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travelers-live t1_jd3pxl1 wrote

>The teens reportedly were riding tandem down the halfpipe and went airborne off a large snowbank at the bottom.

>“The two individuals came down hard on the hard ice below, causing blunt force trauma”

Being near the bottom might have meant they landed on a relatively flat surface too, making the impact even harder.

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boozewald t1_jd3qwa4 wrote

They basically shot a ramp to a 30-40 foot drop to a completely flat landing. That's without getting any air.

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DoctFaustus t1_jd4gbt5 wrote

I think it's even further. Dunno, I've skied passed it many times, just never with a tape measure. But here's a picture that illustrates it.

https://imgur.com/a/zDf4rT1

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btbrian t1_jd4x5gz wrote

This shows what it looks like from the top. Not an ideal sledding location.

https://www.summitdaily.com/news/copper-mountain-resort-opens-superpipe-to-public/

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My_G_Alt t1_jd5x5qy wrote

I’m don’t want to speak ill of the dead, but holy shit, what the fuck did they think was going to happen? Why didn’t they bail?

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floridbored t1_jd6d0kr wrote

Some believe they did or had to bail (fell off sled on way down), but they continued to slide down the hill on their own. Super sad.

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dammitOtto t1_jd4kie3 wrote

What's the wood ramp at the bottom of the picture at the end of the red arrow?

Are you supposed to jump the ramp at the end of the pipe?

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DoctFaustus t1_jd4l5z4 wrote

That's actually not on the snow. It's part of the roof of the building that the photo was taken from.

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mishap1 t1_jd3rhq3 wrote

They have a huge berm at the bottom in most photos of how it's built. If they straight lined it down, that is probably a 3-4 story tall drop off the end to the flat by the lodge.

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RockerElvis t1_jd4iam5 wrote

They definitely landed on a flat surface. It’s right at the bottom of the hill between two lifts. No one should take a sled into a super half pipe - these two trespassed and did it at night.

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AnythingToAvoidWork t1_jd5vpcn wrote

When I was a teenager I went to Stowe or Snow (can't remember, its been like 18 years) to see a winter xgames type event and someone in the big air event popped his bindings off the jump and landed HARD.

Just laid there, no moving. Ambulance came, took him away. Dunno what happened.

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My_G_Alt t1_jd5wxqs wrote

Vermont? Stowe

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rastacola t1_jd5ynhx wrote

I think X Games was at both Stowe and Snow on different years.

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AnythingToAvoidWork t1_jd5z7by wrote

Yup to both, but none of the dates for either line up with my memory.

I thought it was the winter x games and Sean White was there but the list on Wikipedia doesn't match up. Maybe it was my friend over-exaggerating or me misremembering the actual event. There was definitely a huge halfpipe and a big air event.

I was like 16-17 (I'm 33 now) so it was like 2006?

I remember we printed mapquest directions and it didn't account for road closures and we got my friend's car stuck in a closed-for-the-winter pass and had to dig / push him out lol.

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Mono_831 t1_jd4j6jf wrote

I don’t know anything about skiing, never seen snow either. What does it mean riding tandem? Like two of them on a sled? Or skis designed for two people? Please help me understand what happened kind Redditor.

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RockerElvis t1_jd4qac7 wrote

It’s not a skiing term. It just means that the two of them shared a sled. To be clear, their deaths have nothing to do with the act of skiing or snowboarding. It’s incredibly dangerous to sled on any ski course (even just an easy run). They snuck in at night and took a sled down a terrain piece that is only for experts with special training.

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orangefreshy t1_jd5uzul wrote

Tandem usually refers to one being behind another, like a tandem parking spot where the head car is blocked in by someone parking directly behind them, like in a driveway. Or a tandem bicycle where two people with two seats and two sets of pedals on a bike, one behind the other. But tandem is how people usually ride on sleds together if they're going to share a sled at all so it's weird they called it out especially

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