Worst Injury You've Witnessed Skiing

swagmasterflex

swagmasterflex

Member
I'm probably not even gonna read the comments on this post because I hate reading about injuries to begin with, but I had to share this. Other than when I broke my collarbone bad earlier this season, I saw one of the most gruesome things on and off of a mountain ever. It was a chill day, me and my brother were taking some laps at Bromley (where we grew up skiing) after some decent snow and overall just an awesome sunny day visiting our lil home mountain. It wasn't until we decided to ski down this small access trail by first aid to take a shortcut to the lot that changed our day completely. I look over at my brother's face to see his jaw dropped and staring over to a group of medics treating someone on the snow. I glance over and saw literally one of the most horrific things ever. There was a lady on the ground SCREAMING with a ski pole THROUGH HER LEG. When I say through, I don't mean just sticking out of her leg, it went in one side of her thigh and out the other. I still get the chills just thinking about it, you woulda thought this was a scene from some D-Day movie with the amount of insanity and suffering going on. Not sure how it happened but assuming she was going like Mach 2 when she landed on and snapped her pole on her thigh or something but I wouldn't wish an injury like that on my worst enemy. Happy skiing everyone.
 
Definitely not as gruesome. But once I was on spring break snowboarding (before I learned to ski) and I was going mach 10 into a oversized hip jump, caught an edge saved it but it put me off balance and was to close to the lip of the jump to back out. So I sent it and got put backseat off the lip. I probably went about 20-30 feet in the air (I was about 10 feet over “copping” on about a 10-15 foot hip, and I caught no transition pretty much landed flat. I landed on my butt and backslapped and hit my head pretty good and gave myself a concussion. Needless to say after already pulling a muscle in my hamstring/glute that was the end of my session?
 
I was on a lift and saw little snowboarder going mach 10 into a small jump. He couldn't handle the kick and was flung 30 feet past the landing while doing half a back flip. When he landed, he did not move.
 
Me and my friend were about to drop into this line under the lift that we thought had enough snow. I told him he could go first and the first turn he made he slipped out or something. I got up to him and thought he was all good but he literally could not stand up. I asked him what hurt and he said he hit his knee on a rock. Once we got him out of there and into ski patrol, I realized just how bad it was. Right below his knee he was sliced down to the bone about 4 inches across. Scary stuff
 
I witnessed a beginner snowboarder fall off of the lift probably 40-50 ft in the air. Not sure what injuries, but ski patrol was on them for 45 minutes + and they were carried away in a stretcher. Scariest thing I’ve seen
 
Pole the leg is pretty tame to be honest. Unless the pole like fractured her femur or something. Probably pulled it out and put some stitches.

some kid posted on ns yrs ago showing his amputated leg they had to cut off because he mangled his leg so bad running into a tree. THAT SUCKED.

It was really sad because he was like really optimistic and upbeat, saying he was fine with it and not bummed at all about it, and i have a suspicion that he was so optimistic and upbeat because he was given pain meds (opioids) in his hospital bed. Thats how powerful opiates can be on certain people. You just got your leg amputated and you dont even care bc youre feeling awesome.

i dont mean to conjecture but i have no other way to make sense of that situation. Getting a leg amputated fucking sucks. People kill themselves over shit like that all the time. I dont buy that some guy is going to be posting on ns about how he is really happy and grateful after getting his leg amputated unless something else is going on (ie. Denial or opioid pain meds or whatever).

I felt really bad for the guy because at some point the reality would have hit him and at that point im pretty sure he wouldnt be in a boisterous mood.

worst injury ive seen myself wasnt an injury, (luckily) but i saw a kid fall off a lift from like 30 or 40 feet up. But he was fine which was awesome but ppl were like screaming as he fell thinking he was gonna die.
 
topic:swagmasterflex said:
I'm probably not even gonna read the comments on this post because I hate reading about injuries to begin with, but I had to share this. Other than when I broke my collarbone bad earlier this season, I saw one of the most gruesome things on and off of a mountain ever. It was a chill day, me and my brother were taking some laps at Bromley (where we grew up skiing) after some decent snow and overall just an awesome sunny day visiting our lil home mountain. It wasn't until we decided to ski down this small access trail by first aid to take a shortcut to the lot that changed our day completely. I look over at my brother's face to see his jaw dropped and staring over to a group of medics treating someone on the snow. I glance over and saw literally one of the most horrific things ever. There was a lady on the ground SCREAMING with a ski pole THROUGH HER LEG. When I say through, I don't mean just sticking out of her leg, it went in one side of her thigh and out the other. I still get the chills just thinking about it, you woulda thought this was a scene from some D-Day movie with the amount of insanity and suffering going on. Not sure how it happened but assuming she was going like Mach 2 when she landed on and snapped her pole on her thigh or something but I wouldn't wish an injury like that on my worst enemy. Happy skiing everyone.
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And people still freak out when I tell them they need baskets to get on the lift. Like they don't understand a pole without a basket is literally a spear.
 
This reminds me of last year. I saw a kid in rentals fly off our large line (not rly large only like maybe 20ft on the second) and on the second he landed maybe 25-30ft past the landing on his back. He didn’t even scream or make a noise we just heard a crack and a whomp. The whomp was the sound only all the air getting pushed out of your lungs could make. We thought he was dead. So me and my buddy immediately called ski patrol since we were on the lift. By the time we skied down they roped off the park and had 3 sleds. And ambulance pulling into the parking lot. He ended up getting airlifted and broke his femur in half and 2 vertebrae. Poor kid. I think that’s more of a parenting thing than the kids fault he was maybe 8 or 9 probably closer to 6 or 7. Gotta love HV during holidays
 
There was some guy last year who cut his thigh with his ski and almost bled out. If it was just an inch higher up his leg it would have hit an artery. Craziest part is that he was on rental skis which are all super detuned
 
Not really skiing but one night in a skitown my friend slipped over some black ice and cracked 6 ribs, with 1 puncturing his lung. That was him out for the season
 
My dad saw some guy hit a lift pole full speed back in the day before there were pads on lift poles - guy had a compound fracture of his femur and the bone was sticking out through his ski pants
 
14251294:Arnie777 said:
Not really skiing but one night in a skitown my friend slipped over some black ice and cracked 6 ribs, with 1 puncturing his lung. That was him out for the season
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Always gotta watch your wallet around that black ice, that shit sneaks up on you
 
Broke my collarbone failing a drop, surprisingly not gruesome at all but worst pain I've felt.

Saw a snowboarder send a 35 ft jump right in front of me and knock himself out immediately, also wasn't too gruesome but made me not hit the jump after lol
 
Not nearly as bad as some of the others but kind of weird to experience. I saw this snowboader catch and edge on a landing and smack his head with no helmet. I skied up to check on him and it was some random kid I knew at my high school. Anyway, I come up and the conversation basically went like this,

"Hey man you alright???"

"Hey Thomas, hows it going man?"

"Hey Jake, are you ok? You hit your head pretty hard."

"Yeah, im fine. Just kind of dizzy."

"Lets go to ski patrol to get checked out"

*Long Pause*

"Hey Thomas, hows it going man?"

"Im good, you know you just asked me that"

"Me? When"

"Just now man, you need to get looked at."

"Im good man, im just going to lie down for a bit."

"Yo fuck that we need to get you to patrol ASAP."

Finally I convinced him to go to the patrol shack and I think he had a concussion. I was pretty jarring to be honest to see someone straight twacked out like that. It was like his brain reset in the middle of our conversation and this weird look came over his face. He was all good in the end though so that is good.
 
Found a snowboarder unconscious in the park at the bottom of the landing. His nose was broken and bleeding. His goggles lens was smashed too. I didn't see the fall but he must have landed on his face directly or caught an edged really bad and whipped to his face.

He was breathing pretty good so I wasn't that worried about him. His dad however was clearly panicking and shouting his sons name, and shaking him (which is a super terrible thing to do if the patient may have a spinal injury). I stayed there until patrol arrived to make sure nobody did something stupid to him and went on my way.

Situations with unconscious patients are always the scariest.
 
Was instructing one day and on the way back to the office was summoned over to help this kid by the magic carpet (conveyor belt for learners). Sent buddy to go to the office and call patrol, I got closer and the kid had managed to make a big gash in their shin with the edge of their rental ski, so had somebody keep pressure on it while I made some bandages.

Eventually patrol came and took her away and we had to shovel up the bloody snow and throw it out (biohazard procedure). How a 75lb kid on rentals cuts themselves open on the learner slope I have no idea.
 
Idk bout injury but watched a guy hit a spine feature in the park full on without a hint of a speedcheck. Fell out of the sky from like 25ft and landed on the flat like a wet rag. It was brutal
 
Having worked on ski patrol for a year, I surprisingly didn't see that many gruesome injuries. Maybe because it was a big snow year or maybe I just got numb to it after a while. But there are a couple that still stand out.

Not gruesome but crazy nonetheless, I responded to a heroin OD in the parking lot. Guy was passed out in the back seat of his car barely breathing. The medics arrived pretty quickly and shot him with narcan and he came right back to life. Don't do drugs.

There was a kid maybe 7 years old who sliced his calf through 3 layers of pants all the way to the bone from his ski edge. He was clearly upset and there was a lot of blood. Ski edges are sharp but I wouldn't have expected it to be that bad.
 
Guy ducked a rope at timberline. Launched 40 feet into mile canyon with no snow on the walls. Both legs were going different ways. He lived....... It was bad

Oh the compound fracture that cut through a guys jacket

Or when this kid pulled up his beanie and his scalp came off with it and I saw his skull
 
A couple years ago my boy was throwing double backs and lacing it up. He decided to throw a double back with a double truck driver and laced that too. When he asked us to film him stomping it he over rotated and landed on his back and tried to break his fall with his elbow. His humorous shot through his shoulder and he still has lingering nerve damage through his arm. Pretty gnarly.
 
I was skiing in a glade that had a pretty gnarly cliff line and a guy came in confident to the biggest drop and got put off balance right before the drop and tilted sideways in the air before ringing his head off a tree in the air. Knocked him clean out in the air and he fell like rocks and had to be medvaced out . Wild
 
Didn't see it happen. But was riding the lift with [tag=3025]@iggyskier[/tag] when Rowen broke his femur....The screams.
 
14251391:galardogod said:
I was skiing in a glade that had a pretty gnarly cliff line and a guy came in confident to the biggest drop and got put off balance right before the drop and tilted sideways in the air before ringing his head off a tree in the air. Knocked him clean out in the air and he fell like rocks and had to be medvaced out . Wild
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Damn just imagining that makes you uneasy.
 
At the start of this season my buddy was getting ready to do his first backflip. He went too fast and landed on his neck on the flat. It was the most scary thing I have ever seen. He was unresponsive and It was looking like a broken neck or back for a while. Idk how but he only got cuncused and was skiing a month later.
 
Why do I even read these threads...

One chill day in the park with coworkers. One of the guys is getting comfortable on jumps on his directional skis. He tries a 180. Then asks me if he should do a 3. “Dude you fucking got it. Just keep rotating”.

He tried it on a 5 foot jump. He didn’t commit (you could tell he panicked) and he fell on it. Super mild fall.

“I think I broke my arm”. Super calm.

Sure enough, he shattered his elbow. The scar was pretty hardcore. I was shocked.

Felt bad because he was a nice guy and he was just telling me earlier that day how he was always scared of park but it’s actually super fun.

That’s the worst I’ve seen, injury wise
 
14251395:Session said:
Didn't see it happen. But was riding the lift with [tag=3025]@iggyskier[/tag] when Rowen broke his femur....The screams.
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Worst part was getting his ski boot off in the ambulance.
 
14251328:SuspiciousFish said:
Not nearly as bad as some of the others but kind of weird to experience. I saw this snowboader catch and edge on a landing and smack his head with no helmet. I skied up to check on him and it was some random kid I knew at my high school. Anyway, I come up and the conversation basically went like this,

"Hey man you alright???"

"Hey Thomas, hows it going man?"

"Hey Jake, are you ok? You hit your head pretty hard."

"Yeah, im fine. Just kind of dizzy."

"Lets go to ski patrol to get checked out"

*Long Pause*

"Hey Thomas, hows it going man?"

"Im good, you know you just asked me that"

"Me? When"

"Just now man, you need to get looked at."

"Im good man, im just going to lie down for a bit."

"Yo fuck that we need to get you to patrol ASAP."

Finally I convinced him to go to the patrol shack and I think he had a concussion. I was pretty jarring to be honest to see someone straight twacked out like that. It was like his brain reset in the middle of our conversation and this weird look came over his face. He was all good in the end though so that is good.
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Same thing happened to my buddy. I know exactly what you mean by the brain reset, its still the most terrifying thing I’ve experienced. It’s like you just see your friend disappear and reappear in front of your eyes. Brain injuries are horrible man, hope he ended up ok.
 
14251271:bakemaster said:
And people still freak out when I tell them they need baskets to get on the lift. Like they don't understand a pole without a basket is literally a spear.
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Pole basket saved me from getting impaled once. I caught tips under a log and sort of front flipped off of a little drop. Somehow my pole ended up with the pointy end up and my thigh falling right onto it. Cut through my snowpants and drew some blood but could have been sooo much worse if I was going spear mode
 
Didnt directly see it but was riding with some homies back in the day and a chick someone knew decided to tag along for a run. she ended up running into a snow maker and snapping her femur. Was able to hear her screaming from halfway up the hill when I got back to the lift. Don’t think she’s put on skis since
 
Not a bad injury but this weekend I broke my hand on the first day of a two-day pow skiing trip and ended up taping my pole to my hand and skiing the whole next day
 
Last day of the season, sunny and slushy and everyone's having a grand old time. My buddy was skiing fast when he caught an edge and spun out. His skis didn't come off so rode away, unknowingly trailing a line of blood behind him. Someone catches up to him and tells him he's bleeding, and he looks down at his wrist to see a 3 inch gash cut across his arm. Evidently he had skied over his arm and sliced his wrist open during the fall. We wrapped it up with a buff and made it down to patrol, where he said he felt awkward walking in saying 'Hi, I am bleeding really badly.' They patched him up enough that he could get stitches later so it could have been worse, but somebody had to go out and clean up all the red snow.
 
it was foggy and they were doing a redo on the jumps under the lift. They were open, so I decided to just roll the knuckle. Turns out it was a cliff and i was going pretty fast. It was an icy day and I tomahawked after going mega flat. Luckily got away with a somewhat bad concussion and a broken nose. Crushed my helmet and goggles too. The scary thing is it knocked me unconscious for nearly a minute and afterwards my friends say I was basically possessed. I also left a massive streak of blood which my friends say lasted the whole weekend, visible from the lift. Last thing I remember from it was looking down wondering why I was in the air. Head injuries are scary af
 
14251271:bakemaster said:
And people still freak out when I tell them they need baskets to get on the lift. Like they don't understand a pole without a basket is literally a spear.
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Damn, maybe i should get pole baskets
 
1. Not sure what happened but a girl had to get airlifted a few years back.

2. Watched a kid break both his wrists when he caught the tip of his snowboard on the landing. worst part was seeing his wrist fucked.

3. Watching your own arm get bent back about 30 degrees at a wrestling meet. tore all the ligaments along with the dislocated elbow.

4. saw a kid ged rejected by a girl

 
My buddy almost died in front of me.

We hiked into this alcove under a cliff to get some scrap powder and have a toke with a view. We spotted this neat drop off, but since my ankles were hurting bad, I took the lazy way down. I noticed a crust layer near the top, but dissipaded lower down.

My buddy hits the cliff with park skis, sinks through the ice layer and lines up the only tree there and hits his head first then get tossed in the air like a croc eating a pig.

I ran up to get to him while calling out patrol. When I get to him, he ended a round of convulsions and heard he was choking on his blood. I moved him just enough so the blood can run out. By then, patrol arrived and got him on a streacher. He wakes up, so they cart him down to the ambulance.

Dude calls me next morning to get picked up from the hospital. He walked out of there.

However, concussions have a latency period and he suffered for months.

Hes still fine today!
 
Not downhill skiing, but crust skiing on our skate skis in BC the winter before last. It was an absolute nightmare, I've probably told the story on here before a few times but here it goes again.

It was a place we frequented with sleds and out touring gear in the winter, about 15 miles up a road and then another 5 or so up a small peak. We were heading down, on the perfect crust, probably going close to 40, on XC skis. Up ahead I see my buddy frantically try to stop, and then tumble sideways and disappear. We catch up and see him lying face down at the bottom of a 25-30 foot cliff (genuinely this big, not exaggerating). He is coming in and out of consciousness, has a baseball-sized lump coming out of his upper leg, he can't move his neck or his left arm, his back is shredded from sliding on the crust, and his ankle is at a 90-degree angle from the rest of his leg. We rig up a "stretcher" with our poles and some of our gear, and we start hiking him out. To put it into perspective, he didn't even dent the crust when he landed.

Thankfully most of the way back was a mellow downhill, but it still took us like 6 hours to get to the road, and then another two or three to get to the hospital. He was super pale and his arm had swollen to unnatural sizes. We got him to the hospital and they took him in to get xrayed. He had a broken tibia, femur, radius, clavicle, ruptured two tendons in his neck, tore a LOT of ligaments, and fucked up his ankle (I don't remember the exact injury here). He recovered (mostly) surprisingly quickly, but he still doesn't have full motion in his neck and ankle. He hasn't downhill skied since but he still XC races occasionally, and hopefully next year he will be able to get his ankle into a ski boot.
 
Saw a snowboarded over shoot a huge jump and land completely flat on his back. Ski patrol ended up closing the park for a bit while they got him out since he broke his back
 
14251800:DolansLebensraum said:
Fucking OWNED

hos did he break it that bad?
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Caught a tip reverting after a 180 and fell sideways directly onto a massive sharp rock that was under about 0.5" of snow. He basically tomahawked himself.

He was walking with a cane in less than a month too.
 
14251822:iggyskier said:
Caught a tip reverting after a 180 and fell sideways directly onto a massive sharp rock that was under about 0.5" of snow. He basically tomahawked himself.

He was walking with a cane in less than a month too.
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I still can't ski that section of the upper bowl.
 
Some fresh pow turns in a grove of aspens turned into a branch snapping off and lodging itself in the leg of a friend. Lots of blood. Lots of cursing. He was headed out on a heli trip (trip of a lifetime type) the next day and had to cancel the whole thing. Literally the worst.
 
14251752:gusbus432 said:
it was foggy and they were doing a redo on the jumps under the lift. They were open, so I decided to just roll the knuckle. Turns out it was a cliff and i was going pretty fast. It was an icy day and I tomahawked after going mega flat. Luckily got away with a somewhat bad concussion and a broken nose. Crushed my helmet and goggles too. The scary thing is it knocked me unconscious for nearly a minute and afterwards my friends say I was basically possessed. I also left a massive streak of blood which my friends say lasted the whole weekend, visible from the lift. Last thing I remember from it was looking down wondering why I was in the air. Head injuries are scary af
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Similar injury. I was racing a few years back and just got a new pair of GS keys that were a good 15 cm taller than I was, I was One of the best in the state so I just wanted to use my new giant slalom skis. In between runs that we were taking some free runs, I was really trying to get a feel for the skis so I was cutting it pretty close to the side of the trail when my nose went under the breakable crust and I front flipped headfirst into an ice boulder from when they groomed the trails. Split the thing right in half and knocked myself out for a good three minutes and got a pretty nasty concussion and bruised a rib. Never did go to the hospital though. Still the scariest thing that is ever happened to me

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Ugh, have seen a few nasty injuries through my years of skiing.

Seen front teeth knocked out by a ski that came off while my buddy tomahawked down the slope

Seen another buddy hit a step up jump that didnt have enough speed, cased the uphill, added another knee to his right leg just above the boot. He had some older equipment and the binding didnt release. Broke both lower leg bones right in half. Like [tag=3025]@iggyskier[/tag] mentioned above, the real pain was hearing his screams while they were removing his boot.

Seen a guy while I was on the chairlift, hauling ass, in control just going mach 5 on a groomer. Decided to cut across to another run around the tree line but there was a younger lady coming around that tree line at the same time and BOOM! She went flying like you see those people in those air/rubber balls that run into each other........ The sound of the collide was gross. Dude stayed up and got stopped but the girl laid their like a rag doll many feet from the collision. By the time I got off the lift and was able to ski over, patrol was there checking her out. It did not look good as she was screaming she couldnt feel her legs. Patrol got her down the slope and life flighted her out. I am not aware of what the final outcome was but I do hope she is okay.

Seen a ski almost go through a buddy like a spear. Fell on it doing some moguls and it flipped up right when he was falling down. Ripped through his outwear and penetrated his stomach. Luckily he rolled slightly and the ski just cut his belly real good instead of going straight into it. Had to get a few stitches.

I do have more if you want me to keep going.lol
 
Damnnnn this thread just made me remember the repressed childhood memory of seeing a wasted guy slam into the lift line at Holiday Valley and his ski edge sword chop someone's leg. There was so much blood, it was absolutely insane. Luckily it was the outside of the leg because now that I know how the femoral artery works, that's one of my biggest fears... you can die from that shit, super fast.
 
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