The last snow of the season is falling and all the ski areas, except for the glacier areas, are closing up within the upcoming two weeks to open up again next winter season.
I went to Austria myself for the last two weeks to enjoy the last meters of snow and to work on my tan.
A very great advantage of being in the snow around this time is that the slopes are practically empty.
The weather was perfect and the snow conditions were very good on the last day. Still, unfortunately, a horrific accident happened.
It is sometimes better to have bad weather because this reduces the number of accidents.
When the visibility is bad people ski more cautious than when there is a blue sky: people ski faster and often reckless.
Going fast is 1 thing, but knowing how to control the speed and how to behave on a slope is a whole different ball game.
It seems sometimes that people forget they are not the only one on the slopes and they just do with they want.
To prepare myself for upcoming july when I’m going to do my snowboard instructor degree I decided to do some snowboarding on the last day.
I was about to leave and was putting on my snowboard when I heard an immense smack.
I looked up and wasn’t sure where it came from. A colleague of mine came to me and pointed at a concrete wall, I couldn’t believe what I saw.
There had been a man who had lost his control at very high speed about 5 meters away from this concrete wall, and had crushed into it.
I saw a colleague of another ski school who ran immediately to him and I called the mountain rescue team.
The mountain rescue is very well organised, no doubt about that.
But when you see someone laying there, probably fighting for his life, the 3 minutes the mountain rescue team needs to get you, seems endless.
The only thing I could think of: Come on! This guy needs you, come on, please hurry up!!!
After 15 minutes, 3 Snow Scooters, 1 Pistenbully (those big red things that prepare the slopes) and a Helicopter where there to save this man’s life.
All together it took about 50 minutes before the man was in a stable condition and was ready to be picked up by the helicopter.
What I heard afterwards was that the majority of his ribs were broken and a long was collapsed
The feeling you get from only hearing such a bad accident happening can’t be described. You feel completely empty, sick, nauseous. It took me more than an hour before I felt a bit normal again.
The point I want to make here is for all the people that love to go fast: You’re not alone on the slopes. Don’t go over your own limit. Going fast is fun, I love it too of course.
If you don’t have the proper technic take lessons, not only for your own safety, but also for that of others.
