Shiz hit the fan in Seattle in the form of a couple inches of snow. Schools closed, streets closed, bus routes canceled, abandoned cars, cold hobos, work canceled, etc. Normal life disrupted.
Go snowboarding.
Stevens opened up today with a lot of snow. They ran a ‘limited’ operation which meant only Skyline, and Hogsback (i couldn’t remember the names and had to look at their Trail Map). The front of Stevens Pass is flat. Add tit deep snow and you get stuck a bit. The snow was cold and super light so you blew through right to the bottom. Def not normal WA snow. The temp was retarded cold. 6 to 8 degrees–CO cold. My toes were cold in my cheapO dress socks. At the bottom of each run i was cold from the wind chill. My sweet new OR ninja face mask didn’t work for shit. I can’t remember it ever being this cold in WA. I think i jinxed it.
Mid way through the day at the top of Hogsback we were all strapping in and saw a girl fall off the chair (see pic below). The lift stopped abruptly and she basically fell forward, did a slow rotation and landed upside down on the back of her head/shoulders. Her lower half folded over on top of her. The drop was roughly 30 feet. After impact, she rolled over and unstrapped her foot. She then got up and started walking around, clearly out of it. She was falling down and a knot above her eye started growing–fast. I almost barfed it was so gnarly. By the time we strapped in and bailed the knot on her head had swelled to the size of a baseball. I filled out a witness report at the top with Ski Patrol. So gnarly. I hope she’s okay. What a shitty way to start the season.
50 percent of the reason that i ever go the Stevens Pass is the Sultan Bakery. I like donuts. And the turkey-bacon-swiss sangwich. Even on a sic pow day, about half way through the day i start thinking about the Bakery. It pretty much kills the rest of the day for me.
Fun day. Back to work…
Related posts:
QUIT RUINING SECRET NORTHWEST FALLING OFFA CHAIRS TO REVERSE SKORPION SPOTS (did I read that right?–ouch)!!!
BRO WE KNOW WHAT YOU LOOK LIKE BRO TREAD LITELY ROUNDEYE ETC
carnage, that sux… complete buzz kill on “opening” day, eh. hope she heals up well.
call ahead, get the breakfast sando, xtra ‘naise… bacon or ham (it’s your pork choice), American or Cheddar (support the troops)
northway was closed, and there were some ropes & obstacles here and there = still rock board mode
for rizzle. I called in 4 TurkBacSwiz’s on the way down. just after Skykomish. they were waiting for me when i got there.
Solid.
30 footer: is that before or after the 23% minimum “bro it was SO HUGE” story requirement?
nah man. check that pic. the dude below is ski patrol measuring the height.
i wish i could get the picture of her head out of my mind….so gnarly.
cheg dis PIC. she actually fell a little to the right (in pic) of where ski patrol dude is–higher than he is measureing. if dude is 6′ standing up, then it’s a good 25′ drop.
i think twice about droping cliffs with sick steep landings that big.
JR would go.
REALKWIKLIKE:
he is measureing.
NO FAGET HE IS ON HIS KNEES WITH HIS HANDS ON HIS HEAD LIKE OH GOD WHY ME??? WHY ON OPENING DAY???
if dude is 6? standing up, then it’s a good 25? drop.
OKAY YEAH. BUT DUDE IS NOT STANDING UP. IF HE IS, HE FORGOT TO BRING HIS SHINS.
i think twice about droping cliffs with sick steep landings that big.
BUT BRO: YOU KNOW YOU ALWAYS END UP HITTING THEM COMEON YOU SICK
JR always hits em. and usually lands. i puzz out.
check this set from ki. flat as shit drop. didn’t even phase JR/Brock. i said ‘nah man. im chill.’
http://ki.smugmug.com/gallery/5031490_GHtE8#302129229_JVFkk
damn, that girls head…..
We didnt even know it was a girl until she took her hat off…then we got a look at her immediate Racoon eyes. A minute later she turned and looked our way and she had bulbous elphantitus above her right eye…the knar…gag…gag. Gotta give her cred for getting up and thinking she was gonna just walk away…burly! Later that day I gave a statement as well and ski patrol dude was snapping photos of a can of sumthin sumthin where the girl bomb dropped. She better hope that wasnt a Sparks!
brutal..
i was there yrs back. windy day.. ol lady got blown off the chair somewhere close to that same area when a chair derailed from wind.. forgot what happened to her? 2 hours later the patrol was finally out there roping people down off the lifts, one at a time..
Leave it to Drex to come up with a graphic representation that has dudes on their knees stacked on top of each other. Instead of thinking like…how many Whopper Jr’s high it would be…he can only think of stackin’ dudes on each other. Good thing it wasn’t a young man who fell off the lift and was left standing there all bewildered.
some kinda wreck so first two hours where dope then the neon gay brigade was on spot saw that hoggs stopped hiked 7th and bailed. leave it to the high school girls to make snowboard cloths slutty. saw a girl must of been like 15 or 16 had the bottom of her coat tight showin midriff what the fuk dude it was 0 deg. good thing drex missed that. drex is that a shawn white face mask you had on so nobody saw the alpy hardcore shreddin stevens
BURN
measures snow depth relative to location of man-boobs
Hey that girl was me that fell 30ft off the chairlift. I did a search on google and found this site, haha. Im fine ended up getting a cat scan a couple hours later and results were in and I was fine. Hard to believe huh. Only a bump on my head then days later 2 black eyes heres the story.
December 18th, 2009, Opening day at StevensPass
So today I woke up thinking the day couldnt be any better Marysville had snow everywhere and stevenspass just dumped 24″ in 24 hours.
We headed off to Stevenpass, after only one run up Hogsback we were riding the hogsback chair no different than before. I was sitting in the middle and all of a sudden the chair lift opperator pushed the emergency stop button and this put the chair in a sling shot motion being that i was sitting in the middle theres not alot to hold on to and i flew off the chair. I tried to hold on for a second or two but there was nothing to grasp. I then realized i had to decide what way I was going to fall (did i mention it was a 30′ drop) so i just tucked and rolled did a backflip and landing on my head.
This was the most sureel and dream like state i think i have ever experienced. Once i thumped to the ground thank god there was so much powder. Who knows what would of happened if this powder wasnt there. Maybe a broken neck, back, paralization even death.
After falling i tried to get up and convince the ski patrol that witnessed it that i was alright and he said “you just fell 30′ on your head your not okay you need to lay down and wait for the ski patrol” well after this i was still trying to go my own way. Then he brought to my attention i had a huge half of a grapefruit hematoma above my right eye and all the way up my forehead. Of course after feeling this i started thinking all sorts of things and started to panic.
The ski patrol came strapped me in the back board and neck brace and hauled me to the ambulance and to the ER. For any of you that dont know I have a huge fear with doctors and hospitals and this is the last place i wanted to go. So I was freaking out so bad my blood pressure was at 210 yes 210 this is not a misprint thats how freaked out i get with doctors but after an hour or 2 my blood pressure went back to 110 / 70 but it was crazy scary.
So i get to the ER at monroe valley hospital and they had to run a CT scan to make sure i didnt have any fractures, breaks and to make sure my brain didnt have any bleeding.
I was freaking asking the doctor “well what if my brain does have bleeding, what will happen?” they said “we will need to go into surgery”. I couldnt believe what i was hearing.
Luckily some how a miracle happened today. I dropped 30 feet managed to walk out of the ER with a Hematoma on my head and some scrapes and bruises. What a day!
Always remember how lucky you are, what really is importatnt in life and what really could happen in a blink of an eye.
Check out my facebook for the after pics.
wow. glad to hear you are okay.
thanks for writing.
You ‘are’ very lucky. Good story and its good to hear you made it reletively unscathed.