Ridiculous accident

A snowHead

Somewhat motivated by the shoulder injury thread I'm finally writing up a salutary tale:

Picture the scene....

Beautiful sunny midweek day in early April. The slopes are lovely and quiet and I'm out on my own playing on slalom skis and with Carv sensors. I do have one earbud in for the Carv feedback but one ear is unencumbered. As I head down to start a steeper section of a nice blue above Hauteluce I note with interest a group of about 10 French soldiers in full mountain warfare camo and with ski touring kit are standing at the side of the piste. I pass them and set off down at a decent lick but carving short turns at high edge angles taking advantage of the softening but not slushy yet snow. I can see a LONG way down the piste and there is not a skier in sight. All is lovely with the world.

After the steep section, it begins to level off and there is a "ralentir" barrier in the middle of the piste highlighting another piste joins from the right. I can see that that piste is empty. Still not a skier in sight. Decision to make - pass the barrier to the left or right. I tip the skis on edge and carve hard across the piste almost parallel with the barrier to pass it on the right. Just as I pass the barrier I stand up to turn left around it.

Imagine my consternation when out of the right corner of my vision a large French soldier appears right next to me on collision course!

The collision is relatively minor but having been knocked off balance I land rather heavily on my right shoulder. It immediately feels potentially a bit more serious than I'm used to (I fall enough) but not too awful. As I pull myself together now surrounded by ten (perfectly pleasant) French soldiers who were following the leader who hit me, I experiment with the shoulder. As I try to lift the arm what I feel obliged to describe (given I'm British) as a "degree of discomfort" leaves me on my knees and gasping a tad. Clearly I've dislocated the bloody thing.

My new companion/erstwhile assailant calls for the piste patrol and while there is a little bout of gallic shrugging and "he just cut straight across the piste" and me flailing with a little "le skieur plus haute est responsible" we keep things amicable given a) while he should have avoided me I do understand how he misjudged the situation b) these guys could be in Ukraine under the threat of Russian fire before long and c) there are 11 witnesses to the incident - me, the guy leading the group who hit me and his nine mates.

Suffice to say after a rather uncomfortable skidoo ride, some liquid painkillers, gas and air, xrays and much wiggling of my arm, the local clinic got it back in. Fracture dislocation but not surgical. I did manage to redislocate it washing myself in the shower 4 days later though - that time the gas and air approach didn't sort it and I ended up in Sallanches under a general.

Bit of a sad end to an otherwise good season. I'm 6 weeks post now, still only walking and physio for now but hoping I'll get the go ahead to run and perhaps even cycle on Friday.

I'm a bit cross with myself - I do realise that most people don't carve as sharp turns as I do on occasion and because of that I tend to be pretty good about checking my shoulder but the piste was SO empty I just didn't see how I could be at risk of collision. If there is a lesson, it's probably that. Was still his fault though!

Roll on next season!

A snowHead

@jedster, oh dear. Bad luck! Hope you heal completely.

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

At least it happened while skiing.
I had an awful experience with my shoulder/arm once – just trying to go fast and answer the phone while taking a shower...

Long story short: I slipped, fell to the floor, and instinctively tried to grab onto something with my right arm.
Strangely, when I hit the floor, I didn’t feel any pain around my hips or lower back. I thought, “Okay, that wasn’t so bad.”

Then I looked at my right arm and shoulder and noticed a strange gap* below the shoulder – and that’s when the pain kicked in...

*a piece of the arm bone over the elbow (humerus) was 1cm over the rest of the humerus and the shoulder...really do not know hot to describe it...something like this
https://wikism.org/Proximal_Humerus_Fracture

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@jedster, Bad luck on the secondary dislocation, by the picture you paint even though you were carving tight, it’s not like he wouldn’t have seen you “playing” & therefore hardly a surprise.
Very thoughtful of you taking it easy on them, as I get older, the more respectful I am towards service personnel.

On the positive, at least it was at the end of the season, as I remember you saying you were going to get a bit more freedom this season to ski more.

Sorry we never managed to meet up for a slide, I’m sure I could have picked up a few good tips.

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Unfortunately, all the french soldiers i've seen skiing have been encumbered with lots of kit, heavy rucksacks, ancient skis and are terrible skiers.

After all it is free

Sorry to hear that.....these things seem to take longer to heal as one ages....and then aren't as robust afterwards.

I had a double eject skiing scraggy Off Piste on the VDI side, when I stuffed my ski tips into a banking and flew over the handlebars. I reinjured the rotator cuff on my right shoulder, leaving a painful ski home. Luckily, this was the end of the penultimate day.

There is a good Physio in Tignes VC who helped me enough that I could do some gentle skiing on the last day.

That was Jan '24 (I didn't ski Jan '25, but not because of the injury)....and despite doing rehab, my shoulder only came around about a month ago.

Your injury is much worse - so hope it heals up well....but it is likely to take longer than you think.

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@jedster, healing vibes. Mrs NBT had a similar injury in Jan '23 (though no one else involved in that fall), still recovering but back on skis

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@jedster, how tedious!!

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@jedster, big guys some of those Chasseurs alpins who are not known for their downhill skiing ability.

What a PITA.

You know it makes sense.

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

A snowHead

@jedster, sorry to hear about the injury. Good luck with the recovery.

On the topic of collision on empty piste, I had my share. Though fortunately without injury. The one I remembered the most was when I THOUGHT the piste was empty and decided to cut across to play on the other side. Unbeknown to me, a pair of skiers was hauling a@ss down on that same “empty piste” behind me just around the bend. They decided they should pass to my right which had the most space. That is, until stupid me decided to cut across the “empty piste” to the right side.

The husband tried to avoid me but managed to clip the tail of one of my ski, knocked it out from underneath me. I went horizontal without realizing why, fortunately unhurt.

They apologize profusely. I felt guilty for pulling that stupid move across the piste. Since I was unhurt, I thanked them for their consideration.

In retrospect, I learnt an “empty piste” can be “un-empty” in a hurry! Shocked

A snowHead

Being in the right doesn't keep you out of the ER as you've learnt.

Sympathies and hopes for a full recovery. But I bet you put in a deadman's shoulder check more often in future.

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

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@jedster, best wishes for a full recovery.

I picked up a neck/shoulder injury about 5 years ago (skiing, but “self-inflicted”) and it still gives me pain quite often. Can’t seem to figure out the issue, in spite of various physiotherapist sessions.

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There is a Snowheads who was speared by a French Army recruit on Palafour, so generally I steer clear if I can. There are some very good Army skiers. But if they are young, skinny and on NATO planks go somewhere else!

@jedster, Best wishes for your recovery

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

To be fair, given the British Army meets up to race in Les Contamines every year (Rhino Ski Club), I should point out that our boys and girls ski proficiency is at best "mixed".

After all it is free

Hope the healing goes well Jedster.

One comment from me and that is that it is absolutely refreshing to read of someone who is name name calling and or shaming the French soldiers who hit you and has caused this accident and you are still holding them in very high respect. Very impressive. I hope the karma gods shine on you brightly.

Would the collision have been avoided if you were skiing the fall line with a view down the slope rather than traversing across the run and being blindsided ?

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Wishing you a speedy recovery.

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PS. Not really ridiculous. I had a somewhat similar accident last season when making hard turns without realising that someone was following me; she simply ran into me from behind once I started a section of short swings. Piste was empty ahead so I was paying all my attention to the technique and none to what might be behind. Whilst the uphill skier has the obligation to avoid that doesn't help much if they don't have the ability to do so !!

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It's not that hard for less able skier to compensate - just back off. The problem is they don't recognise their lesser ability or usually are doing fewer turns hence progressing faster down the slope. And they certainly won't anticipate the sudden lateral acceleration that a more advanced skier might produce out of a turn or the fact that advanced skier isn't scared of the piste edge and may be turning in that 2m edge corridor.

The rules are clear enough but there's such a thing as "defensive skiing", as there is "defensive driving". And one of the key rules of defensive driving is not driving too close to the vehicle in front. So yes, "back off" makes sense but it also makes sense to glance over the shoulder before a huge change of course at speed. On anything like a busy piste I sometimes gave a "hand signal" before crossing (e.g. if I saw my group waiting at the other side of the piste). Assuming there's nobody there without the ability to avoid you is a bit like shooting out of one of those remaining French "priorité a droite" roads without looking and assuming there's not a dopey British driver who's not paying attention. Optimistic....

You know it makes sense.

Skiing isn’t driving.

There’s no lane marking, there’s no driver’s license, minimum/maximum speed, or traffic light to control cross traffic, and frankly, “working in technique” is part of the sport!

The analogy between the two only goes so far.

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

I do actually know that skiing isn't driving..... but I think that consideration of a "defensive" approach makes sense in both cases. Assuming that everybody has both the intention of sticking to the rules and the ability to do so no matter what "legal" manoeuvre you pull is optimistic in both cases.

A snowHead

I do actually know that skiing isn't driving..... but I think that consideration of a "defensive" approach makes sense in both cases. Assuming that everybody has both the intention of sticking to the rules and the ability to do so no matter what "legal" manoeuvre you pull is optimistic in both cases.

A snowHead

Yep head on a swivel is unfortunately necessary* if you want to contain incidents to the self inflicted. Protect yo'self should be front and foremost in the skier's code.

*on piste, most of the time.

It's an unfortunate consequence of advances in grooming that make too many runs too easy to achieve high speeds at low skills.

Despite a "right" to do so it is highly inadvisable for a downhill skier to materially "change lanes" without checking. I'll often hand signal when I have to cross a piste and it's always less than 50% people are actively looking for cross traffic.

.

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

I think the driving analogy is generally apposite, because the same error is being made in the same way in arguing both scenarios. To me, its weakness is the exact opposite: it's so similar that it probably doesn't help understanding much. If you don't get the issue on snow, you probably won't get it on the road either.

But the "priorité a droite" thing specifically is bang on. Or the idea that a pedestrian would step out in front of a speeding car because they have priority on the zebra crossing...

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Yes, as I normally ski with poles, my hand signals involve a pole.

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@jedster, good post. Hope you are well on the mend, now.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

[drift] "a bit like shooting out of one of those remaining French "priorité a droite" roads without looking and assuming there's not a dopey British driver who's not paying attention"

Last year I was driving down a road in Annecy that I must have driven 30 times in recent years and as I began to pass a side road entrance a driving school car literally, thankfully slowly, drove into my rear wheel/wing.

"Did you not see the "priorite a droite" sign?" demanded the examiner, understandably somewhat forcefully.

"The what?", said I, "Oh, now I see".

So Annecy had taken it upon itself to reintroduce p.a.d. on this road (and presumably others). The examiner admitted that it was causing all sorts of accidents, and we never heard anything from the insurers, probably as the pupil and his instructor were both looking down the main road to the right and failed to see the large black SUV in front of them.

I don't think he passed his test that day.

After all it is free

Thanks to all the good wishes. My physio tells me I'm being a model patient and so far so good with the recovery.

Several people have raised the broad topic of defensive skiing/ turning the head to check up the piste/ sticking to a channel in the fall line etc etc. All very valid considerations when skiing on piste, I'd say.

Rather thought I might have covered all that in my original post though:

First the title - it was a "Ridiculous accident" precisely because it happened on a near empty piste with great visibility and was eminently avoidable if I'd taken more precautions or the guy who hit me had obeyed the rules of the road (i.e. left himself enough room for him to adjust to what ever line I chose to take).

I think I also flagged that I understood how he made the error - that as someone who carves sharp turns I can appear in places that many skiers do not!

And I also said that I was annoyed that I had not taken my usual precautions to shoulder check (i.e. turn the head up the hill to check for uphill skiers who might be skiing closer than they should). I absolutely think people "skiing the slow line fast" with high edge angle turns would be very wise to do this and I do this nearly all the time. In this case it was so quiet I felt it was not necessary (wrong of course!). Much of the discussion is just in violent agreement with this.

I'm not quite sure what @Peter S is getting at with this question:

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@phil_w, made more difficult I'd imagine being on a board? I have become very sensitive to boarders downhill when I'm on their "blind-side".

Help!!

Ridiculous accident

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