Sacriest Tucks Moments..

[DMC]

I think my scariest Tucks moment is any time I have to traverse the headwall...

A couple of years ago we climb the Right Gully to ride the Upper Snowfields. After we'd finished we decided to go over to the Chute. The required a traverse of the headwall... I sent a skier friend over first to see if the traverse was doable on a board. He made it to the Chute and signaled OK.... BUT - the traverse actually had a little up-hill section that was NOT snowboard friendly.. A fellow rider went first and found the uphill spot - he rides goofy so he was stuck on the headwall - above the rock band - looking straight down at the lunch rocks... First he tried to take a foot out and kick... But you can't kick on a 50 degree face very easily...
So he took his board off and climbed out..

I hate being exposed like that... It's the scariest thing about Tucks for me...

[pjmanchester]

Mine was my first year at tucks.
I was climbing up the chute and came to a section about 3/4 of the way up that had little snow on it and it was all flat slippery rock. We all know how well ski boots do on flat rock.
There was no way to go around it so we had to go straight up the rock. I took my skis and put them up above the rock section and layed them down on the snow and kind of wedged them in horizontally and used them as my way to pull myself up with one hand, with the other hand i grabbed a little root/branch coming out of the snow and used those to pull myself up. Luckily they both held, but for my first time doing anything like that it was very scary and when i got to the top of the chute i sat up there for an hour or so trying to collect myself and go down. Once i took a turn it was great but until that point i was very freaked out.

[skicdave]

A :eek: moment at Tucks =
wearing :skiboots:
40 degree slope :skierscared:
Big hard :rocks: below
No :helmet:
Anytime after May 15th :hummer:

[BCSKIER]

I have two that stand out in my mind. The first involved me watching my best friend almost lose his life. We were skiing dodges drop and we skiied a flawless run on a picture perfect day, until we got to the first ice bulge. The one above was covered. This is a very steep and narrow (3') area that you either straight line or climb down the sketchy rocks with ski boots. He made some turns down to the bulge and side stepped to get a better look. I said no way and went to take my skiis off. He told me to wait, it's easy, and to watch what he does. Now, there were two ice climbers above us with a nice birds eye view and they told us to hit it. My buddy has no fear, so this little encouragement was all he needed. He straight-lines the narrow opening, jumping over the ice bulge and being as steep as it is, he was flying when he went to make his turn after it opened up below. Well, just below the ice bulge is where the snow that avy's from above deposits. It was atleast knee-high, thick wet heavy snow that sent him off balance. He did a couple cartwheels, a ski went flying (just one), and the next obstacle was rock. This is a big rock. From above it's about a foot high. From below the rock face drops about 12'. He bounced twice off the rock (with his bottom side), and dropped out of sight. My heart sank and I thought the worse. Next thing you know he comes traversing accross the fall line on his one ski. He was okay and I retrieved his ski that luckily got caught up in the brush above him. Close call!!! The ice climbers obviously felt really bad and were more than ready to help the situation, but my fearless buddy got out of it without even much of a bruise!!!
A few weeks later while skiing Jt's/Stinkbug or whatever it's called I lost my ski. I lost it above a crevass that had a nice waterfall under it. It was flying right in the direction of the crevass!!! My buddy was below me by about 50' and luckily after 3 attempts to get his attention, he turned to see my ski about to fly past him. He quickly grabbed it and saved the day. I guess all that was scarry about that was the fact that I wouldn't be skiing the next 3 runs had he not turned to see what I was yelling at him for. So, I guess that's why we keep going back!!! What a rush!!!

[elwood]

My one trip to Tuckerman Ravine went without any incidents. We did get a little scared that we wouldn't have enough beer though...

Although I haven't had the fear put into me at TR, I have been in plenty of scary situations on skis...

This past February, I was skiing a huge mogul run at Mary Jane (Winter Park, CO) that disappeared into the woods. My brother and I were flying down this run, and I lost it coming off of a bump. I landed wrong and my weight was tossed forward. I was completely inverted a couple of times as I starfished down the run. On my second spin I threw down my feet and stuck them into the snow, and had a perfect recovery-- didn't even lose a ski. At that moment, I looked around and saw a big sign in front of me that said "Danger - Cliffs" and I looked down at a 25 foot drop. I nearly soiled my shorts on that one!

[RR]

Skiing from summit after auto road approach: not knowing the terrain (first trip) + eager to pass my more skilled cousins + pre-jump.....

My cousins stopped just above the Waterfall section of the Center Section...I cruised (maybe 30 mph) on through (what's up with that look???)and pre-jumped....

An instant of the greatest fear of my life...(until I was a parent)..."ssh****t why did I do that, hey the snow is not that far away, this could work"....stuck the landing then lost it on the first turn...full yardsale windmill, eggbeater...etc. I still had my jacket, pants and boots on...everything else was scattered all over the headwall....

Thank goodness it was February and a powder day.

[billr]

Yeah, Frank running across the top of the Lip in snowboard boots was scary.

But then there was the time DMC and I were lying in our sleeping bags in a lean-to, with a tarp across the front to keep out the cold, wet and nasty weather... when this guy sharing the lean-to starts cooking, knocks over his gas stove and now we have burning white gas flowing across the floor towards us in our oh-so-flammable sleeping bags. Well, with a few deft moves and some appropriate comments we got out of the way before we became statistics. Best part was when he informed us he was a fireman.

[DMC]

I forgot about that one...
That was pretty frickin scarey.... :mad:

[M@]

April 13th, 2003: Just over the lip, hiking sorta sideways. Put my skiis over my shoulder and almost fell backward. Had I fell I wouldn't have stopped till the lunch rocks.

It was just over 1 second or pure terror, but I think about it from time to time. I didn't stumble or slip or anything, just came very close to a balancing mistake. I'm sure if I was on video only my eyes would have even given away how scared I was.

M@ :ducttape:

[SkiStooge]

DMC: If the shelter you have a permit for burns down due to no fault of your own, does the AMC give you a raincheck for another night? lol. That must have been scary. Don't think I'd like to be stuck in a nylon bag and have liquid fire coming at me. Hope someone at least took away the guys beer ration. lol Have fun, be safe. :skistooge:

[Castlerock]

Mine was the same as PJ's, climbing up the chute, probably 15 years ago. Kicking steps into 1/2 of ice on rock. I have not been that scared before or since. You look up "sewing machine legs" in the dictionary and there is a picture of me stuck in the middle hanging on for dear life. I have not climbed up the Chute since. I ski down it pretty regularly though.

Tucks is always more intimidating going up!

[TheOctopus]

I'll second the sentiments against traversing across the headwall. (And I'm a two-planker, so I can't even begin to imagine how it must feel for you riders out there.) For some reason, I just can't *stand* traversing across steep, no-fall terrain. Skiing steep stuff, no problem-o. But traversing -- <shiver> -- gives me the willies.

[notjustanotherboarder]

Mine was on my first trip. It was not the ride down. It was the wait at the top of the lip on my board. I was sitting there with my buddy when I said to him, “There’s really no hurry. The longer we sit here, the longer we’ll live!”.

[M@]

OtherBoardr: That's pretty funny. The longer we sit her, the longer we live. I like that. That's my kind of humor.

M@ :ducttape:

[skicdave]

Nobody thought to mention the guy going in for a close up of Naked Guy 2003... now THAT was scarey! :eek:

http://timefortuckerman.com/gifs/nakedguy2003collage.jpg

[BladeGirl]

notjustanotherboarder:
Mine was on my first trip. It was not the ride down. It was the wait at the top of the lip on my board. I was sitting there with my buddy when I said to him, “There’s really no hurry. The longer we sit here, the longer we’ll live!”. I hear you on that one. I was heading for the top on the left side and stopped to rest on a little ledge about 40 feet shy of the top. It held about 6 of us. Then I looked down. Up. then down. Stayed on that ledge until my heart stopped pounding and decided to ski down from there. But, as Skimum says, "next year to the top!"

-BG :skifemcool:

[Skilasnow]

notjustanotherboarder:
Mine was on my first trip. It was not the ride down. It was the wait at the top of the lip on my board. I was sitting there with my buddy when I said to him, “There’s really no hurry. The longer we sit here, the longer we’ll live!”. Yup, that is pretty much it for me too. The first trip, hike up, put on skis and just hang out thinking, "Did I hike too high...?" But I let em rip and had a blast, about a half hour later.

Or it was watching someone tumble wondering if s/he was still alive after countless rag doll three sixties over and around :rocks: and :debris: and a warehouse yardsale :skipoles: :skis: :backpack: :cookies: , "There, but for the grace of Toni Matt, go I" (even lost their :helmet: as I recall )

[DMC]

I'm just the opposite...
I rush to strap my board on and I want to drop right in after catching my breath..

I'm really not comfortable unless I'm riding...