22 year old dies in skiing accident

How on earth can you ski into a snow cannon :?: :?: :?:

Ian Wickham wrote:How on earth can you ski into a snow cannon :?: :?: :?:

I am completely confused with this accident, but obviously my condolences to his family and friends go out to them!

john987 wrote:

Ian Wickham wrote:How on earth can you ski into a snow cannon :?: :?: :?:

I am completely confused with this accident, but obviously my condolences to his family and friends go out to them!

A few weeks ago I was skiing in Sestriere & another skier almost went into one of these cannons.

We went to the highest point on the drag lift black 31 ( Olympic slope ) joining red 9 halfway down till last stretch either red 9 or 10, I've put these details as some ( TH ) will know the route.
The last section was the problem its steep & tree lined & was totally sheet ice apart from some very small piles of scrapings scattered about.It should have been closed but the other route down was closed so no options but to join the other 30 odd skiers in difficulties so off I went, the first turn left me sliding sideways for approx 30 mts till I lost balance & ending up spinning around & eventually stopped by getting my skis in front & into a pile of scrapings.While sitting there I felt the edges of my hired skis & found them to be blunt & now realised I'm in real trouble as I would not be able to ski down & no one would be able to help due to all having problems & only able to get themselves down.The side of the piste was slightly raised with about 50 cms of snow on it, after that its a drop into the trees, in the end side slipped using the small strip of snow on the side which meant that
over half the skis were on the ice & always trying to runaway from you, took 20 mins in the end before I decided to schuss the remainder & sort it out at the bottom.

While I was slipping the slope another skier came speeding past & went off the edge missing the snow cannon by a whisker no doubt due to the ice, at the pace he was going & had hit that cannon he would have been in a bad way for sure so I can see how it could happen padding or not.

Ian Wickham wrote:How on earth can you ski into a snow cannon :?: :?: :?:

I almost did in VT. HOwever vis was down to <10m :oops:

Ian Wickham wrote:How on earth can you ski into a snow cannon :?: :?: :?:

Can of worms about to be opened.

As a rule of thumb few impacts between cars and pedestrians at less than 30mph are fatal however at 40 the odds are less in the padestrian's favour.

If you swap pedestrian for skier and car for snow canon - then the only difference is which is moving (& that's relative).

Even relatively new skiers can hit 40mph when schussing and for an experienced skier not in the least out of the ordinary. But if you hit a stationary, immovable object the consequences can be catastrophic.

As skiers it's a small but real risk we take that if things go wrong we might get injured or worse. Fortunately it's a rare event and our condolences to his loved ones safe in the knowlege he passed away doing something he enjoyed.

Iceman wrote:

Ian Wickham wrote:How on earth can you ski into a snow cannon :?: :?: :?:

I almost did in VT. HOwever vis was down to <10m :oops:

Then you were skiing too fast 8)

Ian Wickham wrote:How on earth can you ski into a snow cannon :?: :?: :?:

Apparently he was skiing extremely fast, guess he must have lost it.

Terrible accident.