Runaway snowboard

A snowHead

On Tuesday I was on my way up on a chairlift when I saw a chap walking down a roughly 25 degree section of a red carrying a snowboard. He slips and starts sliding, he then looses the snowboard and it takes off gathering quite a lot of speed. It then hits the bank on the otherside of the slope, I thought it would flip over and stop but it didn't, it got about 6ft of air then landed and started hurtling off towards the bottom of the lift at the sort of speed it could easily kill someone if airborne. Shocked

A snowHead

Saw something similar earlier this week. Boarders had been sat at side of piste having a snack. As they stood up, one lost his board and it took off down the slope - no idea where it eventually stopped but would have been a boot and leg breaker if it hit anyone.
Do they no longer use leashes?

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

A boarder in our party once forgot to clip in properly and as the ski lift took off, so did his board. But he didn’t notice until the ski lift was pulling in.

Much incredulity and p1ss-taking followed until the lift operator called his pal to look for it. The fella duly ski’d off and came back about 20mins later on the chair lift with the board. Then he showed us the photo of how he found it…..teetering over the edge of a cliff. I couldn’t quite believe that not only did someone not notice their board left their being, not only was that board found balanced on the edge of a cliff, but a French lift operator could be that helpful!

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See something similar some time back. Very amusing.

This happens most often outside mountain restaurants. The time between the board got taken off the rack but before being attached to the border’s boot is the most dangerous time.

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Been posted many times before.

http://youtube.com/v/mf3QAP5ao1Y

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@Whitegold, irrelevant.

@Reezo, sorry don't believe it. Anyone using a snowboard on a chairlift would immediately know if they'd lost their board, the weight and torque on your ankle alone. You'd know if you lost a ski.

Moving on. If this was posted yesterday I'd have said I'd only seen 1 runaway in 20+ years - but I did see one today although it only got about 6 feet before the owner had to dive on it. He had been being a bit of a dick toss-flipped it in the air and it just legged it. Leashes... sure but nobody uses them. Long and the short of it don't be a dick.

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I don't know anything about snowboard bindings. Couldn't a brake for the front foot be designed so when the boot wasn't in it a spring loaded lever comes down like on skis? Wont help much now but in 10 years or so it could save a death or serious injury when older bindings get replaced. I realise the chances are slim but I have found reports of a death and broken back from it just from searching. They have them on skis so why not.

After all it is free

They have them on skis but we've probably all seen skis shooting down a piste. I don't believe a boarder could fail to notice the loss of his board either - it hangs heavy on the foot.

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We were responding to the subsequent story from @Reezo. Bloke who didn't realise his board had fallen off when he got on a chairlift.

@Origen, Why did you conflate it with my comment about the possibility of adding a brake then.

You know it makes sense.

Dunno - just part of the same chat. Sorry if it upset you.

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

Maybe runaway threads need brakes too, or a leash.

A snowHead

@Richard_Sideways, Laughing

A snowHead

I saw a runaway ski in Chamonix grand montets the other day. Skier was going to fast for his ability on the piste, which was hard pack. He lost both skis and both poles. One ski did about 500m down slope before it stopped. I picked his poles up for him and noticed his ski brake in the snow near him.

Skis can go a fair way in deep snow even if the brakes don't fail.

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

@Richard_Sideways, Laughing

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I've seen a yard sale where the skier lost his boots hitting a big jump line Very Happy

Anyway, losing a board, especially if walking downhill, is a super dangerous and unnecessary thing to have happen. I see it quite a lot. I tried to catch one someone else had dropped once, and broke two ribs. It's nearly always people with no clue who manage to do it.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

I think some snowHeads could do with a leash all the time TBH wink

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Quite a few years ago we had just arrived at the top of the Swiss Wall, and intended to go into the cafe there for a drink. It was quite a windy day and suddenly two snowboards that had been left on the snow took off, my OH managed to catch one but the other flew over the top and disappeared. We took the rescued one into the cafe and asked around, found the owner, gave him his board and said that his mates board was somewhere below.

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After all it is free

The top gondola station at Stubai is on the opposite side of the peak to the main slope, so there’s a long flat section to get around the side – manageable on skis, but snowboarders often walk. It gets quite windy up there. I was once in the gondola and saw one such snowboard ripped from the owner’s hands at the top of the slope, fly at around head height down the blue, bounce off the first couple of pylons and then lodge itself in the third, probably at some distance from the ground Shocked

In a similar series of events, a friend of mine had a ski escape from the bucket on the outside of an old gondola on a windy day. Twin tips, so separated, it just blew out and headed off down the lift line. He explained to the liftie at the top and asked to borrow some skis to retrieve it, but they told him it was too dangerous in the current weather, and called someone else (another liftie or patroller presumably) to get it back, which they did.

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i know of two examples of this happening, one i was directly involved with and one with a colleague in the alps.

first one was with my, then girlfriend, whilst we were working in Meribel, this was late 90's when helmets were not really worn.
she had been teaching me to snowboard, and we were slowly making our way down from the top of saulire back to meribel, we were on the flattish track part of the biche piste.
unfortunately, she caught an edge on her board and fell over and bumped her head, this really spooked her and she felt that she could not carry on down on her board. so instead, decided to sit on it and use it as sledge, whilst i followed behind her.
she then preceded to fall of it, but the board carried on going, whilst quickly gathering speed, i was unable to keep up with it, and it disappeared off into the distance, over a brow of a hill, never to be seen again!!!

we then had to walk down to the mid station of saulire gondola, and download to chaudanne. later that day, after making sure she was ok, i went in to the office du tourisme to let them know what had happened, and gave them my details, just in case it was handed in.

unfortunately, it was a fairly new board that she had borrowed from a colleague from her chalet, but she didn't seem that bothered about it, and didn't want to be compensated for it.

the other incident was in the same season.

one of my colleagues (and a few others) from my chalet, went for a heli skiing trip to italy on their day off. as they all exited the chopper, she took her board off the helicopter, but she had not got a good hold of it.
the wind/rotor draft, took hold of it and off it went down the slope, travelling at speed.
she had to go back down in the helicopter, and be driven back round to the french side, where the rest of group ended up.
TBH, i cannot remember if the board was ever recovered, but she was suitable embarrassed when they arrived back in resort

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I saw a snowboard shoot of the side of a mountain last week.
A girl had got close to the piste edge. Unbinded & then put the board flat down instead of upside down - & off it went.
I spoke to her & explained there is nothing you can do, unless you want to climb down to try & find it in deep Japanese powder.
She had to walk down to the next lift or wait for ski patrol.

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If anyone can tell me how to post it, I even have the pic of the bloody thing dangling off the ledge!

You know it makes sense.

20+ years ago, I actually found a runaway board. Skiing an offpiste route that I had done a few times, i noticed some tree twig sticking out where I didn't remember them being there a few days earlier. As I passed I realised the twigs were binding straps, so I stopped & pulled on them to find a fairly new board attached!
I took the board to the main ski school at the top of the lift in Soldeu but no one claimed it, it was a Sunday morning & the guys at the ski school said the owner had probably gone home & I may as well claim the board as mine.
Not having any use for this instrument of torture myself, I traded it in for a wakeboard. Very Happy

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

A mate of mine binned it at the top of Lavachet Wall and one of his (borrowed) skis came off, it shot about half of the way down before hitting a bump, shooting in the air and burying itself tip first to come to a halt. I've got a photo somewhere of him on his bum sliding all the way down to get it!

A snowHead

I think it was on the gnarlibug a couple of years ago, coming through the tunnel on the kids fun run, I hit a rut on the way out & lost it, and a ski, which had somehow ended up on top of a 3m high pile of snow next to the run, not sure how it got up there, but there was a few seconds of "wtf did that go?!" Before it was found Very Happy

A snowHead

I saw a second runaway ski the other day, in Verbier. On one of the more interesting sections of Tortin, which had a few moguls and wasn't in particularly good condition. The skier lost both skis, one of which ran for maybe about a hundred meters and almost made it to the long run-out below. I watched as unlike the previous day's ski, this one was in a place crowded with novice skiers.

I think it's uncommon - I've never seen it in North America - but then I saw it probably two days in a row last month in the Alps (one ski brake failure; one icy mogul field).

Back in the day, before monoski brakes were invented, leashes on monoskis were mandatory. Helmets were not used. I had a binding pre-release at high speed on a Rossi Fait d'Hiver, resulting in a face first full-length sprawl. As usual time slowed down. I had a second to lift my face out of the snow before the leash, a big old surf bungie, brought 1.65m of heavy ski down edge first, hard into in the snow next to my left ear. A few cm in the wrong direction and that would have split my skull.

Can anyone find any documented evidence of someone being killed or seriously injured by runaway gear?

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

i board almost 18 y, and i had never lost my board. Ever when i was a complete novice.
I really do not understand how something like this can happen.

I think that happens usually when they allowed to carry the boards with the hands insted of having the binded in the front leg.

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As a boarder of 30 years I've seen this multiple times for both boards and ski's.
I always wear a leash, always have done because in the 80's board were really really really expensive and it wasn't uncommon for skiers to deliberately push you over as they went past when you were walking a flat. I wear the leash when walking (high up near the knee) because i am paranoid about dropping my board and decapitating somebody if it goes...
I've seen some nasty incidents in my time of people being hit by runaway skis, so I dread to think the damage a snowboard 3 x times the size/weight would do.

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Ok, i didnt board in the 80s.
I had it also during the first years, but more because of the step in bindings from those old days.
I had it also when i am with an alpine board-boots (not any more however)

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I caught a Rossi Hero travelling at a fair chat down an icy red a couple of weeks ago, brake had deployed but nothing to get traction on. That had some heft. I also did a proper action movie* job on a ski in Meribel a couple of years ago where the rear binding had ripped out and it was accelerating towards the nursery slopes. Took some catching. I’m assuming my Legion d’Honneur for that one was sadly lost in the post.
Don’t think I’ve ever seen a board go.
*The Wrong Trousers train scene.

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"The reality is that it's incredibly rare for it to happen and even rarer for it then to end up hitting someone."

I spend most of the season on the mountain and have done so for the last 15 years or more. I see at least two or three runaway boards every season. I remember a time when almost all boards seemed to come with a leash, but this now seems to be rare.

Major danger points:

Outside mountain restaurants. Either someone knocks a board over and off the stand when retrieving their own equipment, and the board heads off down the mountain, or the owner themselves misjudge/get distracted/are too pissed when collecting their board, with the same result.

Snowboarders taking their boards off and sitting on or next to the piste, or when taking the board off to adjust something e.g. at the top of a lift. As above, a moments loss of attention and the thing heads off on its own.

Beginners area - boarders take their board off to walk up the slope and lose it when putting it down. Not good when there are groups of beginner kids further down the slope.

After all it is free

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Can we add being pocked in the eye by an uncontrolled Ski pole? Very Happy

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