Mountains of Mistakes
Now, I know this story sounds lame, but it is true. I was skiing at West Mountain on Feb. 5, 1998. I consider myself a moderately good skiier. i have been skiing since i was 5. Now, on one run, I was going down the “Face”(A wide trail where all trails end at). All night, I had my eye on a pair of jumps on the far side of the “Face”. I knew that they were for snowboarders and were beyond my skill level. This however, did not stop me from trying. As i was cruising down the slope at around 7:30 PM, I approached the first jump with speed. However, to my dismay, I was cut off by a line of ski school beginners. I missed the first jump. So What? There’s another one! This is where my memory can’t recall EXACT details. Pretty much, I took the jump, tried to pull a “daffy”, landed on my tips, and slammed onto my forehead. I was unconcious for 1/2 hour, and after that, I was in and out of conciousness all night. From the head blow, I recieved a serious concussion. Because of this concussion, I missed two weeks of school. I still ski now, however I choose to wear a helmet in fear of a similar occurance. I would like to try skiboarding because I am a roller blader and a skiier. I would enjoy owning a new pair of skiboards because of this. Thank you for your consideration.
Rob, Age 13
New York
I am 12 and when I was 11, I was on the chair lift and I licked the bar. My tongue got stuck on the pole and they had to call the fire department to come and get my tongue off the pole.
Zach
My worst time snowboarding was January of last at Sugarloaf USA when I went over a jump and was going to do a 360 when a women on skis came in front of me and I hit her leg,and went flying onto my face. Luckily the women’s leg only had a small bruise and I was ok after my nose stopped bleeding.The women was very nice about the whole thing and didn’t hold any hard feelings.
Danny,
ME
My worst crash must have been when I was about oh 13 I was skiing at this small moutain called Kingpine its near my town. And I was in a complete tuck on this trail that ran underneath a chair lift white pine I think it was called, see me and a few of my friends wanted to get some mad air off this hit at the bottum of the trail. Anyway there are a few trails that merge on to it. And it just so happens that I went by one right as one of my best friends was merging and that’s when it all went blank for me any way. I was out for like 5 min a few bystanders told us what actually happened but I guess our skis crossed kinda like a tic tac toe grid and I just got ejected from my skis they said I did a few flips and then lied motionless. Everyone was shocked to see me get up and put on my skies and go out again. But hey I was having fun. Yeah well I walked away with a concussion and some pains but I am back on the mountains with speed. I am still scared of the collision though. But it’s behind me. Oh my friend was ok too.
Zachary,
New Hampshire
It was about 12:02 PM and I was snowboarding at Seven Springs near Pittsburgh. I was having much fun on all the easy courses (I was just starting then) when my friend Frank decided he wanted to go on the expert course which was giant and steep. Well I said “OK” so we got on the lift and we got to the top I started boarding and frank was going the same speed so we could talk he said “Hey Eric why don’t ya go off that kicker and try to do a great trick? So I said ok I gained speed and hit the kicker the only thing I could think of was trying a 360 so that’s what I did only I landed with my tail right in the snow it was a rental!!! The tail snapped off from the pressure but that wasn’t the worst frank hit the ramp too!!! He landed just before me and carved me with his metal edge right on my arm! Well, first aid came and helped me up. I could walk and I had gauze on my arm, they took me to the first aid place and they actually gave me stitches. Well as my arm ached with pain I walked to the rental place and returned my broken board. They charged me $433 dollars and my parents were super mad! I haven’t been boarding since.
Eric,
Pennsylvania
I’m a midwestern high school ski-bum. Last season I was out after school trying to do some new tricks. I got up the crazy idea to do a Japan 360. Pretty much an inlining trick but I thought I’d give it a try. At the mountain I ski they have separate skier and snowboarder parks. The mountain of course had a much better and bigger snowboarder park. So that’s the place to do all your huge tricks.
I sneak in, stop up the jump that feels the best then hike back up so I can hit it again after I tried it out. I step into my bindings, and take up getting up as much speed as possible, I hit the huge kicker get up and first get my left leg out, right leg bent under so I can get my grab and start my rotation. The rotation was the key part that didn’t quite do I what I had planned. I get around almost the full rotation just over 270 and my right tip hits the ground sending me on my face, flipping once then sliding on my back until I stop. I just start to figure out where I am and get up, and along come some snowboarders grabbing my skis (which I had left up the run) and hauling off to the bottom of the run. So I got to walk all the way to the bottom. When I get to the bottom, I get a nice talk about how I’ll loose my pass if I go into the wrong park again from the lift attendant. Oh well, next run, on the right park I pulled off the trick with some phat air. THE END!]
Alex,
Wisconsin
I was skiing at McCauley Mountain in Old Forge, NY. It was a beautiful Saturday morning being out with your friends and good times being shared by all. I was a snowboarder at the time with an interest in skiing. My friend and I switched equipment that day and I was on my way to becoming the next Tommy Moe. After a few bumps and bruises I grasped the concept known as skiing. Once that was down it was time to hit the kickers! I back down from no jump. I was doing great other than the fact my equipment didn’t fit properly. I was a size 10 boot and I was wearing size 12 which allowed the boot to twist at my shin. I went off this one jump and sprained my left ankle. I took it easy the rest of the day. I was taking my last run when my friends and I saw this cliff. It was about 8 feet high and to us, it was a challenge. I am injured and can barely ski, but it was just calling out to me. “Jeremy, Jeremy. Don’t be a wuss. Come jump off me!” That cliff made me angry. I got up some speed, and followed the narrow trail to the cliff. When I jumped off it felt great until I landed. I thought my ankle hurt before but now it was just unbearable. I lost total control of myself. Somehow I ended up backwards heading straight towards the edge of the trail that leads to the 30 foot drop off into the ravine below. But instead of falling to my death, I got stuck in those (what I used to think were stupid) orange nets like a fly in a spider web. Even though my life was in danger, everybody still found it necessary to laugh their guts out. It took my friends some time to get me out, because I was pretty tangled. It was pretty embarrassing, but at least I didn’t back down.
Jeremy,
New York
I was at Winter Park last February and we were doing some tree hopping around a run trying to have a little bit more. We found this little jog off the side of the trail that led to a good size jump at the end and I decided to go off. I didn’t get as much air as I expected and I tried to do a simple backscratch and I ended up sticking my tips right into the ground and slamming right on my face. All of my friends saw me when this happened including the whole lift line that was down the hill a little ways.
Matt,
Missouri
I’m trying to win this contest because I have to rent skiboards. That’s a drag to my brother because him and his friends have the equipment. My brother and his friends are going to stop taking me. It was a nice day in mid December of 1997 at timberline lodge Mt. Hood Oregon. At this time I was getting good and had built enough courage to do a 720. I found a pretty good sized jump at the snowboard park. At this time I was picking up a good amount of speed and was going off the jump my rotation was slower than I anticipated to be. I got about 8ft. of air when I landed, I had only done a 540 and landed on the toes of my big foots and hit the ground hard right on my ass and chomped my tongue in half I was spitting mouth fulls of blood for a half an hour when I was on the lift I hit a person with my spit they verbally abused me and told me they were going to report me to the ski patrol to have my ticket clipped. Any way I never heard from the ski patrol.
Josh,
Oregon
Me and my friend Matt were skiing Elisian Fields, the mogul run at Greek Peak in NY. We were going pretty hot and heavy; Matt was behind me. I heard him land a jump real hard and let out a yelp. I stopped, made my way back up to him, to see his leg at an angle that I’ve never seen anyone’s leg do before. He said, “something’s wrong, I can’t move my leg”. I skied down to base lodge and got the patrol guys. We went back up and dug Matt out to find his boot split in two, and his leg shattered. We got him back down to bas lodge and called his mom. I’ve never seen anyone on so much pain. I felt bad for the kid, leaving him there in agony while I went back up for more runs. There was nothing I could do, though, his mom came and got him, and he was in a cast for 2 months after that. That was it for his season. I still say that if he had been riding something easier to control in the moguls (like skiboards), he might have landed straight and not broken his leg.
Ian,
New York
I ski with a Group Called the Alta Youth Club, and we had a ski-board Day about a year ago. I was on my pair of Snowblades, and it was a softish snow day at Alta, Utah. There is a favorite little cliff of ours to skier’s right of Collins lift, and about 100 yards down. We thought it would be fun to hop it on our ski-boards, even though it’s only about a 10-12 foot cliff. The entrance into this particular cliff is very steep and treacherous. It is About a 50 Degree angle all the way to the edge. I maneuvered my way down this, and pointed my Blades. Unbeknownst to me, there was a particularly nasty little bush just covered by snow. This was unfortunately placed right at the edge of the cliff, and I unfortunately snagged my Snowblades on it, and went supermanning off the cliff. Fortunately, the only thing hurting was my pride, this cliff is in full view of the lift. As if doing this once weren’t bad enough. The next run, we tried the same cliff, and me, making sure I avoided that sinister bush, snagged on the edge of the cliff, and went over head first. I don’t know how I managed it, but I did a half summersault and landed on my side in the soft snow below. Again, there goes all pride that was left after the earlier mishap. The only regret I have about these two incidents, is that I don’t have any pictures or video.
Ian,
Utah
I was skiing at Welch Village Ski Resort and skiing with my buddies. We were all watching all of these awesome skiers who could do all kinds of tricks. So i decided to show off by hitting the jump the fastest and getting up really high in the air. Everyone was watching me and when i got up to the jump it was bigger than i thought and i went tumbling in the air and i landed hard on some icy snow. Then i went slidding underneath the border fence into a drop off that went into another run. It took me about an hour to find my friends again cause i had to get on a different ski lift. it was very humilating!
Chris
The suckiest moment of my life as a skier was when I was with two of my friends Brian, and Mike. We were in the snowboarding park and me as the young stupid one was on skis trying to impress them. It was on a Thursday night because that is when our skiclub goes. So we had been in there awhile and I had to rent because I can’t afford a pair right now so I was just doing little stuff off the jumps and they finally used peer preasure on me to try a 720 but when I did little did I know that I cut a snowboarder off. So I went off the jump and fell. Once i got up the snowboarder was there ready to kick my a$$. So I took off as quick as possible and I was trying to hide from their for the rest of the night which ruined the rest of my night.
Author Unknown
One time when I was in Breckenridge I was skiing on a tree course and me and my friends saw a jump. I was the first one to go off it and it ended up that the jump went right into a whole bunch of trees I came within inches of hitting one tree while in the air but managed to miss it and just scratched my cheek but after I landed the right side of my body hit another tree. My friends managed to locate ski patrol who then got me to an ambulance which then took me to the hospital. I ended with a minor concosion a broken right hand and leg and lots of bruises and scratches.
Patrick