Arresting a fall on skis on steep slope (continued)

I was fortunate to receive some good feedback and ideas on how to prevent a slide with bad consequences on a dangerous ski slope, following my recent blog on the subject. To summarize, there is no foolproof and easy method to self-arrest under these circumstances and the best approach I will remember is to avoid exposed areas, especially if one is scared, nervous or feels technically unprepared. 

This said, I would like to share some comments received from Anselme Baud, French skier and high mountain guide, former professor at ENSA in Chamonix, and pioneer of extreme skiing. He had one very smart thing to say: “To start with, I always urge skiers to first use a proven technique to AVOID falling.” This probably sums it all up and confirms that most skiers should just stay away from dangerously exposed slopes if the individual technique and ability are not good enough. 

To Anselme, all the advice, including the one showed on the video of self-arrest with a pole are like “re-inventing the wheel” and, as he further says, “If following a fall, the skier is lucky enough to still have his poles, he should first hold on to only one, point it in the right way while sliding, then holding it next to the basket without letting it escape his grip and push it into the snow if it’s not too soft or powdery, the idea being to hold to it until the skier’s head is brought uphill…” 

Then he continued by saying “That’s what we’ve always taught climbers for self-arresting with an ice axe, whose design has unfortunately devolved into fancy twisted tools, that can no longer be planted into snow for that purpose.”

Of course, I forgot to mention the Black Diamond's Whippet, a ski pole with an ice pick-like attachment that can be used to self-arrest on steep snow slopes. While not offering the holding power (nor the strength or multi-function) of an ice axe, it might be okay to hold on to right after the fall and prevent a larger, free and dangerous slide. 

I personally, at first glance, find that tool a bit dangerous, but have never tried it to say it would be unsafe. So, that’s about it with self-arresting falls while skiing. I will stay that short of practicing (which I know for a fact, very few will do) we should remember not to venture into stable, hard, steep slopes if we don’t have the skills to stand up on skis in these conditions, are not confident enough and if we are on the older side of the scale. You see what I mean… 

Taking the bus to go skiing

Parking at the Park City local areas has become very difficult and frustrating if one doesn’t decide to leave early in the morning to go skiing. Then, by leaving before the masses, there’s plenty of waiting time inside the car or at the nearby coffee shop until lines begin forming around the base ski lifts. 

All this amounts to a royal waste of time no one wants, particularly on weekends. This new reality has prompted me to ride our local shuttle more frequently this season. To start, I don’t want to risk an accident with my car as I circle forever around the gigantic parking lot to locate an empty spot left by a departing automobile, not to mention the risk of hitting one of the many pot-holes that pop up everyday on that large expanse of asphalt. Right, that’s both added risk and time wasted!

The shuttle bus isn’t a convenient option either where my house is located, but I can make it work and by texting the passage time of the next shuttle at a given spot, I can get a good estimated time of pick-up and work my departure from home accordingly. 

Returning isn’t as simple as time riding the lift, more so than the duration of descent, affects the return to the bus-stop for the travel home. In addition, after all that skiing, who wants to wait 10, 20 or even more minutes? This is even truer as the day wears on, shuttle schedules slip and traffic congestion creeps up. 

What can I say? I guess: “Shut up and enjoy the ride!”

Skiing with a group or alone?

For those who know me well, you might suspect that I ski alone a lot and still have plenty of fun. The exception is of course with family members and friends I appreciate a lot. 

Skiing is complicated. It involves an almost infinite set of options. Starting with varying skiing levels within a group, but also which run, the quality of snow, nature of terrain, kind of light, type of weather, rate of speed, slope grade and much more. 

So skiing in a group automatically demands clear leadership, either permanent or by rotation, but leadership is in part defined by the individual skill set and quite importantly by local knowledge of the place where skiing takes place. 

It’s easy to comprehend the complexity of the proposition and the exponential consequences of adding one single skier to a party considering the impact it has on the dynamic of the group. 

All this means that the more diverse a group and the highest number of participants, the more complicated the outing is going to be and why when all is said and done, I often ski a lot and in spite of what you might think, I’m always satisfied. Call me selfish if you want.

Of course, on the other hand, there's the comradery, the fun episodes, the good meal and the group photo at the end of a group ski outing!

Why do I have bad dreams?

It’s my personal opinion that my life is quite good, but my dreams tell me a different story. They’re generally bad, stressful, wake me up and to often leave me quite depressed. What gives? Well, we all know that the question of whether dreams have meaning has been pondered by philosophers and scientists for centuries, and there's no one definitive answer.

So, I take it that dreams are a random form of mental housekeeping that follow neither rhyme or reason. In other words, a wide variety of disassociated and disjointed components are thrown up in the air and fall wherever they feel like, often making me feel pretty bad for no good reason, and unfortunately wake me up several times in the early hours which I don’t appreciate at all. 

Add to that their depressing tone and negative message that force me to fully wake up and tell my brain that it is pure BS and I should ignore it, as I order the rest of my body systems to return to sleep. And that is, at this point, when I often get no satisfaction. I can’t get back to sleep. I’m not happy, but this is no serious matter, it’s just become a dreaded routine that I will survive well!

Swiss common sense

We watch a lot of Swiss-produced television, mostly newscasts, and through it all, we like it a lot, because it makes us discover a culture profoundly based on common sense. 

That’s right, all the pretense and faddish language that we otherwise hear on other French or even English speaking TV programs is conspicuously absent. It is true that Swiss culture is often associated with characteristics such as pragmatism, efficiency, and a strong emphasis on neutrality. 

The Swiss are known for their emphasis on consensus-building, federalism, and a direct democratic system. 

They are also in my opinion a much older culture that is settled, and not simmering like that of the United States, much less mature, or even France, with significantly less years of cultural and political unity. 

Do you agree?

Arresting a ski fall…

Each time I think of my fall and slide, this past December, I am reminded that we never prepare and train well enough to handle this type of situation in very steep terrain. 

As some of my friends told me, “You should have flipped your legs over your body and gotten your skis to stop you!” Easy to say for sure, but not on an over 40 degrees slope, and besides, this was the very first time I was experiencing this very incident. 

I should have known what to expect though, as I have observed it countless times with ski students, friends, members of my family as well as perfect strangers. I have skied dangerously steep slopes often enough without thinking too much of what stood below, may it be cliffs, water, rocks or trees and in the future, these considerations will come up first and foremost to me. 

Likewise, I have never practiced flipping my skis over my body when I’m sliding head first or being ready to use my poles to arrest myself. I think ski schools should incorporate that into their curriculum with advanced skiers, even though some might feel stupid practicing such drills… 

Hey, experienced skiers out there, what do you think?

 

A day well-lived…

Our life is a busy one, always overflowing with something exciting to do as a direct result of our needs and wants. It’s made up of a mosaic of daily special moments that we have built over the years to make our daily life an enchanting experience, filled with surprises and discovery that we always look forward to. 

Here’s how it works; we place pieces in our day that we never get tired of. It begins with meditation when I wake up, before I make the morning coffee and draft a daily blog that I try to finish and publish before breakfast that follows and that we always enjoy for its variety. 

Then my wife and I go for a long walk, well over 5 miles and it’s almost time for lunch when we return if don’t spend some time working in the garden when there’s no snow. The afternoon is devoted to skiing, doing indoor projects or fun things and a shorter 2 miles walk later. 

Late afternoon we watch the news on TV while having a drink and later enjoy dinner. We pick a good program to watch later on and then around 9 pm are in bed and read until we fall asleep exhausted. Before doing that however I mentally re-run my day and spot the mistakes, errors or sins I’ve committed, to get them deep in my head in order not to repeat them. 

That, for us, concludes a day well-lived...