Gapers in the Park

M

mikemac

Active member
During NE public school february vacation week (twoish weeks ago) I straight up landed on a kid off the second jump in tyro at Stowe. Luckily i was just doing a straight air, It was my first hit of the day bc we had been hunting down the last pow turns in the woods all morning. When i realized it was happening i lifted up my skis so they hit him first mainly to protect myself (which i don't feel bad about at all). We were both fine but its really fucking annoying how this kid was casually snowplowing down the landing. He's lucky he was grown enough to withstand the impact (he was probably like 14 or something) and he most likely was just a little sore. However, as I'm off to the side collecting myself and putting my skis back on, a middle-aged woman cruises through with her child (couldn't have been more than 7 at the very oldest) yelling "weeeee!) as this little girl rolls down the landing at 1.2 miles per hr. If i had gone just seconds, it would have been that little girl and it would not have been good for her. I'm a pretty big dude and if i had landed on her like I did that kid there is no doubt in my mind that I would have easily severed her spinal column. I tried to flag down the mother to give her a stern but polite speaking to but they were predictably not paying attention to anyone.

Basically just a rant but I'm still pretty bitter about it and I was wondering if you guys had similar stories. I never really thought that any of the east coast spots I frequent needed park passes, but this is making me reconsider.
 
I was at one of my local mountains early season, and the park was not built yet. But they have a pile of rails in the park so luckly one of my friends is ski patrol (he skis park) so we set up a rail. We were sessioning it all day, and it was in the middle of the trail (np cause its a terrain park) and some dad rolls through with his little gaper children and starts yelling at us to get out of the middle of the trail. So I yell back saying "I hope you realise your in the TERRAIN PARK" in a polite tone. It just sucks, I wish the implented park passes.
 
One time my friend and I stopped to talk to these two kids probably about 8-10 who were standing right in the middle of the landing of a 50 or so foot kicker at my hill. Any body landing on them would easily fuck their shit up, so we told them to get out of the way so that they wouldn't get hurt. Then the little girl who's probably 8 at the most gets all up in my shit (no joke) and says, "my dads right behind us so shut your mouth." I then lost it and told her to get out of the fucking park before she or someone else got hurt. I don't feel bad for flipping shit because they have no business talking back to us when we're trying to help them out. Anyways, they left and nobody died.
 
I'm a huge fan of park passes for this reason. I barely missed landing on a 4 year old girl a few seasons ago - just hit her skis and neither of us got hurt in the crash. But it was terrifying. The imminent prospect of accidentally killing a little kid is about as scary as it gets.

It's difficult to blame people who casually ski on park landings because they usually have no idea the risk they're putting themselves in, but park passes go a long way to keep out people who don't belong there.
 
A few years ago lake louise had snow fences blocking off the between the lip and knuckle of the first jump on their big jump line which would be really efficient for blocking gapers from that landing but it does have a few drawbacks.
 
came here to post this vid^^ and how do you get a park pass? they seem like a good idea, but im in the east so i dont really know about them. do you need to demonstrate a certain skill level?
 
One time i saw a guy go onto a rail and there are two little kids standing at the end of the rail. He knocks over a kid and falls. The kids dad starts screaming at him which i felt bad because its not his fault. People shouldnt be bringing little kids into terrain parks
 
I completely destroyed some middle aged asian woman earlier this season. I stood at the top of the terrain park and politely waited as the father and 4 year old son snowplowed down directly in the line of the biggest jump on the mountain just going side to side in the path of the jump only to move out of the way at the last second and get stuck on the knuckle because they were going too slow.

As they were about halfway down the mother started snowplowing down to the left of the jump at maybe 1-2 mph. I was like fuck this, made sure she was out of the way of the jump and started my descent to the jump. As I'm getting close to the jump she inexplicably tries to cross over across the mountain to her husband/son after not making a single turn the whole way down and I ended up hitting her at like 80% of my full speed.

I made sure she was alright and everything but it annoys the fuck out of me how many gapers are in the park that are on skis for probably the first time. I don't mean this in a mean way but it clearly states "TERRAIN PARK - EXPERTS ONLY" or something along those lines in big letters on an orange sign at just about every mountain. If you aren't using the terrain for its intended purpose people are going to get seriously hurt.
 
Most common form you purchase it with your lift ticket after filling out waivers and then it is either something for that goes on your lift ticket or a different lift ticket. Another type that my home hill used to have was when schools came out they would have to complete the highest skill level lesson (few turns down the black diamond, mogul run one run through the park) and you got a sticker for your pass.
 
Theres one big kicker at my mountain and all the gapers tend to stand on the knuckle right in front of the jump. every time i lap that park theyre always there, i always ask if they can move so they dont get hit, i havent had anybody talk back to me yet but usually theyre cool about it.
 
nahh, i think most places you just have to watch a video about how to not be a retard in the park (like dont stand in the landings). but it makes it so that people that arent commited enough to park to get a pass cant come in.
 
they did this for 2 yrs at my hill, but they were lazy about it and all you had to do was answer a 5 question quiz, and all the yuppie parents bitched until they were allowed to get them for their kids. if i see parents in the park with their kids i try to catch them and explain why they are stupid as nicely as possible.
 
I did a slow tweaked safety 3 over a 35 foot kicker or so on Monday. Some chick decided to go from the knuckle and cut all the way across the landing. I came within a foot of landing on her, and pretty much jumped over her. I was pretty pissed at her stupidity, cause that coulda fucked both of us up because I went deep into the gucci plateu.
 
Here's the latest edit from the gapers at my hill. Be warned, they slay.

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Spectacular!

A couple seasons ago I thought I broke my tailbone because of a joey. I dropped in for a 35ish ft booter and passed a kid pizza-ing down the park next to the jump line. Somehow, he managed to go hyper speed as I passed by him, and by the time I was at the lip, he had made his way to the middle of the jump's knuckle. I bailed as much as I could, nailed him in the chest, and hit the knuckle right on my bum. He of course, was fine and I made my way to the hospital for an xray. I didn't break the tailbone but couldn't ski, or even sit down without serious pain for a month.

Another time on the same jump, I witnessed a gaper straitline the park to hit the jump, and overshot it by a solid 50 ft onto his back. He broke multiple vertebrae and got a serious concussion.
 
Ok I hate our park. So much. And it's all gapers. And not relevant but who are you? I was at welch all the time this season, camo saga pants and black saga jacket, and i thought i knew all the NS'rs there
 
I'm not sure if this person was stupid, or a bad gaper. He went to the big (20-30ft) jump line and speed checked alot and completely did not clear it. He then did that or the second, the third, and the fourth jump in the line. If you don't clear the first, why do you do the same thing for all the others?
 
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