How fast have you gone on skis?
 

a guy who used to work for me is a local ski instructor and racer; at 260Lbs, all muscle he would dress up in spandex and get over 100Km/Hr (60MPH), one mistake was a guaranteed trip to the hospital, usually unconscious.

Probably never more than maybe 40 mph on 200mm skiis. I have schussed in a tuck the steepest "groomed" slopes in upper Michigan along with Holiday Valley and Killington. While some may think they are really flying, it is difficult to reach higher speeds unless on icy "very" steep slopes which are generally not found at most ski resorts.

i have gone very fast "with" my skiis. not so fast, "on" my skiis. i need to revisite that fiasco soon. great time!

Take the summit single to the top of whiteface.

I got close to 75 mph in my younger years.
My brother introduced me to a guy named Danny Churchill who used to be the world record holder on a ski and barefoot and held the record for Catalina and back.

He had a place on the lake and I went up there a few times, and he gave me just enough instruction to get hooked speed-skiing. The guy was incredible.

Unfortunately I had a back operation when I was 25 and that killed that, but not until after I bought a K-boat.
Eventually I turned it into a drag boat after I gave up on the skiing thing.

I used to ski a lot at Alta and sometimes Snowbird, we sometimes thought we were going fast but it is just a perception, my wife thought she went too fast on the bunny slopes. I looked at skiing as I looked at motorcycle racing, only fear and common sense hold you back. And with motorcycles, sometimes wrist paralysis.

I just did a search on Danny Churchill and found this story. Danny kind of mentioned it but played it down, I didn't realize it was that serious:

I'm just learning to ski. I probably hit 20mph last week. It was awesome.

a good rule to follow..
you go as fast as your willing to fall/wipe-out..
ignored it one year in Utah..
my elbow was still spitting rock chips a year later..

Rika

Rob's ski tips.... not really a fast skier though, but steep; bring it on!

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1262730544.jpg

Kirkwood has what they call "high angle grooming" where they have to winch a cat up to the top of "The Wall." You go stupid fast when you straightline it. Stiff, damp skis are a must.

Give me a 20ft cliff and bottomless pow - that's the kind of skiing I enjoy.

in my youth somewheres around mid 70's colleges BANNED downhill racing. too many deaths. so this left for me either GS or SLALOM. well i got damn tired hitting slalom gates and running into them and felt my life expectancy would be longer running GS(giant slalom) and wayyy more fun. and it was.

Fischer C-4 comps 195cm
Kniessel GS -215cm
K-2 comps-205cm
Dynamic comps-210cm

i learned as a kid and took to it like a duck to water. went all over colorado for almost 4 years. our training was at lake eldora and we had season lift tickets there. we set up classes for the semester to ski early morning and be back to class or class early am and ski from 4-5pm until 10pm. eldora had night skiing.


btwn dirty bikes during the summer and skiing during the winter i could kick ass and take names with the best. got to meet billy kidd/hank kashiwa/spider sabich before that ***** claudine longet shot him and a host of other groovy people from around the planet.

how fast did we go?????? a HELL OF ALOT FASTER than i WANTED TO MANY TIMES! had my share of taking bark off of trees or blowing corners on ice. will never ferget the sound of ice under my boards! crashed ALOT and managed nothing worse than bad sprains and a few cuts and bruises from windmilling skis. the worst crash was spring skiing at loveland in shorts wearing no shirt/higher than a kite drunk and sliding down a very very very steep incline and getting STRAWBERRIED TO HELL! man that juan HURT! i was MR SCAB!

black diamond runs were an excuse to bet who would buy the beer.


when you do it 6 days a week for seasons................man ya get good. the best powder areas were the back bowls of vail and steamboat. steamboat was and still is SNORKEL POWDER thru the trees. unreal above yer head snow in places.


most fun area and best bang fer buck...............winterpark,colorado. take the train!

and thats how i rolled!(GOGAR-IZM)

On my Arbor snowboard - 80km/h according to the GPS on my N95.

About 75 mph in a tuck on a small downhill course. I'll see if I can find a gps app for my iPhone that will give me speeds.

speed-o-meter for an iPhone App Dave.
that's very fast, be careful ;)

Considering one of my former jobs in this life was a professional ski racer in the early 70's, not much of a downhill racer mostly slalom and giant slalom.

Downhill racing is scary business, I raced in the downhill in Aspen and Vail to name a few. My last downhill was in Vail were I was coming into a big sweeper onto International run and both my tips blow off from the compression, somewhere in the 70 mph range, that was my last downhill. damn those 225cm K2 skis.

In the 90's I was a Technical Delegate for ski races, basically I ran a race and I did TD a speed race at Willamete Pass were the winner got over 100 mph, most impressive. I also witnessed a racer standing up too soon after he went thru the speed traps at that speed your body is like a sail. They flew him to the hospital in a helo.

Now you know the reason I have been driving Porsches since the late 60's, a total triple X double A. I attribute my skiing to driving, come into the turn hi above the gate and ride the rail. Skiing is a awesome sport, I still ski every week during the season, just not as long anymore, knees are kinda shot.

If anyone out there wants a pair of 225 cm Dynamic downhill skis, very fast skis, let me know, comes with no warranty, use at your own risk, they are beasts to turn under 50 mph but O' so sweet at speed.

What kinda bindings?

I went skiing last week......I miss my 227cm Volkls......

yep unspeakable unintelligible SPEEDS! asking me how fast, is kind of like "what the hell do ya think i'm doing? looking at my watch?"

i can say this much, usually in a season i had shredded the inside ankles of my ski pants from my edges catching them over and over.day after day. we used to drink to excess and wax and sharpen our edges beyond belief. it was a weekly thing on monday nights (.05 cents a draw coors 3.2 %). without edges its yer ass BIG TIME when ICE becomes a factor. as i said hearing ICE under my edges still makes me shudder and makes my SPHINCTER SLAM SHUT!

one of our favorite gigs was the bud cup in aspen. the whose who of factory racers from around the globe. wayy cool to watch and it was some ser-i-ass good times.

skiing for fun is just that, FUN! when collegiate racing...........well alot of "my kung fu is stronger than your kung fu" crap came out and it very much seemed like a bloodsport alot of times. my roommate had a grudge against this guy from boulder and all they did when they met was go for the throat time after time, and to be honest no buddy gave a rats ass except them.

all i did was try to SURVIVE and come home in JUAN (1) FREEKING PIECE! ski racing is a brutal sport to the body and most dont last very long before injuries take over. like i mentioned during the summers dirty bikes and the winter we was skiing our buns off. to say we were BUFFED was an understatement. oh to be in that shape today, 30 years later!

get this............i was selling TURQUOISE INDIAN JEWLERY thru my 3.5. years at regis college and MADE A KILLING selling it to GOOFY EAST COAST HIPPIE CHICKS and kawboy PEUDNERS who laked BIG BELT BUCKLES with blue rocks in them from airy-zoney! my life back then was skiing/school(very very little)/dirty bikes/chasing skirts. and i will always remember the OVER THE TOP FUN WE HAD IN COLORADO!

to this day i love watching mogul busting/GS championships!

P.S. TRY SKIING AT NIGHT...........ask me how i know! ask me how COLD? ask me how many times i got stuck on broken down lifts? ask me how many times i jumped off of chairlifts because i was FREEZING TO DEATH!?

and thats how we ROLLED! (GOGAR-IZM)

very cool picture!

Alright, I DL'd the app. I'll see what I can do tomorrow... :)
I'm getting old, so I doubt I'll get anywhere near 75.

P.S. I saw Glen Plake today and even managed to get in front of his camera crew. Pic of Glen and myself when I get home tomorrow.

Can I borrow your time machine?

Me, maybe about 50 or so.

But a former co-worker is listed here: Speed Skiing History and Records.

Now that real speed!

An old college buddy of mine and I were skiing some crappy iced out bumps at Holiday Valley New York one cold night about 15 years ago. We had stopped part way down when we suddenly heard some thumping and looked up and saw someone fricking hammering across the tops of these crap iced out bumps at high speed. We followed him down and at the base of the chair realized it was Plake. My buddy had him sign his skiis with a sharpy. :)

Well, so far I have hit a top speed of 47mph. I will see if I can improve on that. :)

Dave, Glen Plake? Very cool. Is he still sporting that goof mohawk? He was the schnizzle back when I was skiing a lot. Loved to watch him.

While I liked to ski very fast in my "day," I was more into the steeps and mogul bashing. I have a friend who wanted us to race in a Masters Downhill for amatures. While I had/have the skill, I would have probably scared myself silly. My estimated top speed - maybe 45??

Yes, Glen still has his Mohawk. :)

update: I just hit 59mph.

Water ski'd at about 60.

Never really got into the snow ski thing.

Tried snowboarding a few times, spent more time in the clubhouse hitting on chicks than on the slopes.

Fastest I ever went was from the top of Squaw Valley, old Olympic downhill course, can't for the life of me recall the name of that run, prior to them knocking down the ice skating rink for more parking.

Could not say how fast exactly, much faster than was prudent. Faster than I ever went on a bicycle, and have been north of 40 mph on dirt before, broke my GD cyclo-computer doing that.

I have better judgement now.

There's a steep run at Mt. Bachelor Oregon that goes uphill at the end. So you can go real fast, but then stop as you go uphill. Makes it a little less scary, however, you get pushed down in the transition from downhill uphill. I was told I went about 55 mph.

Somewhere north of 80+ mph my friend said before I let loose.

Behind a small drag boat, a dare, a bet and a few beers is all it took.

About ripped my arms out out of their sockets when he hit the throttle to start with.

Blasted by the prop spray I swung out from behind the boat, over the wake and realized that the boat was still accelerating very hard and the water was moving very fast.

Saw my life flash before me once my eyes cleared and let go of the rope. You glide a LONG ways even in water from that speed. The whole thing lasted less than 10 seconds probably.

Yes, I am an idiot.....but I did win the bet!!

It's OK Dave, don't kill yourself on our account bud.
Just tell them you're dyslectic (47 = 74)
Ha.

Rob, I managed toswitxh it to kph while in my pocket and when I pulled the phone out I read it at first as 77 mph. :D

My two faster speeds today were 59 and 53 mph. It was not safe to push it any faster. Not a crowded mountain, but enough people to keep it sane.... Next time. ;)

I'm gonna have to ask my old buddy what speeds he does; I thought he said it was 100Km/Hr, but maybe it was faster? Must've been, because he told us some amazing stories about his wipeouts.

One time a beer company was filming the events and captured his wipeout on film. He was taken to the hospital unconscious and it was a real duzzy with broken ski's and cartwheels. They made a beer commercial out of it he said.

This guy teaches at Silver Star in Vernon and he's a huge guy about 6'6" and weighs in about 260Lbs, they call him Wild Bill and I can guarantee he was one crazy muther when it came to speeding down a hill. Could it have been 100MPH?

Glad to hear you're safe Dave :)

I'm home. :(

Can it be??? Who else wears a Mohawk that tall?
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1262832532.jpg

Why yes, yes it is Glen Plake. :cool:
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1262832578.jpg

And here are the two fastest speeds I could post today...

I was hoping to hit the mid 60's, but this will have to do for now
59 MPH
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1262832630.jpg

53 MPH
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1262832687.jpg

I will try and hit 60+ the next time I go. :)
The app seems to be pretty accurate.

I've tucked high speed runs straight down the China bowl at Vail and the downhill course at Beaver Creak when it was groomed flat with no one on it. The bowls are fine as there is plenty of room for run off but the trail run scared the crap out of me a few times. I would think I hit somewhere in the 40-50 range with older GS (and long 207's) skis and race boots.

I wish I had an app for that!

I also saw Plake blasting out run after run on a long steep run at Kirkwood years ago. He was a machine. This was his peak mohawk period but he had it pulled down so I didn't realize it was him at first. I kept up for two runs then he crushed me and kept going and going.

I am currently on 184's, Rossi - RPM 17's. I think part of my problem today was my jacket. It's a bit bulk and can't be helping with aerodynamics. The other part were the people all over the nice steep groomed runs.
Rob, I have been skiing for 34 years. I still take risks - Yup, found that out in the X-games superpipe a few years ago and ended my season early... I have been staying away from the terrain parks and sticking with the skiing I know - Steep and deep. Skiing is the one sport that if I died while on ski's, I'd be happy.

It could be. The right clothes, hill...

59 mph, that's insane! Are you catching any air during a run like that?

Where were you skiing today? Looks nice.

I do catch a little air over big rollers, but it's only about 6" off the ground. The worst part about going over about 40, are the little bumps and washboards that you can't see in the shade. Everything looks flat, just keep your balance and let your knees act as shock absorbers.

Here's a nice downhill clip that shows the rollers and how far and the air he catches because of his speed. Unfortunately, the clip also shows how not to cross the finish line.

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Here's an actual speed skiing clip (w/accident as well)
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P.S. I forgot to mention that we were skiing Mammoth Mountain.

And then there's Plake... :cool:

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