This skier managed to capture one of the wildest and longest wipeouts on camera, sliding nearly a mile down an icy slope at Zillertal Arena Ski Resort in Austria.
Apparently he caught an edge while skiing, leading to a 1,100 meter uncontrolled slide. Fortunately a safety net at the bottom of the run stopped him and he managed to escape with just a few bruises, but it certainly could have been a lot worse. Especially given that his top speed, according to a GPS he wore during the fall, reached 82 km/h, or just over 50 mph, just before hitting the netting.
He notes that he was unaware of the self arrest process during the fall but now understands how important it is and how helpful it would have been in this situation. He describes the fall as follows:
“A friend and I went skiing on a very steep and icy slope (closed the previous day, during which the top layer of snow melted and froze again), I fell and didn’t manage to slow down. I learned my lesson and I hope some of you will too! Be very careful on steep, icy slopes and learn how to self arrest! I got lucky and managed to get away with just a few bruises.
I had an GPS speed app on at the moment, I fell whilst going around 55 km/h, then I did manage to get back to 40 km/h, but after that the slope got steeper and steeper and in the end, when I hit the net, I was going about 82 km/h! So i guess we could agree the net did a marvelous job.”