Your worst crash story

[Core2]

As the title states... Bonus if you have pics or vids of the carnage.

 

[pchewn]

January 1991 Night Ski Race League. Mt Hood Skibowl "Reynolds Run" . I was racing, got set back off balance, went heading into the trees. I magnificently dodged the looming small tree I was about to hit, but behind it was a massive Douglass fir. I managed to get my feet in front of me and hit that sucker HARD. Luckily not with my chest or head.

In extreme pain, I yelled to the passing chairs to send the patrol. Then it becomes a blur. I don't remember the sled ride. What I do remember very distinctly is the doctor at the bottom of hill getting a needle of morphine ready to inject into my leg. My left leg was in so much pain from the muscles cramping and contracting, pulling the leg into my hip joint which was broken --- very painful.

But as soon as that needle of morphine broke my skin a calm easy peace fell over me. Relaxing my muscles very much and making it possible for me to be transported to the hospital in Portland. I do remember parts of the ambulance ride -- it seems that I was passing out and periodically stopping breathing (due to the morphine). It turns out that opiates and I don't get along very well. The guys were trying to keep me awake in the ambulance but that wasn't working so well.

I woke up the next morning to the good doctor telling me I broke my hip (acetabulum sp?). That's the socket part of the ball/socket hip joint. My options were surgery with screws and a couple weeks of crutches or 2 months at home in bed in traction. I took the 2 months. I don't like surgery (bad chances of not waking up).

So I spent 6 weeks in traction at home in a hospital bed watching the Gulf War on TV. Once I could get up on crutches and make my way to the bathroom and refrigerator, my family left me for a week in Hawaii .... (nice people). Actually they deserved a vacation after taking care of me.

Now I have one leg with a bump on it (the muscle sheath was torn), but no lasting effects.

I periodically go down Reynold's Run and say "damn you" to that tree.

 

[Doug Briggs]

1977, Val Gardena

My first training run in the DH went south quickly.

Dr. Duanne Messner is performing his on-site triage while Pat Bauman (of The Peformers I believe @Philpug, @K2 Rat ???) looks on in the US Team outfit.

It is hard to see in this photo, but the helmet, a Bell motorcycle helmet, sustained significant damage and was missing fiberglass. There wasn't much snow so the impact was pretty significant.

Another guy had fallen and a helicopter requested for him prior to my incident. He didn't need to be air-lifted out so they called off the helicopter not realizing there were two calls, not one, so I spent a bit of time on the snow waiting to be evacuated. It may have been all for the good as it permitted some significant time for my back to be 'iced' lying on the snow.

(I just noticed for the first time that Duane has Scott boots.)

In the helicopter on my way to the hospital in Merano.

The cabin was too small for me; I had to bend my legs to keep from applying pressuring to my spine.

The nurses in the ED didn't want to cut off my DH suit as they recognized its value. The doctor came in and sheared it off without a second thought. I'm not sure what they thought about the bright red union suit I wore under the speed suit. ;-)

Traction. I had some oral surgery done either right before or right after this as I'd knocked out my front teeth. The dentist didn't speak much English so it was a bit surreal getting the root canals.

My 'cheat sheet' for communicating with the nursing staff. As the Dolomites are in Italy and close to Austria they speak both Italian and German.

The food was very nice and the care I received, if not absolutely the most modern, was excellent. Most notable was that whenever I would indicate 'schmerzen', I'd get a jab with a needle and presumably some morphine. I did not experience a lot of pain in the hospital. Constipation was not addressed during the first week. They wanted me stablized before they tried all sorts of remedies for that. Cascara did the trick eventually.

I spent Christmas and my 20th birthday in Italy. There were lots of British women married to Italian men so they would come by with encouragement, reading material and a gift or two. Being a ski racer meant that I was a rock star. It was an interesting time to say the least.

I still have this candle stick and a few other mementos.

The article that appeared in Ski Racing following my wreck.

I compressed vertebrae, T3 to T5ish, knocked out/broke three teeth and suffered a severe concussion. Recovery involved a body cast (3 months), a few months using a back brace and fixing the teeth. Since then I've had (knock on wood) no problems with my back that could be associated with the injury. I've experienced concussions since then and given their severity I'm a bit nervous about my noggin.

I retired from ski racing after this incident and returned to college where I got my BS in Computer Science, then went on to work at Apple for a few years before becoming self-employed.

 

[Muleski]

@Doug Briggs, WOW!
I actually remember hearing and reading about your crash. Amazing stuff.
I didn't like the crash. Liked the post!

 

[KevinF]

My worst crash was on March 6, 2016. I was skiing with @SKI-3PO and his son at Stowe.

There was a race (U10's? 12's? I don't remember) going on on the race hill (which borders the huge beginners slope). We were standing up near the start watching them. There was a jump halfway down the course, so we skied down the bunny hill a bit. I was keeping an eye on the race hill trying to see the jump, and I saw it, so I arced a big turn to get back over there.

Totally saw a little ditch / water bar thing in my path. Figured, "what the hell, it'll be like dropping into a bump trough", maybe get bounced a little bit.

Well, I bounced. The water bar just grabbed one ski, spun me, launched me, and slammed me into the ground, shoulder first. I heard a crunching sound which at the time I assumed was the sound of the crust on the spring snow breaking. At first I thought I just needed a minute, but then I told ski-3po to get patrol.

They came, gave me a sled ride, called the ambulance. Patrol diagnosis and ambulance diagnosis was a dislocated shoulder. I asked what fixing that entails and I was told "uhhh, good drugs, they pop it back in, you're sore for a week". Sweet! That doesn't sound so bad. I get wheeled into the ER and I'm told they're just going to take some x-rays. Fine, and I wait. And I wait. And I wait.

Eventually the doc comes in and says "Ok, so I looked at your xrays...". Wait. When did you take x-rays? I don't remember you taking x-rays! Doc looks at me and says "You don't remember us taking x-rays?" Uhhh, no... He looks at my chart (which I guess lists the good drugs they pumped into me during the ambulance ride), says something about "yeah, you won't remember much...". Ok, I guess I was loaded. I also formed a new opinion as to what the crunching sound was that I heard when I fell.

Anyway, x-rays revealed that I broke my right arm (thus the "call me lefty" tag under my avatar picture). Season ender obviously. My arm was in a sling for a month and then a couple months of physical therapy. Wasn't a fun summer, but I'm damn glad I landed shoulder first and not head first. Could easily have been worse. It sucks that I totally saw the water bar coming and thought "eh, no biggie". I treat them with a little more respect now...

My crash spot (at the start of the 2016/17 season... you can see the water bar where the lollipop is. It was nowhere nearly that deep when I hit it):

 

[Doug Briggs]

There is nothing that compares to waking up someplace you didn't expect to be 'sleeping'. I'm glad you've recovered, Lefty. Do you have impacts from the injury (pun sort of intended?)

 

[Doug Briggs]

@pchewn , morphine can be your friend until it isn't. I'm glad you recovered, presumbably, in fine shape apart from the bump on the leg. I have a bump on my chest just left of my solar plexus from my bike wreck this summer. It is weird to say the least.

 

[KevinF]

There is nothing that compares to waking up someplace you didn't expect to be 'sleeping'. I'm glad you've recovered, Lefty. Do you have impacts from the injury (pun sort of intended?)

I had broken my left shoulder 20+ years ago from crashing my road bike. I had previously felt that the left shoulder felt a little different from the right shoulder. My trainer at the gym was working with me to regain strength / range-of-motion in the left so that it would match the right again... and then I broke the right shoulder.

So now they match again. .. My trainer said something about "not really what I had in mind...".

My trainer's done a lot of work over the past year to regain strength in my arms, etc. Today, there's really nothing I can't do. ROM might be a little limited in both, but normal life is fine. The only thing I get out of mine is a story involving a season-ending crash three turns from the bottom of the damn bunny hill.

 

[Pequenita]

Not as dramatic as any of those situations because I didn't even take any narcotics:

So in March, I was skiing along in Squaw's Chute 75 and someone in my clinic above me fell and went into an uncontrolled slide. I broke her fall because I had no idea someone was above me in an uncontrolled slide. We slid together for several yards (I have no idea how far, really), and even though I rolled into self arrest position, I would have stabbed her if I tried to and I was eating a ton of snow that her skis were pushing into me. I'm sure to everyone on the mountain, it looked like a cluster. I ended up with a tibial plateau fracture on the knee that I had an ACL reconstruction in 13 years ago, and she had no injuries. I've no idea how things will be going forward with the knee.

 

[PisteOff]

I'm fortunate to say that my worst crash turned out to be a long slide down a slope that fortunately had nothing protruding from it or any drops. It was at Snow Valley in CA on the back summit called Slide Peak. Here are a couple stills from the GoPro. It was a long high speed slide. I made a couple stabs with my pole but the surface was just too hard to self arrest so I concentrated on keeping my head up and uphill as best as possible. Only a bruised ego and a little wear on the outerwear.....First pic is coming across the fall line to the spot where I would make a sloppy transition on an ice patch and lose my edge. The last pic looking back up the slope you can see the ice patch.
View media item 2051View media item 2052View media item 2053

 

[PisteOff]

Not as dramatic as any of those situations because I didn't even take any narcotics:

So in March, I was skiing along in Squaw's Chute 75 and someone in my clinic above me fell and went into an uncontrolled slide. I broke her fall because I had no idea someone was above me in an uncontrolled slide. We slid together for several yards (I have no idea how far, really), and even though I rolled into self arrest position, I would have stabbed her if I tried to and I was eating a ton of snow that her skis were pushing into me. I'm sure to everyone on the mountain, it looked like a cluster. I ended up with a tibial plateau fracture on the knee that I had an ACL reconstruction in 13 years ago, and she had no injuries. I've no idea how things will be going forward with the knee.

I hate it when people get taken out by others. It's bad enough when one's own lack of skill takes them out and they get hurt. It's much worse when it's someone else's lack of skill, or sometimes common sense and decency, that take you out and it's even more egregious when they injure you.

 

[Pequenita]

I hate it when people get taken out by others. It's bad enough when one's own lack of skill takes them out and they get hurt. It's much worse when it's someone else's lack of skill, or sometimes common sense and decency, that take you out and it's even more egregious when they injure you.

It's frustrating, for sure. I wish she knew how to self arrest because the snow that day would have allowed for it.

 

[crgildart]

Followed sucker tracks OB down the back side and saw what looked like a sweet jump. Hit it with conservative speed because the landing was blind but hey, back side past the fence nobody's going to be in that blind spot right?? As I was catching air off the lip I discovered there was an 8-10 foot COLVERT sticking up made of corrugated steel. I didn't have enough speed to clear it. Tips caught the other side and dove. My shins smashed the jagged steel top edge right past the top of my boot tongues. I pulled myself out and lay there in the snow wondering if any bones were cracked.. putting snow on the blood oozing out from under my torn ski pants. All by myself there, no way to get help or flag down anyone or anything...

I eventually gathered myself and hiked back to the in bounds side and skied down to the base. Wasn't as bad as it felt, but I did have some cuts. Borrowed some duct tape to fix my pants and skied til last chair IN BOUNDS hahaha..

Several STUPID mistakes I made that caused me great pain......

But hey, I was only 13 years old

 

[Muleski]

Mine are minor compared to these ^^^^^, but perhaps somebody can learn from them. I raced at a pretty high level into my twenties, and had my fair share of crashes {Newfy might say he never saw me finish a SL}, but I never, luckily had any significant injuries. No breaks other than one thumb, no surgery.

In 1979, I was at Telluride with a few friends, all good skiers. Telluride was the Wild West at the time. We hit it right in terms of snow. The second day that we were there it started to dump, and dump, for three solid days. The part to remember about this was NO LOCAL KNOWLEDGE. On the second day of the storm, we were skiing on The Plunge, I think. One of the steep trails that dropped into the town. Visibility stunk, heavy snowfall, and a lot of powder. Now naturally, we were just ripping.

I was flying down this trail, behind the other guys, or next to them, skier's right. All of a sudden, I felt like I was no longer in bottomless powder, It just felt weird. Then BAM, I just exploded. Turns out that I had dropped about 10-12 feet onto the far edge of a cat track.....which has probably been cleared an hour earlier, and was rock hard cement, covered by about 3 inches of fresh. I had not seen any of it coming. I hit the flat, and I was moving. Both skis blew off, and it knocked the wind out of me, broke my goggles, cut my face, and probably I was lying in a heap when a groomer comes up to me, pretty fast, all lights on and stops. Driver gets out to check on me, and say something like "good thing I was paying attention, or I probably would have run you over." Nice. Wow. I ended up skiing down, found the hot tub and a bunch of beers. All good. Bruised, but OK.

So bad visibility, not knowing the nuances of the trail, no local knowledge......all can be problematic if you're flying.

About five years ago, I was skiing in very flat light on a steep wide-open trail that I know like the back of my hand. Late afternoon in late December, following about a foot of fresh snow. Again on top of rock hard cement. The snow had stopped, and things were pretty skied out and chopped up. Really hard to see. I was skiing pretty fast on good crud skis. All of a sudden I nailed a BIG pile of snow. Feet stopped, and I was airborne, headed downhill. It was like slow motion, and I just thought "please let me land in the soft stuff." Nope. Right on my hip on a patch of "firm" ice. Bang.

I was 58 at the time, and in good shape. Also a lifelong skier, and thousands of days on that hill. I had not slowed down to accommodate the mix of the really variable snow the crud, and my middle age eyes {despite having great fog. and low light lenses}. I was skiing like I would on a sunny day. Bad move. I was in quite a bit of pain, but could ski down. Pretty much on one ski. Had it checked the next morning. No breaks, no tears, just a "good bruise." Now even being in shape, that hip bothered me for most of the season. After months on the bike, stretching and weight work, it felt "all better."

So my lesson there.....don't outski what you can see, unless you know what it is, and are 100% confident in where you are. I don't think anybody would say that I've "slowed it down" much, but I'm paying a lot of attention, and watching my terrain. Minimizing the surprises. Middle aged eyes.

Agree with many of the other comments. Interesting stories. Family friend, a beautiful lifelong skier, ended her skiing days at about age 80 when she was taken out by a snowboarder {not a skilled one} while on her annual two weeks in Vail. Broken Femur. Surgeries, metal plates, etc. Oddly, a good place to be injured and to get care. The boarder was very apologetic, stayed with her, checked on her at VVMC.

Be safe!

 

[Chris Walker]

I don’t have too dramatic a story but my worst crash was in 2012 on a nearly empty groomer that was as wide as 2 football fields. I was happily cruising along at about 25 mph when someone slammed into me from behind hard enough that it cracked a rib. The only surprise was when the other person turned out to be an instructor, in uniform, and in her 50s. I was expecting a stoned teenager. My bad for stereotyping.

 

[Muleski]

I have a hard time "liking" these, but they sure are interesting!

 

[KevinF]

So bad visibility, not knowing the nuances of the trail, no local knowledge......all can be problematic if you're flying.

Back in the days of the Epic Ski Academies I was skiing with @Bob Barnes at Snowbird. It was absolutely nuking.

We're standing atop Chip's Run, the bowl, whatever it's called over there. I'm standing up there drooling at the thought of this huge amount of powder. Bob is saying something that's probably important. I do remember him saying something about "be aware of the cat track that cris-crosses through this bowl".

Who cares about a stupid cat track? I head down. When my knees get slammed into my chest I realized two tings:
1) I had found the cat track
2) I was in big trouble

I got absolutely launched off the cat track. Skis, poles, me all went flying. Thankfully I landed in deep snow so nothing was hurt other then my pride (and a lot of snow in places that snow doesn't belong).

Bob skis down to me helping me pick up my stuff and just says something about "what did I say about watching out for that cat track?". Yeah, yeah, yeah. The man says that you should never believe anything he says, but experience has taught me that life will be substantially easier if you do. But the memories are better when you don't.

 

[PisteOff]

OK I got another one from Mammoth a couple years ago. I forget the trail but it was off chair #9 if I remember correctly. We were close to the bottom, legs were on fire....(my legs were so hot they were melting the pow)((I've been wanting to use that one ever since I read it)) Anyway, out of nowhere came this little kid from my left, right in front of me. I don't know what I did that made me crash, but I crashed and the tip of one of my souls stopped cold and ejected. I had shin bang so bad I thought I fractured my shin. Managed to ski back over to the Village Gondola and Lodge where our lockers were and we went to Mammoth Hospital to have it X-Rayed. Fortunately it was fine and surprisingly I felt just fine the next day but damn did it hurt that afternoon and into the evening.

 

[Bad Bob]

The worst injury was not a crash at all, there have been some major crashes that produced injury but not this one. Taught a Copper winter of 75-76, out cruising some laps faster than was probably wise off of Timberline Express lift (?). Lost an edge in a left turn and found myself on the left hip; set the edge on the right ski to just pop back up on the feet in motion, bad mistake. Heard all kinds of sounds that a knee should not make and bent it sideways a little. Ripped cartilage, damaged tendons, and generally turned the knee into hamburger, but the ski never came off (you could crank down the old Soli 555 Equipes).

Went ahead and skied down on the left ski and was skiing again in 6 weeks. I was young and dumb! The knee never fully healed.

 

[fatbob]

While I've broken stuff the most spectacular one I can remember was skiing pretty fast down a blue piste in Val Thorens a couple of years ago. Put in a hard carve at the edge of the groom and I guess it isn't as firmly packed at the edge as I thought as the next thing I'm flying backwards in the air about 10 yds down the embankment - smash though a few canes, flatten a piste marker lollipop and crater. Small French child convinced he is about to see a dead man skis hesitantly to the edge, peers over an ventures a "Ca va?"

I give him a hearty "Ca va bien, merci" , get up , dust myself off and begin the climb of shame back up to the piste, pausing to try to resite the lollipop. Pretty glad for the shovel in my avibag that day.