Bark less, wag more

Spent the last week at Copper. It was a week of sun, highs in the 40s
and lows in the single digits. I made a practice of sleeping in,
having a leisurely breakfast, getting to the mountain elevenish and
enjoying three or four hours of soft snow to slush. The runs off of
Alpine chair consistently had the best snow that I found but I could
do a maximum of half a dozen runs there because my legs always go to
sleep on the lift.... It's long and sloooowwww. I think it was
Wednesday that the sun never came out and the temps stayed in the
twenties. I decided I would do a bit of cruising so I chose my m:
11s. I've ridden these skis probably about a dozen days or so and
been a bit disappointed but have had no problems with them. For some
reason that day I was having a terrible time staying on top of them.
One time I was coming down Drain Pipe or whatever the run is that's
next to it under the Resolution chair. I was doing ok but right at
the end of that steep pitch I got way in the back seat. I thought I
had recovered enough to negotiate a little jump that stretched along
the path to the next pitch of bumps.... Uh, bad thought. I landed with
my skis flat and my butt on the tails. I skidded along for a bit in
this position and then tried to stand up. That's when my skis tipped
on edge, the shovels dug in and I found myself sliding head first on
my side. It took quite a few yards to come to a stop. I was right
under the lift and more than a bit embarrassed. I collected myself,
skied down to the chair and somewhere along the line realized that
skidding backwards on my side had unzipped my coat pocket and freed my
lip balm, damn. From there I went to the Storm King lift, skied
Spaulding bowl and back down to Resolution chair then another run back
down to the same chair and on that ride up I was inspecting the site
of my fall and skid when I caught sight of something. It looked
like..... my keys! I patted my pants pocket where I always keep them,
it was zipped tight and empty. I skied back down to the scene of the
stupidity and sure enough there were my car key, remote control and
motel key. They had been sitting right there for the better part of
an hour. People often say they'd rather be lucky than smart, well I
sure was.

Sunday we had a bit of snow and Loveland got the most, reporting ten
inches. I thought it was the perfect time to check out the area that
I've been under dozens of times but never on top of. In the parking
lot I saw my fave bumper sticker so far this trip: "Bark less, wag
more" it replaces "Impeach Bush, torture Cheney". My first quest was
to get to the ridge. I didn't get on the road real early that morning
so I had a pretty long skate to get to where the tracks were sparse
but it was worth it for a long line of untracked snow. After that I
headed back to Chair One and must have ridden it ten times enjoying
the short steep bump runs under the chair and to skier's right. A
couple of observations about this area: there are a few spots where
you have a fairly steep pitch then you have to go uphill maybe ten
vertical feet to get to the next pitch. Problem is, the next pitch
starts immediately with next to no landing between the uphill and the
downhill. They're certainly not a problem to negotiate but man, I
found two of these spots and the first time on each was a bugger.
Next, either there are a BUNCH of rocks conveniently covered in ten
inches of fresh or I found them all. I came away with a nice deep tip
to tail gouge in one ski and a core shot next to the edge in the
other. Damn.

Overheard on the stairs to the cafeteria: teenage boy to teenage
girl, "Hey see that guy over there..... no, THAT one over THERE. He
skis one ninety twos!"

Now I'm back in Winter Park and it looks like Spring skiing 'til the
end of the week. Guess I'll take what I'm given.

Later,
Chris

bumpfreaq wrote:
I landed with
my skis flat and my butt on the tails. I skidded along for a bit in
this position and then tried to stand up. That's when my skis tipped
on edge, the shovels dug in and I found myself sliding head first on
my side.

Increased probability of ACL tear with that manuver; leads to "phantom
foot" scenario. Best to just flop on your side and stay down until stopped.

See "Vermont Ski Safety" ACL research summarized at
http://www.vermontskisafety.com/faq_skiers/faq_skiers_tips.html

Also check around the rest of the site. These guys took thousands of
hours of on slope video, recording hundreds of live ACL tears, and
analyzed the injuries to determine common causes - recover from
sit-backs with butt lower than knees was a prime cause.

lal_truckee wrote:

bumpfreaq wrote:
I landed with
my skis flat and my butt on the tails. I skidded along for a bit in
this position and then tried to stand up. That's when my skis tipped
on edge, the shovels dug in and I found myself sliding head first on
my side.

Increased probability of ACL tear with that manuver; leads to "phantom
foot" scenario. Best to just flop on your side and stay down until
stopped.

See "Vermont Ski Safety" ACL research summarized at
http://www.vermontskisafety.com/faq_skiers/faq_skiers_tips.html

Also check around the rest of the site. These guys took thousands of
hours of on slope video, recording hundreds of live ACL tears, and
analyzed the injuries to determine common causes - recover from
sit-backs with butt lower than knees was a prime cause.

I was going to say the samething. In fact, that is where I thought this
story was heading when I saw "the shovels dug in...".

I try to tell people around me this same thing and usually get poo-pooed. I
can see the lure of going down and popping back up, it looks cool. However,
when I go down I just let it happen and the most I may do is to pick my
feet and skis off the surface.


--
Before Heading to the Hills Head to The Wisconsin Skier:
http://www.wi-ski.com/

On Mar 12, 8:22 pm, lal_truckee wrote:
bumpfreaq wrote:
I landed with
my skis flat and my butt on the tails. I skidded along for a bit in
this position and then tried to stand up. That's when my skis tipped
on edge, the shovels dug in and I found myself sliding head first on
my side.

Increased probability of ACL tear with that manuver; leads to "phantom
foot" scenario. Best to just flop on your side and stay down until stopped.

See "Vermont Ski Safety" ACL research summarized at
http://www.vermontskisafety.com/faq_skiers/faq_skiers_tips.html

Also check around the rest of the site. These guys took thousands of
hours of on slope video, recording hundreds of live ACL tears, and
analyzed the injuries to determine common causes - recover from
sit-backs with butt lower than knees was a prime cause.

Thanks, LAL that's mosdef good advice. If I need to keep my butt
higher than my knees does that mean I need to give up doing the slow
dog noodle..... or is it the worm turn?

Chris

bumpfreaq wrote:
On Mar 12, 8:22 pm, lal_truckee wrote:
bumpfreaq wrote:
I landed with
my skis flat and my butt on the tails. I skidded along for a bit in
this position and then tried to stand up. That's when my skis tipped
on edge, the shovels dug in and I found myself sliding head first on
my side.
Increased probability of ACL tear with that manuver; leads to "phantom
foot" scenario. Best to just flop on your side and stay down until stopped.

See "Vermont Ski Safety" ACL research summarized at
http://www.vermontskisafety.com/faq_skiers/faq_skiers_tips.html

Also check around the rest of the site. These guys took thousands of
hours of on slope video, recording hundreds of live ACL tears, and
analyzed the injuries to determine common causes - recover from
sit-backs with butt lower than knees was a prime cause.

Thanks, LAL that's mosdef good advice. If I need to keep my butt
higher than my knees does that mean I need to give up doing the slow
dog noodle..... or is it the worm turn?

Chris

AHA!!!
A Wayne Wong fan!!!

On Mar 13, 4:16 pm, VtSkier wrote:
bumpfreaq wrote:
On Mar 12, 8:22 pm, lal_truckee wrote:
bumpfreaq wrote:
I landed with
my skis flat and my butt on the tails. I skidded along for a bit in
this position and then tried to stand up. That's when my skis tipped
on edge, the shovels dug in and I found myself sliding head first on
my side.
Increased probability of ACL tear with that manuver; leads to "phantom
foot" scenario. Best to just flop on your side and stay down until stopped.

See "Vermont Ski Safety" ACL research summarized at
http://www.vermontskisafety.com/faq_skiers/faq_skiers_tips.html

Also check around the rest of the site. These guys took thousands of
hours of on slope video, recording hundreds of live ACL tears, and
analyzed the injuries to determine common causes - recover from
sit-backs with butt lower than knees was a prime cause.

Thanks, LAL that's mosdef good advice. If I need to keep my butt
higher than my knees does that mean I need to give up doing the slow
dog noodle..... or is it the worm turn?

Chris

AHA!!!
A Wayne Wong fan!!!

Yeah he was always my fave back in that day. But I can't remember the
name of his maneuver where he would ski down into the trough of the
bump then his skis would come straight up out while his upper body was
still close to the ground and being supported by a pole plant.....
does that make any sense? I do that sometimes. Never planned but I
nearly always recover from it.

Chris

bumpfreaq wrote:
On Mar 13, 4:16 pm, VtSkier wrote:
....
A Wayne Wong fan!!!

Yeah he was always my fave back in that day. But I can't remember the
name of his maneuver where he would ski down into the trough of the
bump then his skis would come straight up out while his upper body was
still close to the ground and being supported by a pole plant.....
does that make any sense? I do that sometimes. Never planned but I
nearly always recover from it.

I think Wong's outrigger turn has more potential for the VSR scenario
than what you've described.

Haven't seen Wayne ski in person for years - I wonder where he is and
what he's doing. He used to bring his resurrected circus to town
every spring but not lately.