Latest posts for the topic "Your most spectacular fall ?"

Your most spectacular fall ?

Thu, 8 Dec 2011 05:33:30 GMT

I know we have all had one, that moment you catch an edge just as you go past a big group of people or ski past the cafe!
In my excitement at my looming ski trip,(she, as a non skier just doesnt understand my excitement and why im awake at this time, 5am of a morning checking webcams even though its too early!) i was telling my girlfriend about the time when in canada, skiing the goats eye run (very steep wide run) i caught an edge and fell. as it was under the lift everyone was watching, so i thought i could at least slide down with some grace, lifting my edges so not to catch, i must of slipped about a hundred yards and just as i reached the bottom, going quite slow by now, i literally put my edges down and stood with my momentum and skied slowly away to applause from the chairlift above! and one of my other more memorable ones, in canada again, skiing with the ski hosts, there was a professional nigel mansell lookalike(it was in the 90's afterall) in our group. Skiing our way through some gnarly snow at quite a speed he came straight across in front of me, in avoiding him i lost an edge and down i went, but sort of bounced back up off a hump and carried on as if nothing had happened. he was amazed at how i had managed such a manouvre. he thought i had done it intentionally!! who am i to spoil his day :wink:
As with all our stories when we recite them to others..."I suppose you had to be there" applies here too, but you guys must have some cracking "falling with grace" stories :mrgreen:

Re:Your most spectacular fall ?

Thu, 8 Dec 2011 09:37:51 GMT

I have not had a spectacular fall but Mrs W did many years ago in Bormio, we both came out the cable car right at the top then you turn left down a narrow stretch I skied ahead and we agreed to meet at an agreed spot futher down the mountain. I reached the spot and she is not behind me I was starting to get a tad worried then I noticed her in the middle of this steep snow field she had caught an edge on the narrow run and went under the orange netting and must have fell about a hundred meters down this steep snow field.
I was too far down the mountain to get to her quickley but her Italian knight in shining armour as she calls him went under the netting and managed to find both skis and rescued her.
We still laugh about it today ..... but I was slightly worried. :wink:

Re:Your most spectacular fall ?

Thu, 8 Dec 2011 10:06:33 GMT

OK - here goes, maybe not specatacular in the sense of great waves of snow, sliding for miles, head first etc etc etc

But the effect was pretty good.
Son and I pootling down a green road, getting from A to B. Ski school in front, tiddly ones :D
They were taking a little jump at the side of a piste, by a pole. One kid got a ski on either side of pole - crash! Upside down etc etc.
Knight in shiny red ski gear - me :roll: - stops checks she's OK, picks her up to untangle skis, legs, arms etc from the pole .....
And promptly falls over, backwards, with small child on top!
Both stuck - son laughing head off, shuffles over to help, profers ski pole, I grab it and pull ...
He falls over!
By this time the ski instructor has shuffled back up the slope to rescue her kid - and is having clear hysterics, crying with laughter.
Eventually untangle everything and everybody to receive a round of applause from an audience that had gathered to watch.
Most embarassing :oops:

Re:Your most spectacular fall ?

Thu, 8 Dec 2011 11:37:00 GMT

Verbier, April 2008. Fresh dump of overnight snow, we took the Jumbo cable car up to Col des Gentianes just under Mont Fort. Brilliant sunshine, beautiful snow. We skied off the top part and suddenly hit fog as the clouds came up from the valley. It was literally 10m visability at best so I was skiing from one bright red piste marker to the next, my daughter skiing behind me.
Next thing I know I'm in mid air and falling fast; between the last and next piste marker the piste took a sharp right, I didn't and my daughter said she watched in horror as I literally went straight over the edge and disappeared.
I fell about 15m into piles of fresh snow luckily, down a steep bank. Realising where I was with my daughter shouting from above, I saw the funny side. I located my skis, but getting up that bank back onto the piste was one of the hardest things I've ever done and took 20 minutes as I kept sinking in had to spread my weight and literally crawl back up. I was knackered!!!

Re:Your most spectacular fall ?

Thu, 8 Dec 2011 12:58:17 GMT

Was that the last time you fell over Tony? :roll:

Re:Your most spectacular fall ?

Thu, 8 Dec 2011 13:00:40 GMT

I think kine was Chamonixa few years back. On the edge of a red slope, got ski stuck in a bit of random deep snow. Fell off the edge of the slope.....into VERY deep snow. Could not stand up so my ski buddies had to lie on their bellies and drag me out!! That was after they had stopped laughing and taking pics! :lol:

Re:Your most spectacular fall ?

Thu, 8 Dec 2011 14:02:10 GMT

Iceman wrote:Was that the last time you fell over Tony? :roll:

No I've had a couple of off piste tumbles more recently but pretty unspectacular and all because I'm trying too hard.

Re:Your most spectacular fall ?

Thu, 8 Dec 2011 14:33:31 GMT

Serre chevalier 2007 last week of the season. We had a massive dump of snow overnight and this was to be my first time in what I would class as 'deep powder'. So up early we headed out and it was great fun, by the time it reached mid afternoon the sun was out and we were all pretty tired from keeping the front of the boards out of the powder but having great fun. Anyway we came off the lift (Can't remember which) and instead of taking the marked run turned to go off piste. At the bottom of the stretch (It was only about 100m or so) there was a massive group of people so I set off first, full of confidence in my new found powder skiing skills. I got half way down and started to scream with delight causing people to turn and look. About 10m from the bottom my tired legs gave way and the front of my board dug in sending me into a front flip. I landed on my head causing stars, when I came to I was surrounded by about 10 people making sure I was ok.

Wouldn't of been so bad if I hadn't screamed, very embarrassing.

Re:Your most spectacular fall ?

Thu, 8 Dec 2011 18:54:23 GMT

Does falling down 6 steps tonight on the way home from work count? Had big golf brolly, 60mph gust hit me and I took off and went down the steps! :twisted: :shock:

Re:Your most spectacular fall ?

Thu, 8 Dec 2011 19:11:12 GMT

Why it's Mary Poppins :shock:

Re:Your most spectacular fall ?

Thu, 8 Dec 2011 19:12:22 GMT

Austria - Mayrhofen - Harakiri.

Pretty much speaks for its self eh ? Anyway, for anyone who has skied the Harakiri plenty of times knows that a patch of ice usually develops on the skiers right just bellow of the knuckle where it stars to get step....However, i didnt as it was my first time. Went down there full steam ahead not knowing what i was in for when i slepped on the ice and got swept straight onto my a*se and started to fly down the 78% degree slope, but this wasnt the worst of it, little did i know that avalanche barries were also to my right ! As the snow sprayed in my face i got glimpes of the barries and lucky directed myself away from them but still flew off the run and into some deep snow where i rag-dolled and ended up having my buddy dig me out - who was in histarics by the way. We then spent the next 20-30 mins digging to find my skis and poles as they were skattered all over the place !

I laugh about it now, but think how lucky i was not to hit them barriers, ouch !

Re:Your most spectacular fall ?

Thu, 8 Dec 2011 19:34:22 GMT

*tut tut out of control on unknown pistes* :roll: ;)

Re:Your most spectacular fall ?

Thu, 8 Dec 2011 19:37:57 GMT

GummyBear wrote:Austria - Mayrhofen - Harakiri.

Pretty much speaks for its self eh ? Anyway, for anyone who has skied the Harakiri plenty of times knows that a patch of ice usually develops on the skiers right just bellow of the knuckle where it stars to get step....However, i didnt as it was my first time. Went down there full steam ahead not knowing what i was in for when i slepped on the ice and got swept straight onto my a*se and started to fly down the 78% degree slope, but this wasnt the worst of it, little did i know that avalanche barries were also to my right ! As the snow sprayed in my face i got glimpes of the barries and lucky directed myself away from them but still flew off the run and into some deep snow where i rag-dolled and ended up having my buddy dig me out - who was in histarics by the way. We then spent the next 20-30 mins digging to find my skis and poles as they were skattered all over the place !

I laugh about it now, but think how lucky i was not to hit them barriers, ouch !

:mrgreen: :mrgreen:

Re:Your most spectacular fall ?

Thu, 8 Dec 2011 20:19:52 GMT

I think the best one I have had was on the mens downhill course in Lake Louise.

About 2/3 of the way down you come over a ridge and hit a shortish steep bit. Not really sure what happened, but I suddenly found myself no longer on my skis :shock: I could not stop myself at all, and am sure I was accelerating as I slid for the best part of 80 yards down the piste towards a left hand bend. Fortunately, the catch netting had been put up prior to a competition, and I can honestly say, it is very impressive in the way it stops you when you hit it.

I passed the two buddies I was skiing with on my back, and they both nearly wet themselves laughing as I floundered down on my back :shock:

The good news, throughout all this, I kept both my skis on and both poles stayed attached, and I simply stood up in the netting and was back out on the piste before the others were even half way down the bit I had slid :twisted:

It was probably this single event which caused me to start skiing with a helmet, as I was totally stunned at the way I just accelerated down the slope on my back.

Re:Your most spectacular fall ?

Thu, 8 Dec 2011 20:24:23 GMT

I feel totally indequate ........

I don't have any brilliant stories about amazing falls. :cry:
Mine all seem to be of the very silly variety rather than the wow variety.

:XD:

Re:Your most spectacular fall ?

Thu, 8 Dec 2011 21:20:06 GMT

Far Queue wrote:I think the best one I have had was on the mens downhill course in Lake Louise.

About 2/3 of the way down you come over a ridge and hit a shortish steep bit. Not really sure what happened, but I suddenly found myself no longer on my skis :shock: I could not stop myself at all, and am sure I was accelerating as I slid for the best part of 80 yards down the piste towards a left hand bend. Fortunately, the catch netting had been put up prior to a competition, and I can honestly say, it is very impressive in the way it stops you when you hit it.

I passed the two buddies I was skiing with on my back, and they both nearly wet themselves laughing as I floundered down on my back :shock:

The good news, throughout all this, I kept both my skis on and both poles stayed attached, and I simply stood up in the netting and was back out on the piste before the others were even half way down the bit I had slid :twisted:

It was probably this single event which caused me to start skiing with a helmet, as I was totally stunned at the way I just accelerated down the slope on my back.

That sounds exactly like what happened to me!!!!!!!!! lake louise downhill course 1997....no netting to catch me though, luckily i went past the trees and not into them! I have to show erindoors exactly where it happened as every skier goes past on the mens and womens downhill race......"thats where i almost killed myself"
Whats the chances! :D

Re:Your most spectacular fall ?

Thu, 8 Dec 2011 21:22:13 GMT

moogy wrote:"thats where i almost killed myself"
Whats the chances! :D

:shock: I knew it wasn't just me. They should put one of those accident black spot marks up to warn people :twisted:

Re:Your most spectacular fall ?

Thu, 8 Dec 2011 21:49:32 GMT

i was demoing some rosiignol skis during my season in Bormio (and hating them).

On the way back to the bottom where I was going to tell the guy exactly what I thought of them I came around a corner, caught a bump and shot straight off the side of the path.

Somehow I missed two enormous tree trunks-went straight between them, hit the powder snow and front somersaulted through the trees landing in the pine needles below. I missed a 3foot sharp rock too.

How I didnt break my back or at least serious injure my knees is beyond me......

To add insult to injury we couldnt find my ski that came off-it was up in one of the trees above head height!!

If these work here is a photo of the moment we found it

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=476347200057&set=t.223000559&type=1&theater

and here is me in shock after climbing out and guinely realising I should have been serious hurt

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=476347210057&set=t.223000559&type=1&theater

moral of the story-never go at your normal speed on equipment you dont know well

I now own a back brace and wear a helmet almost all the time!!!

Re:Your most spectacular fall ?

Thu, 8 Dec 2011 22:15:35 GMT

The photos worked. You do look quite shocked. It's horrible when you think about what you've done and what might have happened. Fortunately we all lived to tell our tales.

I've had a couple of close shaves, but the most amusing was in Mayrhofen, off piste, snowboarding, great blue sky powder day, I misjudged some bumps and hit a small tree, luckily it was very bendy and I actually did my one and only ever 360 over the top of it, and landed in a huge snow drift.

Once you know you're ok, its fine to laugh.

Re:Your most spectacular fall ?

Thu, 8 Dec 2011 22:48:30 GMT

. . .trying to ski down a very icy red run, i end up on bottom,screaming help i cant stop. My partner dives out to grab my legs and i end up sliding down head first. I lose my skis and within a minute 2 Italian 'stallions' arrive with my skis on their shoulders!!!

Re:Your most spectacular fall ?

Fri, 9 Dec 2011 11:33:57 GMT

helmut :(

Re:Your most spectacular fall ?

Fri, 9 Dec 2011 16:40:18 GMT

Sorry admin, I posted that without seeing your post telling us off.

Re:Your most spectacular fall ?

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 22:42:40 GMT

Hi newbie here, be gentle :D More along the ridiculous than spectacular- following a mountain host thru the kiddy area in Are Sweden at literally 5mph followed him thru a gap in the tree's having missed the instruction to bear right as I lit a cigarette, found myself airborne, only a couple of feet but totally unexpected, landed in a heap on the back of his skis, red faced, uninjured and still with my poles under my armpit, fag in my mouth and butt tin in my hand. That will teach me for trying to to smoke on the move!

Re:Your most spectacular fall ?

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 23:12:49 GMT

I'm not going to mention my falls. They all happened early days, and even now, are too painful to think about.

Instead :D, I'm going to show you a mate of mine. We were offpiste, coming down the Standard in N. and just near the bottom, going through the trees, and trying to outdo each other, he took a purler. How sad. One of only 2/3 occasions that year when I had my Brownie 127 with me.

There was a muffled cry for help.....

Right, Stu, just a moment......

Re:Your most spectacular fall ?

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 02:42:18 GMT

lilywhite wrote: Hi newbie here, be gentle :D More along the ridiculous than spectacular- following a mountain host thru the kiddy area in Are Sweden at literally 5mph followed him thru a gap in the tree's having missed the instruction to bear right as I lit a cigarette, found myself airborne, only a couple of feet but totally unexpected, landed in a heap on the back of his skis, red faced, uninjured and still with my poles under my armpit, fag in my mouth and butt tin in my hand. That will teach me for trying to to smoke on the move!

They say smoking can be bad for your health!
"Government health warning. smoking whilst skiing can be bad for you and your instructors health" :mrgreen:

Re:Your most spectacular fall ?

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 02:46:05 GMT

Dave Mac wrote:I'm not going to mention my falls. They all happened early days, and even now, are too painful to think about.

There was a muffled cry for help.....

Right, Stu, just a moment......

That looks like father christmas :shock:
Seems like that would of been quite difficult to of extracted ones self from! good job you was there to help...and take a photo :D

Re:Your most spectacular fall ?

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 12:36:21 GMT

Not really a fall as such, but more of a wipe-out.

I was skiing with my school many moons ago, and one of the rich kids had his own ski'. Turns out they were way to long and he had trouble turning with them. It was the last bit of a run before the chairlift back up and the group had split up. I was at the front, and a few others had fallen behind so they could go a bit quicker, and probably do some spectacular turn/stop at the end and impress the girls.

Anyway, matey boy with the long skis was going like the clappers, and failed to see the group all standing at the bottom waiting. When he finally did, it was all a bit to late, he managed to get on his edges, but was going way to fast, lost control, and proceeded to plough through me, and my ski pole. When I say through my ski pole, I mean literally; he snapped it in half. During the subsequent trip to the hospital for an x-ray and to get some blood drained from around my knee, the doc said the pole probably snapped instead of my leg! I still have it somewhere (the pole).

Surprisingly I only needed one day off, went back to the hospital and they said as long as I feel up to it, I can carry on skiing. I've never had any problems with the knee since either…

Re:Your most spectacular fall ?

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 13:35:37 GMT

Les Arcs 2010, it was a white out with very poor visibility where by many of the slopes merged into one from the amount of fresh snow on the pistes. I thought I could straight line down to the chair lift and cut the corner but little did I know there was a small stream about 5 ft deep that had been covered up by the snow, before I knew what was going on I slammed into it at full speed snapping both poles and dislodging a binding. I was completely fine, snow in every piece of kit and a small dent in my helmet (thank god I was wearing one) the entire chairlift and the small cue were in fits of laughter and so was I when I realised what happened as I left behind a cartoon style body shape in the snow.

Re:Your most spectacular fall ?

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 18:25:08 GMT

Not so much Spectacular as funny looking back on them.

1995 Sunshine Village (Banff): Teaching myself to snowboard. Went out by myself and then caught up with a mate who worked on the mountain during his lunch break. Coming down to the bottom of the chairlift a bit hot, caught a front-side edge plowed nose first into the wooden post supporting the rope to rope off the chair, spun around the post and smacked my shin. My mate and his friends were applauding and laughing while I sat in the snow. They were short of time and took off for another run after laughing some more. Came back in about 10 minutes time to find me still sitting at the base of the chairlift in a pool of my own blood with ski-patrol in attendance. Turns out I had broken my nose and badly bruised my shin. I got many miles out of that with my mate, claiming he had abandoned me in my hour of need.

2009 Perisher (Snowy Mountains Australia): I had put my noob skiing GF into morning lessons so I could get some free skiing in. Was making my way back towards the school pickup spot by coming down a black run and hit a big lip to clear a traverse. Landed in a pocket of blown powder and bit it big time. Just as I'm dragging myself out of the deep snow my GF's class all ski pass with the GF pissing herself laughing and saying to the instructor that is my BF and he supposedly can ski. Funny stuff.

Re:Your most spectacular fall ?

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 22:18:47 GMT

My eldest daughter, on our first week's skiing did a hockey stick stop, or rather got it wrong, and as she fell the tips of her skis shot up - one passing through the crotch of my salopettes!
Missed a mountain vasectomy by the thickness of my y fronts!

Re:Your most spectacular fall ?

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 22:21:44 GMT

NICE SHARP EDGES....

Re:Your most spectacular fall ?

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 11:30:25 GMT

What's a hockey stick stop?

Re:Your most spectacular fall ?

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 12:00:28 GMT

Myself and the missus decided to go to Serre Che with friends, and it was our second ever week skiing. On our first holiday the previous year, we were in ski school, and had progressed to a couple of red runs by the end of the week.

Naturally, we thought on our first day of our second holiday a year later we could jump straight on to a steep red, of course egged on by our friends.

It all started out fine, but we came to a steep bit and both of us simultaneously bottled it, and went over forwards. We both proceeded to slide down about 500 feet head first, on opposite sides of the slope, synchronised swimming style.

Our friends told us we looked awesome, we didn't believe them.

Re:Your most spectacular fall ?

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 13:02:47 GMT

not spectaular but most predictable:

Few years ago in Pas de la Casa with the lads. Every day we'd go out and ski all over without incident and then on the way down into town (Tubs run) we'd pause on the last ledge to make sure everyone was together and which bar we were heading for.

Every day without fail I'd get to said flat, unimpeding bit and fall over as I stopped. Much hilarity from the chaps before heading down for a well earned beer and Flugel in the Underground!

Re:Your most spectacular fall ?

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 13:14:14 GMT

My OH and I decided to take a short cut between pistes after a particularly heavy snow fall. All went well until we reached the other piste which was very narrow and several feet below where we were standing. The only route seemed straight down. My OH (who is a much better skier than I) found a previously worn path down to the piste which involved jumping down two "steps" already built into the snow by other short cutters. Looked easy when he did it but of course I panicked, leant back and fell off the second step. Result = upside down lying across the piste in the way of everyone with both skis firmly wedged in the deep bank of snow. I couldn't move to disentangle myself because I was laughing so hard, I was totally helpless, meanwhile the queue was building up behind my prone body. Eventually I had to take my skis off as I was incapable through laughter of doing anything else.

Re:Your most spectacular fall ?

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 14:49:28 GMT

Maybe not spectacular when compared to some of the other stories, but certainly memorable for me - I've fell many times, but that was the first (and thnkfully only, so far) time someone else wiped me out. Flippin' boarder coming down the piste behind me on his toe edge, onbviously looking where he'd been instead of where he was going, ploughed right into me. Carried me down the slope a little way, me swearing at him all the time. Picked myself up, skiied a bit longer then gave up. back at the apartment, leg very sore - anyway, long story short I had a lumpy, swollen bruise about 6 inches in diamater at the tope of my calf where he'd hit me and the top of my ski boot. Very lucky really, an inch or two higher and I'd have broken/dislocated my knee. Took about 6 weeks for the bruising to go properly - ouch.

Re:Your most spectacular fall ?

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 15:31:09 GMT

ok my most spectacular (not very) would have to be in Flaine last year. I was going back to the hotel for lunch so decided to go flat out down a red run so I didn't have to walk as far to the hotel. I managed to survive the steeper sections at top speed but when I was on the flat section I have no idea what happened but my right ski decided it wanted to ski off the right this caused me to roll and fall with both skis popping off and me rolling and sliding about 15m across the flat snow. Quite hurt my knee when I came to a stop. I then stumbled back up to my skis and slowly back to the hotel. My laziness cause me to walk about twice the distance :(

The fall I remember most is when I stopped mid slope just infront of a slow sign/banner to wait for someone. Without realising I started sliding backwards straight into the sign, I then ended up wrapped up and stuck in this slow banner unable to get up so had to wait in the middle of the slope wrapped up in the slow banner until my friend finally caught up and freed me