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From: haas@utah-gr.UUCP (Walt Haas)
Newsgroups: net.rec.ski
Subject: Re: On crashing and burning
Message-ID: <1396@utah-gr.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 25-Mar-85 15:45:56 EST
Article-I.D.: utah-gr.1396
Posted: Mon Mar 25 15:45:56 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 7-Apr-85 07:24:27 EST
Organization: Univ of Utah CS Dept
Lines: 37

Reckless skiing is unfortunately not confined to California.
The other day I was giving a friend a beginner lesson on the
Albion [read "baby"] run at Alta when some jerk yelled "Look
out!" and zoomed between us.  He was totally out of control.
I caught up with him and read him the riot act.  Alta has more
casualties on the Albion run than anywhere else, and I think
a lot of it is collisions - of course some of it is poor
physical condition and bindings adjusted wrong.  I can only
recall once in recent years that somebody did something like
that to me on a reasonably difficult run.

There are, unfortunately, ways for good skiers to get hurt.
One friend was on STH at Snowbird when he blew out of his skis-
he slid down about 40 feet and stopped against a tree, with a
broken leg as the result.

It /is/ occasionally possible to ski an avalanche.
I have a series of slides of Ed LaChappelle skiing in an
avalanche, which I use in the avalanche course I teach for
the Wasatch Mountain Club.  I also have a home movie of
Wayne Slagle attempting to do the same thing, and failing.

Incidentally, both of the avalanche fatalities here this
winter were caused by somebody skiing into an area clearly
posted CLOSED by the local ski patrol.  There were numerous
skiers caught in avalanches, both within and outside the
various resorts, that were rescued alive.  This is a
satisfying observation to me, since it implies that the
serious skiers are more knowledgeable and better prepared
than they used to be, so the fatal accidents are caused
by the small percentage of complete assholes, which seems
to be an unalterable constant.

Regards  -- Walt Haas

ARPA:  Haas@Utah-20
uucp:  ...{decvax | ihnp4 | seismo}!utah-cs!haas