An 18-year old skier was killed this morning in an accident at Windham Mountain.
According to a press release from the ski resort, Erin Clare Malloy-Mcardle, age 18, of North Belmore, was skiing off one of the more difficut trails, and was not wearing a helmet.
She was treated at the scene, then was taken to Columbia Memorial Hospital where she was pronounced dead.
The last ski-related fatality at Windham happened more than 15 years ago.
According to state police, Mallory-McArdle was a novice and had been on the “Lower Warpath” trail before losing control, hitting a tree and sustaining extensive head injuries.
Unless your out west in a bowl, every mt has trees. Trees dont move when you hit them.
I have been skiing for 23 years, and could drop out of a heli and ski shit you see on tv and think they are going to die. About 5 years ago I had a very close call on an easy trail, HawkEye at Gore. At the topish part of it it comes down a slight hill and bends to the right then hard to the left. I have made about 100 runs down that before and some lady blew a turn out of control infront of me and I just caught an edge trying to avoid her the wrong way which hooked me to the left and sent me back first, blind into the woods at about 35mph. I knew I was going in and just tucked up like a little ball and waited for the hit. I landed in about 3 feet of powder, like I laid down in a bed. cleared the snow from my goggles and looked up the hill and saw that somehow I managed to fly through the only clear path into the trees, right behind me about 2 feet from my head was a tree. I am actually shaking right now from typing. The you can allways fall and stop thing… I dont think so. I also took a single turn on Rumor and somehow single ejected a ski and slid down the entire run and ended up a few feet from trees towards the end… sometimes you have no control, and gravity is a bitch.Its no joke, no matter how good a skiier you are, or if your a total newbie… it can happen.
Another side note about hitting a tree skiing. You dont realize it but just cruising down a regular trail your doing around 25mph. Aggressive skiiers rip around at about 40mph. A few trails like Essixs (or how ever you spell it) at whiteface we rip down and hit 60 or so. Mt Run, we straightline sometimes and hit a bit over that. When i crashed on my street bike and hit the tree I was doing 45mph, and the impact KO’d me wearing a $600 HJC carbonfiber helmet. A $100 skii helmet ISNT going to really help wacking a tree at 40. I know I am sorta contradicting my self above, but I am just sharing some insight…
and for those that don’t think the speeds I mentioned are real… I have a pic of my friend on the family trip out west last year GPS in hand showing 98Mph after bombing a bowl.
ROFL… nothing short of a tree will instantly stop you thanks to gravity and physics! Skiis or snowboards, they both stop the same way!
and on the broken bones part… tell that to my fience sitting at home for another 2-4 weeks! /
She has skiied for ever too, and a friend of hers wanted to learn how to ski. so she figured she would try snowboarding and learn with her… yeah that worked out well! She did EXACTLY what PSI2High said! she was getting the hang of it and went to stop, hooked and flew backwards, put her hand out on instinct and snap.