What is your worst ski day ever?

**thefrush** · 10-28-2008, 01:53 PM

Only if they keep the heater on.

**srsosbso** · 10-28-2008, 03:04 PM

Long, long story.

Got a month off from my medical internship in April of 1989 and decided to go to the U.K. on vacation. (ya, I know, who goes to England in April...?) Anyway, weather was shitty (duh...) so I walked into a travel agency and said "get me outa here" and they sent me to greece for a week for next-to-no cost, which was good. Jet-lagged, I fell asleep on the beach day one and got burned to a crisp, which was a lot less good. That's the preamble.

Back to England, weather even worse, walked into the SAME travel agency, same spiel, sent me skiing in Saas Fe (cool!) Cheap trip (again), staying in a chalet with a bunch of middle aged british business types ( I was all of 28 at the time.) Two or three days of decent skiing on rental gear, then snow. Two METERS (6 1/2 feet) in 48 hours. Completely shut the place down for avy control.

The brits did what brits do, and started drinking. Hard. So, being a when-in-Rome sort of guy, I jumped in. Gluhvein, wine, beer, yada yada. I passed out at 6am.

At 8am one of the drunk English guys bursts into my room clutching his elbow and telling me that one of the OTHER guys is out of his mind and I need to do something. (Note to self- never admit to medical training when on vacation.) Turns out crazy guy threw elbow guy off the second floor balcony. Wouldn't have been bad for elbow guy, landing in 6+ feet of pow and all, but crazy guy fell over the railing and landed on top of him- hence the arm injury. Elbow guy says he's fine, but I need to do something about the "nutter" upstairs.

Then my roomate wakes up- 48 year old tailor from London. He tells me his heart is beating funny, and I take his pulse, and sure as shit he's in atrial fibrillation, which is not good. I know he smokes, so I ask him "any chest pain with that" and he says "no", so that's good. Then he says (no word of a lie) "just a sort of band like tightening around my chest," which is, of course, not good.

I am, of course, still three sheets to the wind at this point. So I decide to go have a shower.

By the time I'm out, nut-bar has mercifully passed out. So I take elbow guy and A-fib/rate-dependent-ischemia guy to the local clinic where the panic stricken swiss doc lets me (read "insists that I") take over. We shoot x-rays of elbow guy's, well, elbow and read them against the new snow because the viewing box is broken, and it looks fracture free, which is good. Then we find some appropriate meds (oral Adalat I think) for A-fib guy, and his heart rate slows and converts to normal rhythm and his chest pain stops, all also good. And crazy-man is no longer psychotic- just hung-over.

The next morning the mountain reopens with what was undoubtedly astra-fucking-nomical skiing which we view from the windows of our departing bus which takes us to the airport for the flight back to England, where it is STILL FUCKING RAINING.

**basinbum** · 10-28-2008, 03:54 PM

Originally Posted by alias

No f'ing way, that happened to someone else too!!!??

yes it did last winter at snowbasin on strawberry at the top of the lift same exact place you described and i was in the gondola with him (before i was a part of this comunity, or even knew who he was)
leading me to believe alias=frozen
http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/s...d.php?t=118771

**alias** · 10-28-2008, 03:56 PM

Originally Posted by basinbum

yes it did last winter at snowbasin on strawberry at the top of the lift same exact place you described and i was in the gondola with him (before i was a part of this comunity, or even knew who he was)
http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/s...d.php?t=118771

Just read that post. Damn wierd. You would think that once would be enough to make the changes necesary to see that it didn't happen again.

**brown9** · 10-28-2008, 03:56 PM

I got up for first chair last season at stevens, and took a lap up 7th heaven first thing. Rocked Nancy chute, and took 7th back up. on the next run, I ejected, but what seemed too easy. I click back in and decide to keep the pace up and clean my boot at the bottom of Big Chief as i'm about to head to the backside. I go to use my pole and pop my boot out, when as I'm doing that the whole rear piece of my binding comes out too. Crushed me. I was hurt because even though i would get my ski fixed, I wasted the gas, and the day skipping work on it. So I basically lost a lot of money. Luckily it didn't happen on top of a cliff or something shitty like that and I wasn't hurt. Hope that never happens.

**Parvo** · 10-28-2008, 04:05 PM

I once sharted in the gondola.
I'm pretty sure that 20 min ride was the worst ski day ever for my friends.

**basinbum** · 10-28-2008, 04:12 PM

Originally Posted by alias

Just read that post. Damn wierd. You would think that once would be enough to make the changes necesary to see that it didn't happen again.

theres not much they can really do in means of changes its just the need to have cat drivers that are just a step above brilliant

**Greg_o** · 10-28-2008, 06:40 PM

Small potatoes here but I've only been on skis three seasons. I've got lots of time for major injuries.

Last season, went out to BC for for my first taste of real skiing. On day 3 at Kicking Horse - snowing pretty good, bit of powder, but flat light. My first time experiencing flat light.

Took the gonola up, first run going down, just sort of taking things in, dropped over a tiny bump of a ledge. Landed it.

Look back to warn the girl about the dip, and I go over another one, didn't land it. Hit my forehead pretty good (had a helmet on), lots of blood in the mouth.

Skied down slowly, and ended up losing two days of a 7 day trip.

Can not wait to get back to KH.

**TyWebb** · 10-28-2008, 07:10 PM

Originally Posted by basinbum

theres not much they can really do in means of changes its just the need to have cat drivers that are just a step above brilliant

This is hard to watch...be one with the sarcasm...

**Lone Star** · 10-28-2008, 07:21 PM

breaking my back sucked but as bad as the result was, I don't look back on it like it was a bad day. the shin-bang hurt like hell (and the broken back, in that order) but morphine et al made the apres a most enjoyable experience, given the circumstances.

**Ak4life** · 10-28-2008, 07:42 PM

When I was 14 my father took me and my best friend for a day at Alyeska, when we arrived they were closed due to heavy rain. We turned around and headed to Alpineglow/Arctic Valley when we got there it was closed due to high winds. At this point we had few options, either Hilltop (sucks no matter what) or Hillburg on EAFB. We decided to get on base and check out Hillburg the military hill. Its small but they groom several times a day, and have all kinds of jumps and a halfpipe.

So we skied all day and had a blast, it was late and we heard the call for last chair. Me and my buddy were near the bottom far to one side. We start traversing over to the lift. I was about 50 or so feet from the ropes for the lift line and out of nowhere.....BAM!!! I got broadsided by an out of control skier that was twice my size...

I was on my K2 Extremes, When he hit me he ran over my skis. His left ski was infront of my bindings and his right was behind them. Needless he hit me square on my left shoulder. It spun me backwards, my left leg released but my right didnt. He drove right through me. I ended up with a massive spiral fracture from the top of my tib to the bottom and a nasty broken fib and a fuct up ACL.

The only reason why I didnt break my left as well was because I had just pole planted and it was directly in line with my leg.

Found out later that the soldier was drunk and it was his first time skiing and he had injured his kneecap. If I wasnt in the way he would of went in the ski racks.

I remember three things from the ER very well. One, the four army nurses that were prying my boot apart to remove it, it still hurt like hell. Two, one of nurses attempting to cut my brand new Mountain Hardwear pants off of me, so I yelled at her to just use the zippers that ran up the full length of the pants. Three, them twisting my my leg to set the tib and getting X-rays, this was repeated 3 times until it was were they wanted it.

I was I full length casts (toes to crotch) for 4 months then walking casts and various braces for another 4.

Every time I got a new cast sucked as well, my first one they had my toes pointed down and would straighten fy foot a couple degrees every 2 weeks. My achillis was sore as hell for days after they would do that.

I am gretfull that there was no surgery and no hardware, I am sure if I had gone to a civilian hospital I probably would have ended up with some, the military like to keep it cheap I guess.

**baseWeldr** · 10-28-2008, 08:15 PM

Originally Posted by Parvo

sharted

classic
great stories of shitty days told in exceptional detail here

injuries stick out-mostly day-enders only for me, knockonwood- gashed shinbone, concussion on last run->hospital overnighter...

equipment failure/breakage of course sucks, only lost a ski once so far I think, the following day w/the metaldetect mighta been worse right up til I found it...

gas hose fell outta my 73bimmer still crankin and doused me on a poodermornin once, arcterx pants never the same after...

spun my lil yota pickup off the road, long crosslane 180->washing machine over the snowbank and down a hill, Im ok buddy's broken collarbone, as we're pullin him outta my truck a photog for the paper shows up- frontpage the next day(not archived back to '97 dangit) skiday was good though after buddy caught a ride to the ER & the winch towtruck left...

**bradski530** · 10-28-2008, 08:56 PM

luckily, I have never had a bad day skiing.

If I'm skiing, it's automatically a good day.

**P_McPoser** · 10-28-2008, 09:04 PM

Originally Posted by spyderracer393

luckily, I have never had a bad day skiing.

If I'm skiing, it's automatically a good day.

Heh. I had to click, and about lost it.

spyderracer393
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**summit** · 10-28-2008, 09:06 PM

Originally Posted by P_McPoser

Heh. I had to click, and about lost it.

spyderracer393
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that's perfect

**taz** · 10-28-2008, 09:26 PM

worst day skiing was this winter. monsoonal like rain for fucking 18 hours, flooded the village just about in. took transport 6 hours for one trip to get guests out of the village. I was totaly wet (and not in the good way) within the first half hour, fucking ski boots filled with water and stupid gapers were still making their kids ski the bunny hill. never never again do I want to have to go thru that shit again. that day we needed life guard gear, not patrol gear.

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couldn't even get to the weather station to find out how much rain we had, if we had a boat on the other hand

**Rossta** · 10-28-2008, 11:47 PM

there was that time i broke the bone in my heel and had to be tobogganed up a lift before i could be tobogganed down the mountain. there was the right acl and then the left acl, both from landing backseat. but the worst day was at st. marys glacier. i tore my shoulder out of socket which broke the bone and tore all the tendons. i had to stash my gear behind rocks, hike down, ride 2 hours in the car to the er. after a full bankart reconstructive surgery, my friends go back up to the site, and my skis, boots, poles, and backpack are gone. while this sounds really bad, all the bad things that have happened from skiing don't even begin to compare to the joy that skiing has brought into my life. it is a risky sport, but the payoff is well worth it.

**GoNads** · 10-29-2008, 12:25 AM

Oh here we go...

So few years back, a week before national championships my coach has us training SG on the dave murray dh, where it's going to be for the actual race for nationals. It dumped around 2 feet in the last 24 hours, but the cat was up grooming early in the am ~4-5am to make sure we could still train, about 6 of fresh has fallen since then, so we slip the the course, leaving about 20 ft of lee-way before you're off in the pow. The mountain closed down the entire run for us, so might as well take advantage of it, right?

First fucking run, second athlete down the course, coming around coaches corner, (after the sewer and fallaway, fastest part on course probably going ~100-120km hour) I go to turn, for some odd reason he sets a sort of hairpin ish turn around that corner, this is SG for fucksake... my ski digs in the soft snow, it doesn't react like it does on ice where it rebounds and arcs, it just sinks. I try to make the turn and POP, I'm airborne like herman maier at nagano. My face hits first, then its sky-snow-sky-snow-sky-snow for a while. I get up and I'm at the bottom of the slope, 4 gates down. SG gates are approx 30meters apart. 4x30m = 120m, nice one. I see blood in the snow, and my other ski is down the hill a ways. Coach is like, "what the hell is taking so long? are you going to start crying? do I need to call ski patrol or are you going to get back up that gondola?" so I slide down to my other ski, take 10 minutes to clip it on because I can't get any strength through my leg and straight line the rest of the run on 215cm dh skis with a blown acl because god knows I can't turn right now.

Jeff Hume who is assisting coaching is at the bottom of the course and is gesturing to his face, like "DO YOU KNOW YOUR FACE IS TORN OPEN?" I blow past him because I cant stop, I made it to the bottom, dragged my skis and poles still in my DH suit to my truck, drive STICK to the hospital, spend the next hour trying to get them to look at my knee instead of my face. When I finally see my face after all the stitches, I can see why, it looks like I have a cleft pallet. All the skin is missing off my nose, and above my right eyebrow. My mouth is ripped open from the corner of my lips outwards. No biggie, just fix my fucking knee because I have nationals to race in a few days and I was skiing like hot shit before this!

Blah blah blah, your knee could be torn, it is torn, it feels like an end point, its not torn, its completely torn... everyone I see has a different opinion. The MRI doesn't lie, I've torn my ACL, and taken bone with it, torn my miniscus and bruised my tibial plateau and femoral condile too.

I go for surgery, hamstring graft and they throw an ice pack on my my leg on DIRECT SKIN in PAR. I get frostbite and it blisters. Knee gets infected. Nadia spends a month in hospital and has 4 more surgeries, then spends the next 3 months hooked up to an IV with Vancomycin for 2 hours every 8 hours.

I raced the lake louise nor-am DH 4 months later.

So yeah, worse day skiing EVER.

**Marius** · 10-29-2008, 05:49 AM

- worst single day: sept. 07, 60cm pow in SaasFee, while cruising back to the tbar, binding locked out while going straight. -> doc said 3 broken neckbones.... (luckily 4 month later another doc saw that the important ones havent been broken...)

- worst trip: march 2006: 1000km drive to resort, 1/2 crappy skiday. rain about 1k meters higher then forecasted. down day, drive to chamonix. next day: avi danger 5, everything closed. looking for forecast: bluebird, but getting really warm. -> drive home 1000km.
(the next day in that area of the alps about 10 people died in avalanches !!!)

**rmackd** · 10-29-2008, 11:05 AM

When it rains in Hartford, it rains in Killington. Went to kmart on Thanksgiving 1 year thinking that the freezing rain we were having in CT would be snow at Killington. Drove up to VT, paid $70 for a lift ticket and skied for 2 hours in a rainstorm (sheet of ice covering the jacket and pants) and called it a day. Had 2 beers in the lodge and headed back to the car with my cousin, only to realize I'd lost my keys. Took 3 hours to get a locksmith from Brattleboro out to kmart who was able to make me keys in about 5 minutes. Roads were so icy, I was stuck in killington for 2 days. Worst day/trip evar.

**shiftagain** · 10-29-2008, 02:34 PM

Racing in -50 Celsius (-58 Fahrenheit)
Downhill suits in -50 are no fun.

**blur** · 10-29-2008, 04:38 PM

geting off chair at the bush 2/2/07, dude next to me steped on the tail of my left ski, down I went on my ass, he kept going, pop went the knee and it was the most expensive ski season to date, pass $1k, eagan camp $1k, $5k in deductable & another $3k in costs above customary.

**montie06** · 10-29-2008, 04:47 PM

Nub's Nob, 2006. looking to be a perfect weekend, bluebird first day (which in michigan... holy balls... savor it). Day two started off normal, decent hardpack natural. It started warming up, and within two hours its was over 40 degrees. After lunch we came back out and started again, about 20 minutes in it started to sleet... then rain, then pour. by the end of the day there was nothing but slush. so we hoped for cover snow that night... no such luck, temp dropped to single digits that night and the whole mtn was a sheet of ice as well as our gear. talk about a disappointing weekend.

**WyskiCowboy** · 10-29-2008, 07:13 PM

Worst ski day ever...about 4 years ago, still in undergraduate at ASU in Phoenix, and heard big bear was opening early, so the roommates and I decide to go. We are too cheap to split a 25 dollar motel room 4 ways, so we drive down and back in one day. Girlfriend wants to come and learn how to snowboard, she has never been. We wake up at 2 am ish and head out, its about a 7 hour drive (or so I am told by my roommates retarded girlfriend who is from the area). On the drive down, we stop for gas, and I drive off without removing the hose from the car, and tear it off. We cant think of a good reason to not continue driving so we do (karma is a bitch). We arrive at resort just after 6 am, due to time change and it only taking 6 hours. Sit around for awhile...I insist that girlfriend wear wristguards since she is learning to snowboard on hard pack (i used to work ski patrol in AZ, and over 50% of my time was taken up with first time snowboarding wrist injuries). She doesnt want too, we argue, oh well. 9:00 am i take one run from top of the hill, then go look for girlfriend...she has a lesson at 9:30 but wanted to try a run first. I find her on bunny hill, she looks back at me, falls and breaks her wrist. I spent the next 4 hours going to the hospital with her and getting that sorted out. I return to the hill about 2 pm thinking i will take at least a few runs until they close. Friends are all too tired to ride anymore and girlfriend is pissed I am considering it, so we leave to drive 6 hours back to Phoenix. Flat tire on way back. We get back around midnight (time change) and i have taken one run after driving all that way. I get back to my house to find I had left a dripping faucet in the bathroom, which overflowed the sink, and over 20 hours had completely flooded have of my house. I am not pleased. Girlfriend is still pissed at me, so I take her back to her house, where her father, who told me not to take her snowboarding, is waiting on me. Unpleasant conversations ensued. I say goodbye, and return home to tear half the carpet in my house out and set up fans to try and dry the water.

Just goes to show....karma is a bitch.