Another case of it-won't-happen-to-me-itis.

What is it with some of these guys? Does the thrill of the sport induce brain fog or something?

http://www.ocregister.com/news/snowboarder-clings-to-1968235-thoughts-of

Sue

From reading the article it didn't say that he was doing anything out of the ordinary other than going up to the ski resort with some friends to do some snow boarding. Sounds like he just lost sight of his freinds (who apparently ditched him?), had a bad fall and was unable to call for help. It didn't say that he was out of bounds of the resort or in an area where he shouldn't have been.

Yes he was very lucky to have survived, but did I miss something that indicated he was doing something wrong? Other than not carrying a better noise making device and not having very aware friends? Don't most people that go skiing/snowboarding run a similar risk? You don't have to be on an extreme run to have an accident. Not sure where the "brain fog" remark applies? He came out alive so I call that a success.

Although I take plenty of gear when I'm out hiking I've never taken enough gear with me while skiing at a resort to easily survive the night. I do carry a whistle on me at all times just for this type of situation. Cell coverage just can't be counted on around here once you leave the city limits to call for help. I recently purchased a PLB so I guess maybe I'll start carrying that on the slopes.

I'd be curious to hear what other people carry while skiing/snowboarding to mitigate an accident like this? I just can't imagine skiing with a full survival pack on. Do others worry about this situation while skiing at a resort?

Are you kidding? The dufus left the normal path, didn't bring anything to communicate or signal with, got soaked, continued to wander from where he'd originally wrecked, and was snowboarding in the trees??? He was just asking to become a statistic.

He was damned lucky. He is a fool. Hopefully he learned an important lesson this time, but I doubt it.

I re-read the article and still don't see where it says he "left the normal" trail. It says "he traveled down a heavily wooded area and suddenly hit a rock". It didn't say "snowboarding in the trees". I'm not sure where you ski but most of the "normal" trails where I go are in heavily wooded areas.

I'm not trying to defend the guy but I'm getting tired of everyone reading more into these stories than what's actually there and simply calling these people "idiots" with no discussion of what they could have done better. I find a lot of useful, informative posts on this forum and usually enjoy coming here to read what everyone has to say, but lately it seems most of the remarks about these cases are simply to rip on the victims and point out how stupid they are. There's been very little constructive comments about what they should have done or what people here would have done better. Pointing out how dumb they are really doesn't add much.

Again I ask, what would do you carry on you when you go skiing/snowboarding for this type of situation (assuming this was an innocent accident).

I know it is making some assumptions, but if he were wiithin the normal trail area, wouldn't it have been likely that he encounter another trail, and not have to continue walking through 4 feet of snow and decide after a while of it to ditch his snowboard? Seems like he went "out of bounds" so to speak, although they do not spell it out.

After his fall, he just got lucky. Does not seem like his survival with all his fingers and toes can be attributed to much more. It's good to be lucky.

I would typically carry food, a loud whistle, a cell phone or two way radio, and something to make fire with. It would all fit in one pocket with room to spare.

There are a lot of missing details, but if he hit a rock and encountered no one else till being rescued, I would have to conclude he was well off the normal path, if not completely out of bounds. Most places I've been they do a patrol run down every trail accessed by the lifts at the end of the day at the very least, so if he was out of view/earshot of that then where else could he have been?

Maybe not all ski resorts are run the same, but then I wouldn't use one that wasn't as well run without taking more suitable precautions myself.

I still stand by my initial conclusion.

I'm not a skier or a snowboarder, but I agree with Benjammin.

If he was slogging through snow 4.5 feet deep, there was more than enough snow to build an emergency shelter; and if he was in a heavily wooded area, he should have been able to start a fire.

Ditching his snowboard so he could continue slogging through heavy snow, when he obviously didn't know where he was or where he was going, wasn't too bright; he could have used it to dig out a snow cave instead.

I'm not sure that would work - how would you break it, let alone break it evenly? And how then would you strap it to both feet?

But if the going was too tough on a snowboard, what made him think it would be easier on foot?

Breaking a snowboard in two would be tough. You could break an ankle trying to stomp on it hard enough so that the snowboard breaks. Of course, this would probably be much less of a problem for many posters on this forum, who could go to town with their SAK or multi-tool saw and cut that thing just about in half.

If you could manage that, then you should be able to use at least one of the bindings to hold one of your feet to it. Maybe, you could use both. Not sure, it's been a few years since I used a snowboard.

I doubt most posters on this forum would seek to do this though.

Okay, here we go with another survival situation kicked off by getting lost, wandering around and getting lucky. He didn't really do anything right, he just got by until he was found and rescued.

As for breaking a snowboard. . . probably better to leave it intact to use as a snowboard. IMO, it would make a lousy pair of snowshoes.