What was your best"OH SHIT" moment?

[freeskisquaw]

Squaw, bluebird powder day 03/04 I think in Mid-January. I hiked Mainline pocket, was the first to hit poncet, a pretty big cliff that day. I backed up and skated into it with a radness yell that soon turned into a yelp as I realized how far I was in the air. The last thing I really remember was thinking, Oh shit, Im way too far forward. The next thing I remember was getting up in a huge bombhole with one eye blind and my whole face feeling like it was 100% bigger. I couldnt hear anyone so I sat there for a while and clumsily skied down on one ski to the patrol shack. At this time i was so dazed that i dont really remember anything else, except for like 5 hours later when the doctor was telling me that i had a major concussion, and 4 fractured bones under my eye and nose. Oh shit.

[iceman]

So Telegasm prompted me to crosspost my own 'OH SHIT' experience to this thread - it's here. I've also crossposted the link to The Slide Zone as well, and hope that maybe some of the discussion is helpful to others' decision-making (or how to not make a decision) while venturing into the backcountry.

That's quite a story, man. I'm glad you're still with us.

[Core Shot]

I was in ninth grade. It was raining outside so the gym teacher decided that rather than go running, we would play kickball in the gym. So I'm playing shortstop and a buddy (who happens to be an all-state soccer player) is up to bat. He rips a ball right at me, travelling about 2 inches off the ground at a sizeable fraction of the speed of sound. I reach down with both hands to stop the ball and I hear a popping noise. Blood is pooling on the floor at a scary rate. Looking at my right hand, my pinky finger seems to have come off. It's hanging on by a strip of skin, no more. Nothing was actually broken, just ripped it off at the knuckle. To this day the finger is horribly misshapen and doesn't really work too well. Proof you ask? Well this is said finger today...

crap dude, you win the contest

[kmkmkmk]

We were heli-skiing in the Cariboos. Coming in to a high landing with rock walls on either side of us. A sudden downdraft slammed us into the landing, the pilot tried to lift off and resettle but had powered down the rear rotor so we started a slow spin that seemed to be in control. I knew it wasn't the first time that the main blade hit the rock wall beside us. OH SHIT. Knew we were going down at that point. Fortunately we cartwheeled down the hill forward in the snow field we were going to ski. Came to rest about 100 yards from the top, on our side, helicopter destroyed, spewing jet fuel, but no one hurt. Never seen thirteen people get out of and away from a helicopter so fast.

[Crock]

Was skiing at killington 5 or 6 years ago. Came out of a glade onto a trail, and hit a big mogul like a kicker. Did a 180 but landed awkwardly, tried to turn back around forward but my balance was way off and i wound up falling backwards. I distinctly remember thinking "why haven't I hit the ground yet?" I had fallen off the side of the trail which was about a 40 foot drop down onto a steep grade with huge trees. Landed on my back, and somersaulted backwards down into the trees, bounced off one. Luckily my helmet saved me, and i had no injuries, but that sudden feeling of weightlessness was definitely an "oh shit" type moment when you're not expecting to fall any more than the distance of your ass to your feet.

[liv2ski]

Mine was a surfing oh shit. Big day in San Diego, buddy and I meet at Sunset Cliffs, as there is a channel to paddle out between North and South Garbage when it is closing out most everywhere else. My buddy looks at it and tells me no way, I tell him he is a pussy and go down the stairs, hop off the rocks and start to paddle out. About two thirds of the way out, I see this set coming and it is closing out the channel. Picture a wave about 300 feet wide and about 20+ on the face baring down on you with no place to hide. I am fucked so I start to take big breaths, fucker broke about 20 feet in front of me and honestly looked like 10 feet off white water death headed at me. I dove for the bottom, but it grabbed me and thrashed me around like a rag doll. I honestly thought I was going to drown. When it finally let up, I felt so deep, I know my board was tomb stoning above me, but thank God the leash hadn't broke, as I pulled myself back up to the surface using it. Popped up, got a few breaths and then hit by the next one. Thankfully, it was nowhere as bad as the first and between the two waves I was washed in a good football field underwater. My buddy was laughing at me when I dragged my ass up the stairs. I have never done anything that crazy again.

[farmer]

best one I have ever heard

this guy was in a neighboring town for a hockey tournament while in highschool. there was this chick who he had hooked up with a few times while there. her parents were out of town this weekend, so they were at her place. he had her bent over the stairs, doing her in der poopenhausen. the stairs are right in fron of the front door. all of the sudden, the door opens, and her parents get home early. he pulls out, runs like hell, sprinting naked through the street. he pulls out so fast that she shits everywhere. on the stairs, floor, walls. just fucking everywhere, leaving her parents with the sight of their teenage daughter bent over the sairs, butt nake, covered in shit.

thats what I call an OH SHIT! moment

(also why I if I ever have a daughter, she's never going near a hockey rink)

[adam]

Hauling ass into a rock field at crested butte, seeing rocks all around me. Split second later took the worst fall of my life.

[la_banda]

some people like myself ski jump in the offseason...

i mean like behind a boat off a ramp at 32+ mph

anyway I was cutting off the ramp and having a decent set...
I began my cut so early for some gay reason and was about the miss the ramp, thus having to ease off. This shifted my body weight forward propelling me 70+ feet off the ramp with my head entering the water first followed by my 90 inch jump skis.

All i remember was knocking the wind out of myself, then passing out and beginning to drown. When i came to I felt like I had come out of the womb...but really my teammates dragged me out of the water onto the boat

fuck that sucked

[grubbers]

riding at a friend's shuttle run behind his house we go to check out this new section that he was building. you entered it in this steep section with a nice kicker right after it. i decided to just bomb into it without touching the brakes and completely overshot the landing. i thought i was going to land out of control and get launched over the berm into the bushes/logs on the other side of it, but i got on the brakes as soon as i landed and just got off the bike and started laughing.

still going up...


fast forward to a year or two later at the same run... i had sold off the m1, so i was on my stumpjumper. the lip of the jump had been made a little less steep and the gap was a bit longer so you wouldn't overshoot it if you came in maching. there are a couple rocks on the run-in to the jump that cut across at a weird angle, so if you hit them in the right spot you'll get thrown off your line. i came in and hit the rocks and almost ate it. i was super squirrelly so i got on the brakes, but they weren't really working that well so i wasn't slowing down that well. ended up going off the side of the jump on a couple of the logs sticking out the side. the front end just dropped and i somehow made the 1-2 foot gap in between the jump and this massive rock. i rode it out on the front wheel, thinking that something in the leaves was going to send me flying. if there's anything that i've ever wanted video footage of, it would be that moment.

later that night on the jump. definitely thought i was going to nail that huge rock...


had another similar moment probably about a year after that on the jump when i hit those same rocks, but this time i was able to stop right on the jump. ended up diving off of the bike over the big rock and landed on the other side, with my bike soon to follow.

this past june, i was longboarding with some friends in rockport and we were on our way downtown. they let me know that we'd be hitting up the biggest and steepest hill and town, but i wasn't aware that it went directly into the busiest intersection in town. we were going down at a good clip and i was feeling pretty good (not that good or confident on a skateboard), but as soon as i started to notice the speed wobbles getting bad, all of my friends had a foot down and were trying to drop speed quickly. i look up and see a line of cars stopped in front of us and traffic coming up the hill in the other lane. it was too late for me to try and stop and i probably would have eaten shit anyway, so i just said fuck it and tried to ride it out. ended up bombing down the center line with cars on either side and just as i'm about to pass the last car, i realize it's turning left as i come up on it. i made an emergency left with the suv and avoided the concrete lighthouse in the middle of the road. luckily i was able to coast to a stop and walked back to meet my friends who obviously were wondering if i had died.

[lafleche]

My first season as a ski bum (Big White). There was a line through the trees that every once and a while popped back out onto a run then back into the woods. I was sure I was about to go off a lip onto the groomer so I did a little pop and tweaky something-or-other. Where I really was was about 20 feet in the air above an ugly chunk of granite, which I miraculously cleared landing with knees to chin in the only soft spot below. A shot of rye and 5 stitches before work...

[couloirman]

Last season, pioneering new speedriding launches in CO:

I started my flight around 13,000ft and was buzzing the ground the whole way down. There was a very large cliff near the bottom of my line that I wanted to fly off of and put some tracks down right until the edge, but there were some trees at the top of the cliff that created an opening I needed to fly through. There was a good 20 ft of clearance between the trees, but when your parachute is ~8 feet wide and youre flying at 60mph that doesnt leave much room for error. I was right off the ground heading for the opening when a gust of wind pushed me a few feet left, I overcompensated trying to square myself back up and the right tip of my parachute caught a tree and I very quicky decelerated from 60 to almost zero(Imagine the pendulum that your body creates when flying under a parachute and all of a sudden the parachute just stops dead in its tracks). As I was nearing the top of my pendulum there was a quick moment of weightlessness where I let out a loud oh shit and fell headfirst off probably a 50 ft cliff partly gift wrapped by my parachute and not able to see what I was going to hit. Good thing it was a powder day that day and the tree was kind to my parachute, no wing damage to speak of.

I learned a good lesson that day. I knew the wind conditions were shit but I really wanted to launch anyway and I had been shut down by the weather so many times before that I just said screw it and launched. Wont be doing that again any time soon!

[Wes Mantooth]

There's a mtn bike trail in an area we usually ride that is generally one that is supposed to be walked. There's a chronically wet off camber rock that then cuts a corner into a hill that's too steep to ride with a rock garden at the bottom. I always used to get tossed at the rock and have to stop and walk down the hill but that one day I managed to hop over the rock and found myself turned the corner looking down this hill. It didn't look too bad so I went for it. Ass way over the back of my seat and fingers tentatively touching the brakes I just felt the rear end of my bike slowly lifting. I leaned back more and more to the point where my ass nearly hit my back tire but the hill was too steep. I hit the point of no return in an endo and yelled "OH SHIT" as I headed face first towards a nice jagged rock garden. I tucked my knees up (dumb fucking idea) so I wouldn't land flat and rolled into the rock garden.

I got up feeling no pain and I figured I was fine. Then I saw one sharp as fuck rock that looked like it was somehow wet yet I had no idea how it could've gotten wet. I looked down at my leg and found a 3 x 3 inch cut below my knee with the bone running right through and twigs sticking out of it from all angles. I then proceeded to yell "OH SHIT OH SHIT OH SHIT OH SHIT" while running around in circles until I fell down on the trail. Granted I was about 13 at the time so i was scared shitless and I realized that my bodliy fluids had kindly moistened the rock but my leg was in shock so I felt nothing. I'll never forget the sight of a friend pulling a big ass twig out of my leg, it just kept coming, covered in blood and dirt. On the couch for weeks, out of activities for months, still have a massive scar

[EC/BC]

I was driving from Chicago to Providence on I-80 last January in my '97 Suburban, loaded down with most of my earthly belongings, driving caravan-style in front of my sister and dad in an audi station wagon. We were on a tight schedule trying to make it back east in time to get some skiing done before the semester started, so we set off on the trip despite the fact that there was a raging lake effect blizzard going on. The 'burban had 4WD and new tires and the Audi had good tires and quattro, so we were moving at a decent clip (65-70mph maybe?) in the left lane to avoid the slowpokes. Somewhere in Ohio, on a gradual left turn in the highway, I look about 75 yards ahead to see a Buick Roadmaster, completely horizontal to the road, blasting across the 50-foot wide median, snow billowing over the top of it as it plowed through the fresh snow at an amazing rate. The moment is perfectly clear in my mind- slow motion and terrifying. The Buick manages to cut completely across the median, and slams into a van in the right lane about 50 feet in front of me. My hopes of avoiding this clusterfuck diminished when instead of continuing off the right side of the road, the Buick ricocheted off the van and into my lane. I was already on full 'oh shit' brakes when I saw this situation begin to unfold, but I was still traveling fast enough that I would have hit the car if I had stayed in my lane, and the right lane option was now blocked by the crashed van. In a moment of pure desperation I piloted my car into the median and half-piped the car in a foot of fresh snow down the shallow ditch until I came to a stop twenty feet short of where the crashed van ended up somehow. My sister and dad (who were behind me) tried to execute the same move, but ended up overshooting the ditch and threading the needle across the opposite four-lane interstate, coming to a stop in the breakdown lane of the westbound side. I didn't see them do this move, so my frantic mirror searching once I came to a stop elicited a serious "OH SHIT" when the thought crossed my mind that my evasive maneuver may have just signed my dad and sister up for a full head-on collision with a rogue Roadmaster. One frantic cell phone call later informed me that they had made it out unscathed and were going to turn around at the next exit promptly lifted the fifty ton weight of dread off of my chest, and after a quick check of the car informed me that I had made it out of this situation without a scratch, I let out five or six triumphant shouts due to the five pints of adrenaline running through my veins that had temporarily replaced my blood. I felt bad for kinda rubbing it in the face of the dude with a fucked up van twenty feet in front of me (he was fine, too)... A run down to the Buick informed me that the retarded woman driving that death wagon was fine as well (though a good deal more shaken up than anyone else in the situation), so I set to work rocking my car out of the ditch and set off on the rest of the journey, observantly following all the posted speed limits.

[whippersnapper]

Bottom of Thunder Chair, Jackson, circa March 1980. I worked for the mountain cleaning toilets. Our official department was, yes, "Bowl Patrol." and I had a chair-only season pass as a perk. I wanted to do the roller that is the pedestal for the first Thunder tower. I asked people on the chairs THREE TIMES, checked twice myself, if the LZ was clear: "YES!!!....." = NO.

I launch nicely, and who but two little girls of 8-9 years, maybe twins, are just yards below the LZ. Where they came from, I'll never know. Quick now! Left = flying into ugly moguls then trees. Right = off a blind upwards edge, above big rocks and the main N-S cat track beyond. I go right. Before takeoff I pray that no human is in my path of decapitation. Thank God, nobody is on the normally busy track. I slam the far edge of the track, one ski pops, but I'm up and nobody died. Huge cheers from the @#$% gallery on the lift. One of the little girls called down, "Mister, did you mean to do that?" "Not exactly," I said exactly.

[SKIBUMM]

Mine was 11 month ago. I was hauling ass through some trees gettinready hit a small little knoll. I have hit this thing 100 times at least. someone had fallen and made this knoll a little kicker and launched down the hill about 80 feet (it is usually around 30). As I hit it I know I am fucked as I pass the nice landing and am heading for a much flatter landing. During the 5 minutes (So it seemed) to come back to the ground I tried to think of the best way to absorb the upcoming impact, nothing came to mind. I prepared to hit hard and when I did my skis hit and that is all I remember. I have vague recollections of the patrol arriving and taking me down then all I rmemeber is the Dr telling me I was heading into surgery to have my spine fused as I had completely detroyed my L1 vertabre. I am finally back on skis and will look before I leap again.

[Sinfield]

I was windsurfing this summer, on a lit 4.0 day. I was on a 4.8 because the wind had come up while I was sailing, and I was on one of our rental boards.

Anyway, long story short, I'm shredding in and see a huge glassy starboard ramp and boost it. About 15ft in the air, I get slammed with a monster gust that literally rips the board off my feet.

This is about the point where time slowed down. I remember seeing my board flapping around about 5ft in front of my feet while still going up and hanging onto the sail. I let the board go, it flys away, but by this point my forward momentum keeps me flying with it. I see it hit, fin up, then have a horrible OH SHIT moment as I watch myself slowly fall onto the fin.

Fin punched a hole about 5" long and 3+ deep into my inner thigh/crotch.


I put my hand down my shorts right after I became aware again and could feel the subcutaneous fat around the hole. I realized I could be in deep shit, so I waterstarted, and sailed in w/ one hand pressing the hole to keep it from bleeding. Carried my gear up to the beach, called my dad and had him take me to the hospital once I realized that it wasn't an arterial bleed. I'm effing lucky to still be here. The surgeon said he could feel my femoral artery inside the hole.

[45hill]

Dropping into Poop Chute next to Mammoth Rock. I made two turns and the entire chute fractured like pane of glass. I grabbed a small tree and held on. The snow must have broke just above me and cascaded over my head but I held on. Once the cloud settled I had to climb up and out because the chute ripped to the dirt.

[2FUNKY]

I have many but this one sticks out the most.
05 season at Big Sky. Just ripped great turns down 2nd Dictator and started my way toward a cliff band between Castros and 2nd Dictator. Nothing major, 25-30'er to big run out. Hit it with some speed and sent it. Stomped the landing and straight lined it out towards Upper Sunlight. The lighting was pretty flat that day but no biggie. Now I am going mach loony when I noticed the 4'drop on to Sunlight, that is at a 90 to me. Next thing I remember was waking up to some guy asking me if I was OK. Apparently I came off the drop and my skis stopped dead and I face planted on the cat track and shot off the other side, luckily clearing the rocks and landing 40' down the hill on my back. My goggles were missing and I could feel something warm running down my face. The impact broke my goggles and cut the bridge of my nose and my cheek. I stood up and the guy helped me walk up to my skis. I grabbed them and stumbled to the Patrol shack at the top of Shedhorn. Next morning both eyes were swollen shut and I could hardly open my mouth. Good times.

[2FUNKY]

FUCK

[hartzejr]

Last year at Alyeska in the Spring I was lapping Max's and then bombing the groomer back to Chair 4 to hurry and get another run. All morning my right ski felt squirrely but things looked okay. In hindsight, I should looked harder. Apparently after a couple years of abuse the screws holding the binders spalled the holes and were coming out.

I ended up tomahawking on a groomer after my heel piece just ripped completely out of my ski. I didn't think Oh Shit until I had come to a stop because it happened fast. No injuries luckily.
----------------------

Another good one was long boarding late night in SLC. We'd go to this one parking garage downtown that never had a lot of cars in it and had an elevator to boot. Perfect to just cruise without pumping or slowing down. So there's three of us and my cousins dog this one night. On one lap, our buddy loses control and the board bangs the curb pretty loud. Then Baxter (the dog) is lagging so we're yelling his name for him to catch up. No big deal.

As we get to the bottom, we see a cop walking up, gun drawn. We stop and chat (as if we had a choice). He asks what we were doing and if we had seen anyone else. "Nope just us," we say. "We've had reports of gun shots and screaming coming from here, you all just need to get the hell out of here" he says. "Yessir mr officer sir" we quickly utter. We quickly exit the garage and run into the guy who called the cops. We chat for a second and then we see three cops in full assault gear running into the garage, one loading shells into his shotgun and the other two with some big ass assault rifles. We say "Oh shit" and get back to my place asap and turn on the local news to see if we made some headlines.

The "gunshots" was the board hitting the curb and yelling was us yelling for Baxter.

[puma]

That was burly Telegasm...

Anyway, not to cross post one of my old posts, but there were some pretty sweet stories in the following thread from this summer:

[ame="http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/showthread.php?t=142616"]"Near Death" experiences from your past. - Teton Gravity Research Forums[/ame]

[cw]

up at mt washington, when i was a kid, there was a jump called the 'oh shitter' right under the orange chair. looking back, it wasnt too big or gnarly, but the run-in was steep and the lip poppy and too much speed meant 40 feet to flats...exactly what happened the first time i hit it. Pretty much everyone let out an 'oh shit' of that thing. There's been scarier stuff since then, but the oh shitter seems to fit the definition perfectly...

[snoboy]

At least one person here knows this story...

I was skiing a tower pad down Link's Line, and a gust of wind whipped it around and tripped me up, I managed to promptly land right on top of it, with my hand tangled in the strap. 0.05s later I am going Mach stupid on a tower pad down the hill, backwards towards the forest. Finally managed to get the pad out from under me and disengaged. Now suddenly I am flying off the first air, which tells me I am somwhere near the first of the large trees. Realizing I should be able to miss the trees I start fighting to stop, but it ain't working because I have picked up way too much spped, and anytime I get a ski edge near the snow, I start to tumble again. Finally I lose one ski, as I fly off the second air...

Now I manage to come up with a plan - yes I was sliding for long enough to plan... Next time my feet are above my head, I manage to aim one well placed kick with my free foot, and divest myself of the second ski. The slope is starting to ease off now, and I finally manage to stop. I check myself over, and I hear from the lift an tentative "Are you OK???!!!" No cheers for that one!

[monkey1]

Top of the Dome de Premacou in Tignes - couloir to drop. My brother goes down, disappears out of sight, then calls back up "it's fine, send her". I foolishly trust his advice, straight line the chute send the drop, and then see my brother on his ass, skis halfway down the mountain, having stacked on the mogul field that is the landing, he's grinning like a bastard, clearly relishing the prospect of me wiping out big time, and all I'm thinking is 'OH SHIT', as well as possibly 'I'm going to kill my brother when this is over!'