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DANGEROUS NECK BREAKING SNOW FALLING FROM TREES

Your neck may be broken with snow falling from trees on warm or windy days. While skiing up the Pipestone River on Feb 3/12 I was climbing a hill with my tired old head mistakenly down (not something as an experienced skier I normally do) when I got clobbered with what felt like 25 pounds of snow hitting my head. It took me about 15 minutes of neck exercises to work out enough of the pain so I could ski again. I was lucky because two feet in front of me about 200 pounds of snow landed on my skis. The snow looked like it was moving 100 miles an hour when it hit. Needless to say, after that I kept my head up looking for falling snow, no matter how tired I was- even when climbing hills.

On this day weather conditions were perfectly calm but temperatures were above freezing in the sunny tree tops which made the snow a little unstable. Stablity was likely reduced with the vibrations in the snow pack from skiing motions. Most of the trees just had one or two clumps of snow clinging to branches- they were not fully loaded.

With the rain that occurred earlier in the season, the snow clinging to tree branches is more loaded with heavy moisture than normal. The lower on the tree the snow is, the heavier that snow is. It is suggested that you do not ski on narrow trails or close to snow loaded trees when temperatures are above freezing or if it is windy. Wait until the snow in the trees disappears later in the year or ski on cold calm days when melting or wind is not a factor to create falling snow conditions that may break your neck.

As for skiing conditions up the Pipestone, they were great. I broke a nice, shoulder width trail up to the Pipestone River crossing. Get it while it is safe and good!

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