Deadly collision

I've been hit twice, once by a drunken skier, once by an out of control snowboarder on an icy snow day. Thankfully no significant injuries.<br><br>It's not the equipment -- it's the atittude that causes the trouble. <br><br>Back in the mid-70's there was a fatality hit and run at Mission Ridge where an out of control skier slammed another into a tree and then snuck away while the ski patrol was administering CPR.<br><br>I know some parent's whose son was hit at Snoqualmie -- he was transformed from "bright young kid" to "developmentally disabled"<br><br>OTH -- there are probably more fatalities driving to and from ski areas each year than at ski areas.<br><br>

Geez - if this were cc.com we could have gotten a nice ski vs snowboard argument going by now and we could get the thread to 5 pages in a snap. But I'm afraid I have to agree - back before snowboards, OOC teenagers on skis were just as scary as anything on a snowboard today. Maybe music players add some extra hazard, but better equipment returns some control, so my bet is that accident stats would show something close to a wash over time. Giving the OOC folks a piece of your mind seems to do no good - even yanking lift tickets is probably just good for getting that individual off the slopes for the day.

IMO the inexperienced, coupled with the high speed differential creates the danger. A similar situation happens at rush hour on the freeways when folks in the stopped lanes try to get in to the commuter lanes. That speed differential is causing so many accidents that some areas are considering doing away with commuter lanes unless they are limited access. Once the car or person overtaking get the speed up significantly higher than the other it just takes a slight miscalculation to cause a collision; things just happen too fast at those high speeds. <br>It seems like it might help to have a run or two at a ski area dedicated to only high speed skiing/riding... and then enforce the speed rules better on the regular runs.<br>A few more deaths on the slopes and the ski areas will have to do something or see a drop in ticket sales.<br>I won't even go to many of the areas on the weekends just because of this danger.

A year or two ago I got clipped from behind at Stevens. Cleanest tackle you ever saw. It was a snowboarder in a slow zone. (I was skiing with my son.) He got up, rode away, and immediately fell down. He was a novice with no control.<br><br>My wife likes to ski behind our son so that an overtaking skier or snowboarder is more likely to hit her first. I'm happy to see ski patrollers staking out certain spots on the hill and slowing people down. Queen's Run at Crystal is one such place.<br><br>I agree it's not a snowboarder problem, per se. It's an irresponsibility problem. Too bad somebody has to die before we can do anything about it.

I recently saw a young skier, a mountain employee in uniform at Snoqualmie, who just HAD to hit a little drop off to one side of a run. Very good skier, but he ended up trying to hold the landing together for about 20 yard before falling and sliding into a young girl who was snowboarding slowly down the hill.<br><br>My wife rides pretty slowly and very deliberately in a narrow, defined, predictable area, and jerks whiz by her at very close range all the time, seems like several times every time she goes out. She's been run into at least 3 times that I recall, but never at high speed. She weighs less than 120 lbs, and as we push up into our 30's she is more and more worried about being run over and seriously injured.<br><br>This worry actually makes her ride less -- mostly now on uncrowded days w/ decent conditions. She's probably being a little wimpy, but then again why shouldn't she be able to expect that resorts will do everything w/in their power to keep her safe? And since they don't I operate w/ a wild West mentality -- if I'm present when you recklessly hit her I'm gonna hit you, even if it means a ride in the back of a sheriff's car. <br><br>I'm beginning to wish there was a more expensive ski area around here locally, like 1000 bucks for a pass or 80-100 dollars for a day ticket. I would gladly pay it, even at a little place, that provided the following:<br><br>1) strictly limited lift-ticket sales for crowd control<br><br>2) Lift operators who actually earnestly check to see that everyone on the lifts has paid (not like Snoqualmie, where ticket checks are rare and probably 1/3 of the people on the mountain are skiing for free).<br><br>3) excellent, buffed-out grooming, more than a cursory once over, particulary if conditions are a rough to begin with. Runs (and parks, and lift lines, and ramps off lifts)that are as well-groomed as equipment and conditions allow.<br><br>4) Active, sensible policing (and meaningful enforcement) of all activities that put others in danger. There is a fine line here, but basically go crazy and have fun unless for you that means straight-line tucking through a ski school group, riding out of control at the peril of others, etc)<br><br>5) open the lifts on time if it isn't a safety issue<br><br>And that's it. I don't want Aspen or the Yosemite Club per se; I don't need snobby amenities or bow and scrape service or separation from the other half, but I'd be happy to pay a premium for smaller crowds, mechanisms to eliminate the jerks, and carefully prepared runs for the turns I earn in front of a computer.<br><br>Let me know where to send the check.

My 7 year old, a pretty good skier and a buff little shit, was nailed full on by a boarder at Ski Acres on Friday. While there were a number of people around, it wasn't so crowded he couldn't go anywhere else. If it were that crowded, well then, he should have been moving more slowly and with more care. My wife got there first and gave me the look that said, 'don't go off' so I didn't let him have it though I wanted to. Thank goodness he wasn't seriously hurt, but the rider was going fast and recklessly enough that it could have easily been disastrous. He was apologetic and not flippant about it and stayed to be sure my son was OK, and I hope he learned something from the experience.<br><br>While I wouldn't go so far as to call it a 'snowboarder problem', here's my theory for which I might take a good deal of abuse: I believe, having been a skier for35 years and having learned to snowboard a few years back (though I rarely use my rig since I bought fat skis), that the problem is in lack of professional guidance. The learning curve to adequacy on a snowboard is so short (remember, I learned to ride to a point slightly past minimal adequacy so I can say this from experience and it took 3 days to have a reasonably good time getting down a hill, one day of which was a lesson form a pro) compared to adequacy on skis that many (dare I say a vast majority) snowboarders never have any professional instruction. <br><br>I don't think I'm on acid to say that many skiers (dare I say a vast majority) here and elsewhere have had professional instruction and in my experience with said instruction as a kid with good ol' Buzz Fiorini, it ALWAYS included a constant stream of dialog about skiing in control, keeping an eye on what's going on above you as well as in your path as well as a number of other safety and courtesy lessons and we got those fundamentals drilled into us from the time we first put our leather boots into our cable bindings. These fundamentals are not part of most snowboarders training and short learning curve, and to that I attribute some if this problem as well as some other issues sometimes referred to as 'snowboarder problems'.<br><br>I'm not sure what the solution is, but it sure would be nice to see a little more caution and courtesy. BTW, I know there are many, many cautious, careful and considerate snowboarders as well as knucklehead skiers out there (the young jib crowd - many of whom appear to be figuring skiing out on their own - is sometimes guilty of these behaviors). It would be interesting to know if there are stats on collisions, accidents and who causes them and under what circumstances.<br><br>OK, bring it on!