Whats sketchier?

J

jfp

Member
big mountain ak or tight tree skiing.? I often watch seth morrison and say "wow" he does big turns on open powder faces, BIG DEAL. {the back flips are another story}. I would like to see if he or others in his range can fly through super tight trees at top speed which i feel is way tougher to ski, only ones i see doing it are meathead films.
 
imo tree skiing is kinda lame, although it can be sketchy

but on the level that Seth does big mountain, it is way sketchier than any tree skiing

first of all there is avalanche danger

second if you crash doing that stuff you can get burried or easily break your smut because of the high speed and the 16 DIN bindings

trees can be dangerous because you can hit a tree, pretty boring
 
i'd rather ski tight trees at high speeds in questionable conditions any day over a 45 degree face with unknown hazards and conditions at breakneck speeds. If you've never accidentally skied over a big cliff, you can't really appreciate the sketchiness of straightlining an unfamiliar face.
 
On a big mountain slope, you can barely see where you are going. There is avalanche danger and you are going so incredibly fast. 16 DIN bindings are neccesary because even if you fall with those bindings, chances are you will still eject. Staying in your skis is vital, you can't afford to pre-release. You are practically falling and using whatever edge you can to control your descent.

Tree skiing is dodging trees; even though its hard, its much more mellow and safe.
 
Not to forget neglecting med attention...in most glades anywhere you are at least an hour from a hospital or at least someone who knows what they're doing...in AK you're fucked...
 
you don't know what extreme tree skiing is. you live out west, and your trees are nothing compared to out east. try having to just power through hundreds of pines, and branches hitting you in the face, all for 20 feet of heavy powder that you can make one or two turns in, until you have to crash through some more trees. that is pretty nuts. i do agree it is more dangerous to do big mountain, because when it's good is when you could easily be in an avalanche.
 
Both are sketchy.

Even at a moderate speed, if you hit a tree with your head, back, neck, you could be paralyzed or dead. Big mountain, you could be caught in avalanches, hit unknown objects under the snow, and in both, if you lose control, you're lucky to come out unscathed.
 
I have skied some of what people consider badass glades in the west, and I have to say that this is something the east coast actually schools the west at. The glades are so much more tech on the east. But overall, I think that big mountain is sketchier, mainly because of the higher speeds and what can happen as an outcome of that.
 
No one has mentioned the biggest hazard of tree skiing, that is tree wells. Definitely do not want to fall in one of those without anyone noticing.
 
another over looked thing in tree skiing is roots, i've caught skis under those things so many tiems or fallen trees
 
haha, that is actually really accurate. i find myself doing that a lot out here on the east coast. ramming through a hundred branches at once, getting your face all cut. that's what skiing on the east is!
 
yea EC trees are much more extreem than the WC and yea look at some of the parts seth has in show and prove he does some tree skiing but the trees arent like the EC trees that are tight as hell.
 
West coast trees are fun. East Coast trees scare the shit out of me. I doubt many people here have skied what we would call a true big mountain line. I've done a sorta big mountain line, kinda steep, really fast, and a drop at the end. Without a doubt the scariest shit ever. As Slandis mentioned, you cannot see where you are going. The whole time I was going, I was like "where is the drop, where is the drop?" and when I finally did see it, I had maybe a half second at the speed I was going to adjust and prepare. True big mountain would make me shit my pants. Straightlining is beyond my comprehension, I dont know how those guys can do that shit.
 
Yeah, you should hear the story about one guy from the US alpine team, his mom fell in one and his dad found her like 45 min later, she was completley upside down and almost unconcious
 
To end this, For the majority of the time, tree skiing is much more dangerous. Keep in mind this is for the MAJORITY of the time, not ALL the time. When you see all the pro's shred big mountain lines, do you seriously think they just get dropped off at the top and then decide where to go? They fly around for at least 10 minutes and choose which line there going to take, where their escape routes are incase it does slide and where to go so they dont get hurt. And beforehand, they do avalanche tests on a similar pitch to see what the conditions are, and weather it is safe to go out. Now keep in mind, they will just slide but they usually have a pretty good chance if they have kept up on the snow records in the past couple of weeks and have done proper testing.

Now tree skiing on the other hand, and im not talking about resort tree skiing, im talking about cat skiing/heli skiing trees. Avalanches are generally out of the question with tree skiing but there are many other risks that are much easier to become trapped up in then avalanches. now lets say your going a moderate speed, dodging trees, and a log apears you did not see apears. You take a quick turn to the right and one of your skis loses control of the snow due to nexpected turns and you fall facefirst into a treewell. When this happens, your burried. Unless someone luckily see's the colour of your ski bases or you have someone right behind you, your pretty much fucked. theres no chance of you getting yourself out of there and your gonna suffocate.

Now the same situation just you hit a tree, and get knocked out or break something serious and you cannot move. Again you are in alot of trouble.

There are alot of variables to both, but you cannot scout ahead tree skiing like you can with bowl skiing, and if you fall or get caught in an avalanche in a open bowl, if there is any part of you showing it is easier to locate you. IMO, tree skiing is the more periful of the two.
 
yeah, the old shin breaking roots. and the mini drops and unexpected cliffs in trees. I was waiting for my friend once and all of a sudden I see him dive off a rock about 5ft high head forward missing a tree with his head by an inch onto about an inch of snow. (this is the east, bad snow year..) it was pretty crazy at the time.
 
pollard rips trees, sometimes switch in the less dense places. and i can garuntee you that seth can rip the shit out of any tree run you can lead him into.
 
well if you are like majority of the people on newschoolers who ski the same runs over and over then i think skiing a big mountain line you know is easier then a tree run you know, but if your skiing something for the first time then a big mountain line can be pretty sketchy

on another note my frined and i tried to follow seth morrison down a tree run at vail and he can definitley rip in the trees
 
theres usually more steeps,rocks,cliffs ect. when there arent trees above the timberline. tree skiings more of just a life or death slalom
 
You guys are all forgetting the most dangerous type of skiing of all... Skiing around gapers!

All kidding aside... in general there are more chances for you to get hurt when ripping a tree line... hence what makes it difficult... you know the hundreds of trees on all sides. But I feel like the Dangers of big mountain skiing are greater in that you can ditch and dodge a tree at the last second.. but they don't move.. an avalanche will chase you down.

As for Seth... go watch Ski Porn or Show and Prove... and then tell me that Seth cant ski trees.

Oh yeah... and East Glades Own.
 
i personally think a big mountain line is not as dangerous. it for a

fact is about 10 times scarier. i have skied pretty much what you could

consider a big mountain line once, with 6 hours of hiking and it was

the scariest/funnest thing i've ever done. i was the first one to drop

in in a funnel once i realized there wasn't gonna be an avalanche i

thought it was all okay. i hit 2 10 foot drops i didn't know were there,

and the one 30 footer i did know about, i didn't see till the last

second and don't know how i pulled it off, MUCH SCARIER. tree skiing

isn't as scary at all, but there are sooo many things that you cant

notice and you have to be able to adjust to and make last second

decisions. but you see the pros, they check for snow pack have a

helicopter watching them all of that stuff. but in the east coast trees

there are logs, roots, trees, and worst of all tree wells....
 
this thread is gay, but this response is awesome. this is exactly how i fell in love with skiing. waterville - left side of lower bobby's run. unofficial "trail". i am a beast at skiing very sketchy shit now. i hate the claustrophic feeling you get when you realize your stash ran out, and the trees finally gto too thick to even try to skia nd you have to billygoat/hike out.
 
It is the area around the trunk of the tree that has no snow. It is normalle in pine trees, because when the snow falls, the branches catch the snow, and very little is actually surrounding the tree trunk. If you fall in one, you have a very small chance of getting out, because you will probably be up-side-down, with nothing to push against.

You also have to watch out for tree fog. That is when you are a snowboarder, and can't keep up with the skiers, and when we hit a branch, the snow falls off of it, you can't see what is on the otehr side. For all you know, it could be another tree.
 
woah woah...

hitting trees can be lethal there buddy. i know of someone who hit a tree, broke ribs and one of the ribs cut his aorta.
 
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