| Have you ever been the innocent victim of a collision with a speeding skier? |
| Yes, and I've sustained injuries as a result |
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6% |
[ 5 ] |
| Yes, but I miraculously escaped unhurt |
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44% |
[ 34 ] |
| No, but I've had some narrow escapes |
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40% |
[ 31 ] |
| Accidents? They're something that happen to other people |
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7% |
[ 6 ] |
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| Voted : 73 |
| Total Votes : 76 |
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 Poster: A snowHead
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Chris Bish, I for one agree with you. We all enjoy the thrills and it is a fine line between that and being irresponsible. As much as we try to stay on the right side of the line, we probably all come close at one time or another.
I agree that the poll results seem to disagree with my earlier comments that you would have to be "unlucky" to be hit, but I think that the question may be a little subjective due to different perceptions of "speed". I am not as experienced as many on this forum and have probably spent about 100 days on pistes, but I do not recall a single accident when someone else was hit by someone speeding. I simply cannot recall seeing a collision and thinking "ouch that must have hurt" or "that guy is a lunatic and has just clobbered that unfortunate soul". I have seen plenty of collisions and plenty of lunatics, just never at the same time.
Maybe I am discounting those less dangerous slower speed contacts whereas others are not, or maybe I just spend my time focussed on where I am going and the people around me, and do not notice numerous high speed collisions elsewhere on the piste.
All in all, considering the nature of the sport, I think that the pistes are remarkably free of skier-on-skier accidents (I am including all piste users within that definition).
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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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?
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PG, Pete, you will not offend me by being realistic about my skiing ability. I consider it a miracle and an astounding privilege I can do it at all.
At the top of Zermatt there is a slalom course laid out for anyone to have a go at. How are you supposed to know the difference? And why leave it there during the 2 hour lunch-break if it's sacred?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Believe me Chris, I only do the slalom run when the club's training if they're in need of cheering up 
When a run's abandoned like that, it's fair game. They expect people to use it, and will either reset the course, or slide it, before getting stuck in again.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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The instructor would have to a very long lunch for me to get down it without being spotted. 
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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As well as the occasion when I was hit ( ski insurance 2 thread ) the worst accident I've seen was also at a piste crossing. Afterwards the woman who had been hit by the speeding skier was unconscious and was going blue, choking on her own tongue (?) One of our party was a doctor and for years had been carrying an Airway with other first-aid stuff in her rucksack (not sure if that's the right name: plastic tube with a bend, to push down the throat of someone choking). She saved that person's life, absolutely no doubt.
I wonder what proportion of fatal collisions are at piste crossings.
As to people passing on paths, if I do it I always go on the very edge of the path, knocking my sticks together so they hear me coming, and always ready to ski off the edge if the slower skier cuts accross me.
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PS Worst accident I've heard about was from a friend who skis (and teaches) in Japan. Someone was knocked over and another skier skied over his neck !!! Sliced his jugular: he died of blood loss in a couple of minutes.
I know it's stereotyping but it just sounds so Japanese.
Last edited by Then you can post your own questions or snow reports... on Tue 19-10-04 15:20; edited 1 time in total
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snowball, as well as carrying the right gear she had the knowledge to use it and just as importantly did not panic, I wonder how many others would have been able to do the same ?
I have heard in recent years that there are supposed to be EU ? regulations coming in sometime soon to stop pistes crossing drag lifts, the object being to stop or at least reduce accidents. I guess the next step would be to do something about the way that runs join up with each other
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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The day after the accident with my doctor friend (Nell Wyatt, anyone know her?) they had put in a sort of chicane to slow the faster piste at the piste crossing. I think that sort of thing is getting more common.
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not been hit by skier but have been hit by boarder
First day of a week in Andorra, twisted my knee badly and was off piste for few days and had to drop out of ski school 
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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As reported previously (on the various "why I wear a helmet" threads), I was hit by a high-speed boarder who took me out when he entered the trail I was on from a merging trail (from above and behind me).
Worst thing was that the trail I was on was wide and deserted. It was a bit like running into the only other car on the parking lot. Mrs Acacia, who'd elected to go down the same steep trail as the boarder, rather than pootle round the easy way with me, saw the whole thing and couldn't believe how the b****r didn't see me.
Separated my shoulder and screwed up the subsequent cricket season for me.
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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.
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Same with me (but without injury except bruises) but it was a skier and we were the only people on the mountain at the end of the day. He was bombing a red run and I was going in a straight line gently home on a green.
Last edited by And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports. on Tue 19-10-04 18:07; edited 1 time in total
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You know it makes sense.
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Although, I too have voted with the majority here, it was a speeding boarder not a skier.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Sorry, I worded the question badly but don't know how to change it. I suspect that, as a group, boarders are no more or less dangerous than skiers.
Is that conciliatory enough?
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Poster: A snowHead
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Jonny Jones, as a boarder, I interpreted the reference to skier as generic so that it included bladers, boarders, those silly ski tricycle things etc.
Many people posting replies have made a distinction between boarders and skiers as if that changes the nature of the incident. I feel that this is unnecessary and against the point of the question.
With some difficulty, i resisted the temptation to make an issue of this as it seemed to be going off on a tangent and would no doubt spark an entirely separate (and flogged to death) debate about whether one set of piste users is worse than another.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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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?
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Tony Lane wrote:
| Quote: |
Many people posting replies have made a distinction between boarders and skiers as if that changes the nature of the incident. I feel that this is unnecessary and against the point of the question.
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I haven't made a distinction, but I have named the culprit as a boarder, because.....well, he was riding a board.
Simply ensuring accuracy of information.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Acacia, I understand your point and agree that your post was not making a distinction.
The problem with the written word is that sometimes the impression created by the message can be unintended - an analogy with the above is that it is not racist to say that someone is black, but it would be racist to say so in a way that suggests that their race alters the facts. I got the impression that some posters were doing the latter - but maybe i was just being oversensitive, having been on the receiving end of much anti-boarder prejudice over the years.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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To be fair I've never been hit by a boarder, though I do recall a very very near miss, but I have come close to decapitating a pair of boarders who were sunbathing in the middle of the piste beyond a jump
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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I was taken out by a skier in Avoriaz on a very busy, but wide piste. Mr Q saw it all happen. This big guy, Dutch I think (I like most Dutch people) came schussing round a corner, kind of straight lining it and hit me from behind at an angle. I remember being up in the air for long enough to think "people die from stuff like this". He gathered me up when I landed and picked me up, apologising profusely. He obviously shouldn't have done that in case something was broken, but amazingly it wasn't.
Once he saw I was ok, he skiied off. I had a slice through my ski pants, and a gouge in my ski boot, about one inch from the top. Any higher and he would have had my leg. I was in shock, and extremely sore for the rest of the week and had to go to an osteopath when I got home to be untwisted.
I don't feel comfortable on very busy runs still, and try to keep to the edge away from everyone else. The snow's often better there anyway.
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RichardB, congratulations on your century!
I'm approaching 500 now, which might be why I'm putting on a few pointless ones!
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Thanks, Chris Bish.
It will probably be 5 years before I'm on your amount of posts!
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RichardB, it's probably a bit late to worry about trying to catch up with my posting then 
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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