Hit and run = Broken Renn Tiger

[jtslalom]

I was talking to a friend on Saturday night who told me that his Volkl Renn Tiger was broken. He was hard riding with one of his friends at Mountain Creek last Thursday night. The slopes were empty except for a few people. He was making a final run. At the bottom of the slope he was in a toe side turn when out from nowhere he was hit. He felt a tremendous blow to the ribs and hit the snow hard. When he started to get up from the fall he felt alot of pain from his rib section and shoulder. He was hit by another snowboarder who not only cleaned his clock but snapped his board and broke his front Bomber binding. He told me the binding was so far damaged there was no use in repairing, just as well buy new ones. Well the kid who hit him took off. Can you believe that. What an as@%#$& ! A witness said that after the kid hit my friend he got up, saw that my friends board was broke and took off. At least he had the decency to wait until my friend moved a little before he took off. I guess that confirmed he wasn't dead.

Let this be a lesson to all who ride on small cramped hills. Most people do not know how to ride in control and some don't care about anything. ALWAYS look up hill before comitting to a carve that you know will take up alot of slope in transition. When riding at MC follow these rules and NEVER trust any ones riding or skiing ability unless you personally know those people.

[Maciek]

That is why I do not ride MC anymore. altho8ugh I trained there on gates. I can tell other stories of that place.

[Tommy D]

Honestly, I don't trust anyone in Southern VT either. Before starting downhill, I always make sure to go between the hoardes of skiers/riders that flock down the hill at once. Stop, let the overtaking group pass, then start again.

Nobody ever looks more than 2 or 3 milimeters in front of their board/skis, and has total disregard for those around them. Sheesh, it's exactly like driving a car around the North East, too! Coincidence? And it's getting worse. This all started back when ski areas stopped printing the Responsibility Code on all the napkins.

I love my RT SL. If it were broken, and I wasn't, I'd be VERY upset.

Edit: The last time I was at Stratton, I had a guy on PLATES overtake me, and pass at what I thought was way too close. He was riding like he stole it.

[kamran]

awfull!

same happened to me a few years ago in Austrian alps. some skier knocked me out and took off. result= broken nose in my brand new mistral extacy and a teard up Burton pants. Fortunately the insurance replaced everything as in europe we always had a travel insurance that would cover everything.

[Scorpio]

That same incident happend to me at heavanly over new years. I was on my donek axis making a heelside turn, not even deep in the turn. I was just about to initiate it and some kid on a board sideswiped me. He knocked me over and I landed on my back and snapped my neck back. I had to call it quits for that day becuase my neck hurt so bad. The worst part is that I was laying there for about 2 minutes motionless before anyone even came over to help me out. That kid was unbalanced after the hit but didn't go down. He didn't even stop to see if I was ok. He knew he knocked me down due to the force of the hit. The only upside was that he didn't ding my board.

[neil sunday]

I have a friend of mine that will probably never ski again when he was involved in a collision with a fellow snowboarding friend of mine. Life-line helicopter trip to the hospital, broken tib/fib, torn acl, broken tailbone, and broken pelvic bone that was separted 6cm at his pubic bone. along with this two fractured vertabrae.

several infections, blood transfusions, and operations later- he walks with a limp. this was two years ago.

Both guys involved in the accident are friends, and excellent riders and skiers.... Be careful out there- we generate alot of speed when carving.

[Allee]

If you have an accident of this type on a hill, and assuming that you can catch the little s.o.b. and refrain from kicking the snot out of him, what happens with damage, or paying for injuries?

Being a transplant to North America, and coming from a country where anything that happened to you was covered under a government insurance scheme, I'm still getting to grips with the whole liability thing.

I assume that for medical care, if you had no coverage of your own, you'd have to sue? Does disability insurance even cover accidents of this type? And for material damage, someone's personal effects insurance would cover it?

These are scary thoughts.

[Jon Dahl]

for me. My primary medical covers me injury wise, and my secondary will pay for time off from work and cover gaps in my primary insurance. My homeowners should cover equipment w/ a $500 deductable. Still would suck to ruin my Renntiger, though.

[patmoore]

A few years ago a TV Newsmagazine (Sixty Minutes?) ran a story on the Colorado skier who went to jail for killing another skier. A few days later I was riding Okemo's World Cup trail on my Hot Shine board. If you've been there you know of the rise and subsequent drop off half way down. I initiated a toeside turn while looking uphill at a clear slope. Just as I was completing the turm I saw a flash of yellow and then I was hit like I'd never experienced in my life. It left me stunned and I couldn't even open my eyes. I heard the Franz Klammer wannabe ask anxiously, "Are you alright?". I was incapable of speech so I just laid there for a few seconds. I finally opened my eyes and I was alone! The S*** For Brains thought he'd killed me and bolted. There was no one else on the slope. After a few minutes, I was able to free one of the bindings to take pressure off my knee (I had just come off surgery on it a few months before). Finally I got back on the board and sideslipped down in a lot of pain.

The only satisfaction I had was knowing the guy was sweating bullets watching the news that night to see if a snowboarder had been killed at Okemo.

[fin]

jtslalom,

Hey, have your friend contact us. I have some spare used parts here at the shop and I am betting we can get those TD's back in action for him at no cost. Hate to see a TD die before it's time! But good to hear your buddy is OK himself. A busted leg is WAY more then a board and binding. Trust me, I know.

Yep, I have to agree with most here, that "Texas Torpeado (as we call them)" is what makes me nervous on the hill.

[mikemcse]

Man I just had a few mountain creek experiences this weekend. I was carving some turns with another carver (Mike Savin) and I had several very close calls during the day. Mike was saying he had been hit a few times ridding at mountain creek. I guess people are not used to seeing carvers and the way we move combined with the overall level of inexperience. Some ass rode right over my new coiler AM on its first day out. :(

I will be very weary on future visits. I usually ride faster that most others but will be getting used to looking uphill more often.

Hey JTslalom how often do you ride mountain creek? Its like 30 minutes from my Job.

[mikemcse]

Originally posted by fin

jtslalom,

Hey, have your friend contact us. I have some spare used parts here at the shop and I am betting we can get those TD's back in action for him at no cost. hate to see TD die before it's time!

Thats a really nice gesture, I am very happy to be a bomber customer.

[Guest toddflyingdog]

My best goes out to our wounded comrad; however...

a few years ago I got creamed from behind while out arcing, I of course was shaken but mostly I was concerned that whoever had collided with me may be a kid or yuppie skier, and I may be about to get blamed... luckily it was the friend I was riding with and we had a good laugh.

But this occurance is often our (the carvers) fault by in large due to the fact that we can execute a turn that no one else on the hill can even contimplate. So what ends up is that no one but another carver can actually tell what an alpine snowboarder is up to...

Remember your Bomber's give you super powers that gapers have no way of anticipating, that last victory arc before the lift lines is your responsibility to assure no one else is coming,

and reading between the lines its easy to see how that last carve may have been his own undoing...

[Jack M]

Originally posted by toddflyingdog

My best goes out to our wounded comrad; however...

this occurance is often our (the carvers) fault by in large due to the fact that we can execute a turn that no one else on the hill can even contimplate.

http://www.nsp.org/nsp2002/safety_info_template.asp?mode=yrc

[D-Sub]

yeah sorry todd but I wholeheartedly disagree with you. those of us with even a semblance of skill usually make rhythmic turns, PLUS...someone up hill can SEE us...regardless of big cranks to the right or left, if they come flyin up from behind it is they who are wrong, period.

I ran into a guy in steamboat once...he was directly in front of me on skis, making somewhat rhythmic turns. I said ON YOUR LEFT as I was comin by...wasnt even goin that fast as we were nearing a lift line, and the dude just CRANKS a left right in front of me. he went from 20-30 feet to my right, to RIGHT in front of me in a split second. Thank GOD I know how to carve even on a soft setup as I dropped down and cranked a heel turn. I still clipped him and he ate **** big time.

I stopped, took off my board, and went over to make sure he was ok.

what happened next was frightening. He started cussing at me, calling me a "FCKING SNOWBOARDER" etc etc. I kept saying "are you hurt?" and he finally said NO. At that point a crowd of skiers had gathered, and they were all cussing at me! Honest to god It felt like a lynch mob!

I asked him once again if he was OK, and he said "Im not hurt" (between cusses)

so I took off! I wasnt gonna sit there and get into it with a whole crowd who had decided I was some evil entity, when the dude had dropped a huge one right in front of me! I think he had decided to go up a different lift (to the left) instead of the one he had been heading towards.

scary.

that was 10 years ago. 2 weeks ago I was runnin down skyliner line, all alone except for two other carvers...in the middle of a transition from heels to toes, I see a flash of red and BAM! A guy on skis had come flyin off an intersecting run, RIGHT into my path!

he at CRAP. hard. really hard. Cartwheels and yardsale hard. I then ate it trying to STOP to see if he was ok.

he said "Im alright (laughing!)" and then "I was thinking of yelling or whistling or something"

THINKING OF IT?!?!?!

then he said "You were lookin good though!"

wtf? no one was hurt, so I bolted. Was pretty shaken up though and sketched hard on heel turns the rest of the day.

in either instance, even though they were clearly not my fault, I stuck around long enough to see if there were any injuries

[Baka Dasai]

Originally posted by D-Sub

...I said ON YOUR LEFT as I was comin by...

I think this is useless. There are a bunch of reasons:

<ol><li><p>Some people are deaf, or otherwise have bad hearing.</p></li><li><p>Some people are listening to music with headphones</p></li><li><p>Some people will misunderstand and assume that you are asking them to move left.</p></li><li><p>A surprisingly large number of people are unable to tell left from right without having to think about it for a few seconds. (Strangely, this is not correlated with intelligence.)</p><li><p>Some people are nervous enough when skiing/riding that having somebody yell something at them is enough to make them crash, or just freeze.</p></li></ol><p>Put all these together and I'd be surprised if calling out "On your left" worked better than 50% of the time.

[D-Sub]

its always worked quite well for me actually. I hear you though...and I assure you I dont make a habit of getting closer than 10' or so to people, just to be safe

the first incident, the guy just flat cranked one in front of me. i was plenty far away from him and in a flash I was on him.

actually had another incident here at bach...ridin the getback trail, this guy on a board kept cruisin up the side, which is fine, but he didnt even look to see if anyone was on the trail so when hed come cutting back down he took up the whole road. unfortunately I happened to be there the first time he did it, and he damn near knocked me off the trail, into a debris field from a recent avalanche!

THEN...further down the hill, just above pine marten, he cut on his heels right into me AGAIN!

kinda hard to avoid that sort of ****

[jtslalom]

mikemcse,

I ride at MC all the time. I live in Vernon and ride mostly at night from usually around 3:30 to 6:30. I ride Monday and Thursday or Friday nights, and usually twice on the weekends(only before 12 noon). I spend most of my time at south on the racing trail (if no race). Othewise I will ride north if Zero-G or Devils Bit are open. I ride usually around 40 days a year. I was there last on Monday night. Hopefully I will see you there.

[Guest toddflyingdog]

Hey, all I'm saying is that the average skier or boarder has no idea how to predict what a carver is up to....

Rarely is any collision totally one-sided; but to all those of you out there who simply have bad luck and have been blasted, my sympathies. Don't start boardercross, good luck is required!

The ammount of chaos out on the slopes always amazes me...

hard to believe the collisions are not more frequent

that's where faith comes in and a little magic- TD2's help...

[patmoore]

Our ski club has a "Torpedo". He's an elderly skier who must consider no ski trip complete without at least one collision. He even ran into me at Kirkwood when I was on a softboot setup. The impact was so hard, I had to pack snow on the back of my neck to stop the throbbing.

A year later at Zermatt he hit two different women the same day. He was relating the second incident at dinner: "I went left, right, left - I almost missed her!" It's a small comfort but at least he always stops to see how much damage he's caused.

Since then we've always made sure he's below us on the slope.

[D-Sub]

todd

youre right in a way

but...Id bet the majority of collision injuries are due to self centeredness, a pretty common social trait nowadays.

my first one..with the guy in steamboat...I was watching him, aware of him, and he did something erratic. my bad for not giving even wider berth? probably

but these recent incidents here at bachelor...one guy that was just reckless and one that was apparently just an *******

[kjl]

I agree with you, Todd. Regardless of whose fault a crash would technically be due to the skier's responsibility code, the fact of the matter is that we make movements that are unusual and unexpected for the vast majority of other skiers.

Our turns can even be tricky for people who are familiar with carvers. I had a huge crash with a telemarker friend of mine, who has ridden with me before and was specifically seeing if he could follow my line. I made a hard right turn, and he was unable to follow, so he decided to break off wide and left, to give me plenty of room. He gave me what he thought was more than enough clearance and then some, and I still managed to cut back and hit him in the knees with my shoulder...

Also, I view overly defensive carving kind of like being a pedestrian at a crosswalk - you may have the right of way, but you still look both ways before crossing, because no matter whose fault it is, it still sucks to get hit by a car.

[Jack M]

It is true that many people may not be ready for us to come arcing across the hill, and that it is smart for a carver to keep this in mind, and ride defensively. kjl's crosswalk analogy applies.

However, you used the keyword <b>fault</b>. Under no circumstances is a collision the fault of the downhill person if they are underway. ("underway" meaning they didn't just enter the trail, and didn't just start downhill from a stop.)

[Coldrider]

Originally posted by Tommy D

And it's getting worse. This all started back when ski areas stopped printing the Responsibility Code on all the napkins.

The code <I>is</I> on the napkins at the Colorado resorts I ride (Copper, Breck, A-Basin, Keystone, Vail, Beaver Creek). It's also on lift tickets. I think Safe skiing/riding is law in Colorado, where violators are subject to prosecution, fines, and imprisonment, but people still get hit--and hurt--here. I always look both ways before heading across the hill.

I think you're right: a heightened awareness--and practice--of the code would benefit everyone. I also think that many people on the hill don't realize it if they're just a bit out of control: most times they can get down the slopes without having to stop or turn suddenly, and with accuracy. I think more than a few are outdriving their headlights.

[Dave Pushee]

Originally posted by Jack Michaud

However, you used the keyword <b>fault</b>. Under no circumstances is a collision the fault of the downhill person if they are underway. ("underway" meaning they didn't just enter the trail, and didn't just start downhill from a stop.)

Hmm, I managed to avoid him, but how about the **** who passes and then immediately pulls up in a hockey stop?