On Monday, The Chimney saw it’s share of spectacular whipe-outs. The classic falls generally occur when the skier/rider makes it past all the rocks and has a problem upon landing or just after landing down on the apron. These are hard falls. Often the skier/rider is going about 50 mph when they take these falls and the acrobatic tumbling routines they pull off are vicious, twisted, and bell-ringing. Somehow these guys are usually okay. I’ve done it. Even when it’s you, you’re surprised you’re okay.
Yesterday, we saw a plethora of those as well as two of the most feared type of falls in The Chimney. These daunting falls are when a skier/rider falls within the bosom of The Chimney – where the barbarous rocks are. Spectator’s hearts stop. Their breath ceases. My buddy Steve, who is a regular Chimney assailant, took one of these heart-stopping falls on Monday. He crashed into rocks coming down Easy Street and took the kind of fall that damages tissue.
I’ve been chatting with Steve online and he is OK. We were all worried about his knee, but he is made of pure testoterone and the knees held together. He did tear muscle in his calves, but we all know that’s nothing compared to a knee. Stoked you’re OK Steve-0. Can’t wait to see you back out there in a week or two.
The forecast right now is for rain up to 7000 feet this weekend. In the Spring, at Squaw, we all know what that means…another perfect Chimney session on Monday. I’ll see you all there for Chimney session #8.
Here is Steve’s account of the fall:
After all the mcshonkey craziness I was feeling a little pumped up and wanted to do something besides the sweep. I was looking at the line over easy street with my buddy Billy. I decided to jump in past the point of no return and thought ‘here we go’ as I went for the one pad of snow I planned on landing on and dry docked. ‘Oh shit,’ I thought, as was bouncing of the rock and tomahawking down. Its amazing how slow things seem when you are tomahawking down the mountain. I was happy to come to a stop! all is well healing up be back in a week or so!