landing, no injuries but a few broken branches. My best was diving off the piste to avoid a few slow skiers, jumped a bump before intending to turn back on only to view just beyond it and hidden a ditch with a 5 foot slab of rock sticking out. I landed on it on my thigh, snapped off a fist sized piece of rock and also broke my heel piece on my binding. How @Kooky laughed until she saw I was actually injured. A foot further and I would have had a broken hip (I know, I am getting to that age) but I had a hell of a bruise on my thigh.
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Similar to others but a friend watched me do a double somersault straight-lining through a gently inclined field at the bottom of a run. Turned out the field had a fence and one of my ski tips had stopped dead at one of the just-submerged fence posts. Not even a bruise - just slightly bewildered.
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abc wrote:
And I think that's precisely what makes avalanche risk special. A low avi risk is still a serious risk. It only means it's less likely to happen on a particular day. But if it does happen, it's just as serious as on any other day in terms of doing you harm.


On a low risk day the avalanches will usually be smaller in size and therefore less likely to bury or injure you.

I'll quote from the US scale as you are US based:

LOW: Small avalanches in isolated areas or extreme terrain
HIGH: Large avalanches in many areas; or very large avalanches in specific areas.

So skiing the type of slope most snowheads are on, on a LOW and HIGH risk day has very different meanings in terms of consequences.

I don't know about you but I'd much rather be caught in an avalanche typical of a low risk day than that of a high risk day.
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I got buried up to the waist by a slide on a flat forest path on an Off Piste Bash Shocked
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Quote:

I don't know about you but I'd much rather be caught in an avalanche typical of a low risk day than that of a high risk day.

I've not been involved in an avalanche, large or small. Will try to keep it that way.
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Great fun to get the tales out there, and nothing makes the point like a first-hand account. As @Pyremaniac alludes to there is a strong emphasis on, and hence awareness of, the avalanche risk. To a certain extent justifiable since each person's actions usually affect others' exposure; but also potentially deceiving of what the global hazards are.

People do the avvy training, read the bulletins, carry the gear etc. and think they've "got this"; there's no structured education about other risks. If we're lucky we learn from a guide or our peers, otherwise we rely on trial and error, the school of hard knocks, and good fortune. Perhaps some people starting to venture off-piste will find or be referred to this thread, and have some food for thought. If not, at least we're having a laugh wink .

Tree-wells are a reasonably well understood risk, particularly in North America; meanwhile I once had a very unpleasant similar experience above Avoriaz. Pulling up below a large overhanging rock which had cast its own narrow but deep snowfall shadow, the snow gave way and I tumbled in head first. The more I struggled to right myself the more snow fell in. Forcing oneself to calmly clear a breathing space, pack down hand and knee holds and gentle pivot around and climb out was not easy.

Cliffs below a roller anyone? Following tracks? Sink holes, sharks fins, or crevasses? Makes you wonder why we do it!! snowHead
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Quote:

Makes you wonder why we do it!!

Because it doesn't happen all that frequent, and we live to tell about the tale to learn from it.

Quote:

If we're lucky we learn from a guide or our peers, otherwise we rely on trial and error, the school of hard knocks, and good fortune.

I think that's why we worry so much about avalanches? Unlike rocks and sharks, which is usually a matter of time before you hit one and take a tumble. Avalanche happen rare enough we don't get much in the way of hard knocks to "learn on" before we're put in life and death situations.
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I earned the nickname Avalanche Poodle from being in 3 slides in 3 years (2 small, one larger one in which I managed to come to a stop just after it started and stayed above it). I am now 5 years clear and very avi aware Toofy Grin
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shep wrote:
submerged drainage trench on the uphill side which neatly stops your skis dead, leading to the classic double-release high-speed face-plant into the road proper. Given the relative angle of road-to-mountain it feels like skiing into a brick wall; common injuries being winding, jaw whiplash, tongue bite, broken rib, punctured lung etc.


Plenty that can have this same effect. 2 weeks ago I skied into a submerged tree stump (and this was formerly a seriously big tree, I swear this stump was 30" across). I had to pull the ski tips out of the stump, after walking about 20ft back to where both my skis were sat perfectly parallel with their heel bindings down... indicating exactly how I came to perform my very own impression of superman.

More painfully I know of somebody who skied into a felled tree under a chairlift. Their skis went underneath the tree and so did the bindings, the boot however did not. This mean that no forward eject from the bindings was possible, since there was nothing to pivot on. His legs wanted to pivot on his heel, but there's no upwards release available from the toe binding. The boot and binding combo basically meant that nothing was allowed to snap, so his shins just basically shattered on impact as there was nothing to absorb the energy.
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In the uncontrolled back country slides are common. They're a good clue as to the conditions and where you don't want to be

But that wasn't the question...
  • I once hit a buried log about a meter down in a chute through a forest. I had no idea what happened until afterwards. I must have hit the log with the tip of the board, which broke off... fortunately I went over the top rather than under, which could have been ugly. The board was significantly hard to ride; it was the end of my day.
  • I wasn't there, but a friend was once buried underneath an old-growth tree which fell on her during a traverse (I kid you not). Wile E. Coyote style she was pressed into the snow pack, then rescued as per an avalanche victim, uninjured other than the shock.
  • Creeks... I have seen more than one person evacuated after total immersion in a creek. The other week I looked back at my track and I'd just almost ridden over what looked like a 6-meter high cliff over a creek... there's no way that would have ended well had I been a meter further left.
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shep wrote:

People do the avvy training, read the bulletins, carry the gear etc. and think they've "got this"; there's no structured education about other risks.


Funnily I think - even within the scope of risk of avalanche - people also think they've "got this" because they've got a transceiver, shovel, probe... maybe even an airbag or avalung or whatever. The problem is that none of these things actually give you any benefit when an avalanche washes you over a cliff face and you land face first on a massive rock. Which can happen just as easily from a small avalanche as a big one. I think people too frequently believe that the only risk from avalanche is burial.
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@dp, Yup, and some of the small slow heavy late season slides can be leg snappers.
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Quote:

Cliffs below a roller anyone?


Funny you should mention that....

20 years ago I was skiing off piste, early season under quite thin snow conditions. We were skiing chalky snow between rock outcrops being quite conservative or so I thought. I clipped something, lost a ski and started sliding down a convex slope, with a rollover and unseen territory beyond. My other ski popped off as I was trying to arrest with it and I accelerated as the slope steepened. Suddenly found myself tumbling in space. Landed 15 feet down on my hip on firm but fairly steep snow. Thought I was going to be in trouble but just bruising. Could have easily landed on a rock instead...
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 Poster: A snowHead
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Four incidents for me now - one only last Friday - when I went over a small crest in La Grave and skied over a load of rocks nestling below 10cms of fresh. Badly grazed hip and major hole (steri strips worked) below elbow that was still bleeding six hours later, and bruised left flank, though has not put me off games.

Last season, what I thought was just sluffing in steep trees turned into a full on slide taking me into a tree upside down, lost one ski and strained knee, off games for a couple of weeks.

Five years ago having skinned up a steep couloir some 40 odd kick turns and skied down in sweet powder (mid March) only to come out on to a plateau that was sun affected and went from powder to sludge in a few turns and did my ACL and was helied off.

Around seven years ago went off a 15m cliff managed to miss rocks below, lost ski and hobbled out skiing on a mates ski who skied down on one. Badly bruised and various ligaments off games for another couple of weeks, though was end of season!
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A lot less dramatic then most in this thread, but my biggest off came from shifting from lovely shin deep powder into waist deep sludge, instantly went flying when I put a turn in and ended up about ten feet down the mountain wondering what had happened. Was lucky I got ejected though, someone in our group had a similar experience the same week, failed to eject and did his MCL .
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Like to add snow ploughs to list of hazards. Skidded under tape at edge of piste, dropped 12ft onto parked snow plough. Bruising and knee double sized but managed rest of week as too good to miss.
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My most interesting (funny) fall was in the 3V many years ago (Everything interesting in my life now seems to be "Many years ago" Sad ). There had been a couple of feet of new snow during the night and I was playing on the fresh powder between the Pistes.

I was thoroughly enjoying myself, until quite suddenly, I found myself flying through the air (sans skis), launched like a well thrown Javelin...and like a well thrown Javelin, entered the ground head first, with my legs sticking out of the snow at a 45 deg angle.

It took me a couple of minutes to gather my wits, extricate myself from the hole I had just made and assess the crime scene.

I could see the exact point at which my tracks ended. I could see a patch of untouched virgin snow...and 10ft further down the slope, I could see the Old Fartbag shaped burrow, which like a Full Stop, punctuated the point at which my acrobatic endeavors ended.

What I couldn't see were my skis...but it wasn't hard to see where they should be....and I still had no idea about what had caused the whole debacle.

I fought my way back up the slope in thigh-deep snow, to where my tracks suddenly ended. I dug down a couple of feet...and WTF!...There were both my skis, parked very neatly against a wall, like they had been placed there by someone obsessed with symmetry!

I was totally unhurt by this spectacular Double Ejection and my only regret was that there was nobody there to witness it. snowHead


Last edited by You need to Login to know who's really who. on Mon 5-02-18 12:53; edited 1 time in total
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Worst that ever happened to me was doing a tree run, one ski went under tree root other carried on, a nasty sprained ankle was the result but it coul have been so much worse.

Worst I know of was a fellow hotel guest skiing back onto piste in a white out, apparently slammed into piste marker pole at speed (why he was going at speed in a whiteout I never discovered) fractured skull, concussion, broken ribs, broken hip, broken leg, he survived but had quite a hospital stay
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@Old Fartbag, My dad did something similar a few years back and I think it is the hardest I've ever laughed while skiing. Skiing along nicely, then flying through the air like superman, with seemingly no visible transition between the two.

There's something incredibly entertaining about some innocuous skiing leading to someone flying through the air with no idea what has happened
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Bennisboy wrote:
@Old Fartbag, My dad did something similar a few years back and I think it is the hardest I've ever laughed while skiing. Skiing along nicely, then flying through the air like superman, with seemingly no visible transition between the two.

There's something incredibly entertaining about some innocuous skiing leading to someone flying through the air with no idea what has happened

One minute you are saying to yourself, "Jayzus, I can fly"; shortly before you say, "Err, no I can't". The landing gives evidence to the latter....and you are right about the seamless transition between skiing and flying (and head-planting).


Last edited by Then you can post your own questions or snow reports... on Mon 5-02-18 15:42; edited 1 time in total
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The worst I ever saw was an English guy who was staying at L'Avancher in VdI a few years back. At the back of the hotel he had attempted to limbo ski under a post and wire fence, to get back onto the pisted path. He only got it slightly wrong... but basically scalped his entire forehead.

It still makes me feel sick, seeing his whole head bandaged up.
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Many years ago when I was still stupid enough to try and look cool in front of the more sensible sex, I managed to have an incident that would cool anyone's ardour Shocked

With a group from a chalet in Risoul, we were cutting a path through some woods and across meadows (or perhaps gardens) through about a foot of fresh snow. We had travelled a similar route the day before so I wanted to spice up my ski back. I headed for what I thought was a sloping ramp over a ditch. But it wasn't. It was stairs, about 15 - 20 on a walking path Shocked which I spotted at the last second and no chance to bail.

Oh fiddlesticks I thought (screamed probably) before riding these with some grace. After the first step all grace went out the window, control gone I just tried to stay upright til the bottom. I managed this until I hit the concrete like path where all and sundry had been walking and was bounced out of my bindings to land spread-eagled on said path, but with my gentleman's accoutrements making the first impact Crying or Very sad

The massive yard sale was picked up by the sensible ladies who had observed my foolishness, whilst my mate was incontinent with laughter, and I was in too much agony to even be embarrassed. That came later in the evening when my epic attempt at park tricks was the main topic at pre dinner drinks, dinner, and so on Embarassed Embarassed Embarassed
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Quote:

why he was going at speed in a whiteout I never discovered

Without reference, it's difficulty to judge speed. So it's not unusual people are going at much greater speed than prudent when they mistakenly thought they had only moved cautiously.
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