Bike Park 25X more dangerous than skiing!

[rcoope]

I broke my right index finger on clownshoes today. Suck. Anyway, in chatting with the doctor, I found out that for mountain bike downhill, the probability for an injury resulting in a hospital visit is about 8 in 1000 per run. That means if 1500 riders have an average of 10 runs in a day, there will be about 120 visits to the hospital IN ONE DAY! That compares to 3 in 1000 per day for skiing, so 1500 skiers would expect 5 hospital visits per day. Crazy huh?

[Shore Rydah]

skiers dont impale themselves on ladders and skinnies :lol:

and I think you get a little more beat up when you bail on rocks/dirt/wood opposed to snow.

meh who cares about statistics, I think we all realize the injury part of mountain biking

[Heatmizer]

Snow is also a lot softer than dirt/rocks/trees so ya I can see that.

[m33p]

People who can't judge their riding and ride according to their ability get hurt.

[Keefer]

I bet if you took out lacerations (which you normally wouldn't get snowboarding) they'd be pretty even. Maybe still favouring the biking, cuz it's a lot harder.

[IFO]

Originally posted by m33p
People who can't judge their riding and ride according to their ability get hurt.

HAHAH... m33p do you have even a ounce of sympathy in your blood ???


:P

[chauncy]

At Whistler, the majority of riders are downhillers and freeriders and many trails there have jumps/drops. In skiing, the majority of people there (at least when I was there) are recreational skiers. There's more of a chance getting hurt ripping down A-line than snowplowing down a green run on skis.

[Revscene]

Originally posted by IFO
HAHAH... m33p do you have even a ounce of sympathy in your blood ???


:P

ahaha...but he is true though... these days lots of the youngins... and others too seem to be going a lot bigger than they should be... just to keep up with everyone else. oh well.. doesnt concern me. lol

[corey@nsmb.com]

Yikes!

I think it is not the park itself being dangerous...but riders in the park who get carried away and ride dangerously over their head.

That being said, we all make mistakes, regardless of ability. I guess the park just gives us more opportunities wo screw up through multiple runs. :thepimp:

[wilkez]

Originally posted by IFO
HAHAH... m33p do you have even a ounce of sympathy in your blood ???


:P


but its so true...i had some incidents yesterday at whistler...

[Battlecat]

I went over the bars on crabapple overshoooting the last table to flat. It sucked. The guy that builds the trails said it was the biggest air he saw in the bike park ever. Luckily i was ok. Besides my legs being charlie horsed for 3 days

[FruitOfTheLude]

Bah. who really cares, statistics are stupid. apparently i am a hundred thousand times more likely to die choking on a toothpick then from a shark attack

[Keefer]

I just redid your math, it should be 45 people injured skiing vs 120 for riding, not 5 vs 120. 3 in 1000 vs 8 in 1000 isn't 25 times difference, it's 2.6.

Still crazy to know though, but I mean, I'd have expected even higher.

[Battlecat]

Snow = You slide when you hit

Dirt = You Dont

[rcoope]

Originally posted by Keefer
I just redid your math, it should be 45 people injured skiing vs 120 for riding, not 5 vs 120. 3 in 1000 vs 8 in 1000 isn't 25 times difference, it's 2.6.

Still crazy to know though, but I mean, I'd have expected even higher.

The MTB number is per run, vs the skiing number which is per day. 1500 riders doing 10 runs each should be compared to 15,000 skiers doing 10 runs each.

The thing with these numbers is that it demonstrates that the chances of getting hurt are actually very good no matter how careful you are. I know a lot of riders who are very very good and quite cautious still ending up in hospital this summer, and the reason is ultimately statistical. It's NOT a question of being careful or not.

[wes side 7]

Originally posted by m33p
People who can't judge their riding and ride according to their ability get hurt.

Didn't wade simmons break his leg? Sometimes when you are pushing yourself and the sport, shit happens. But that's not to say their ain't alot of tweakers up at Whis.

[m33p]

Originally posted by wes side 7
Didn't wade simmons break his leg? Sometimes when you are pushing yourself and the sport, shit happens. But that's not to say their ain't alot of tweakers up at Whis.

Wade did it and ate it, it was above him and he went down because of it. My statement remains perfectly true.

[wes side 7]

Yeah, but how do you get better if you don't push yourself and do stuff "above" what you have done before?

[m33p]

Originally posted by wes side 7
Yeah, but how do you get better if you don't push yourself and do stuff "above" what you have done before?

I get better all the time, theres a fine line between pusing yourself and being an idiot. But i'm not saying Wade is an idiot. I'm saying he pushed himsefl too far. That + the jump sucked.

[ReCkLeSs RiDeR]

Originally posted by IFO
HAHAH... m33p do you have even a ounce of sympathy in your blood ???


:P


I don't think so:lol:

[sir HUCK-A-LOT]

whistler dirt isn't like normal dirt....whistler dirt is glorified concrete with sharp pointy rocks sticking out of it. snow you slide, dirt you slide...i can detest to that. difference is you wind up with no skin on your right ribcage for a month and a half after falling on the dirt.
generally we are going a lot faster than the average skier and are going down a tighter line. where a sker would have the width of a run we only have a few feet. the crap about over your head is a little exaggerated...yes there are some(many) that go on aline not knowing what to expect...but generally its just in the nature of the sport.

[couch@nsmb.com]

When the patrol was packing my wife off the hill last year (with a broken hip and collarbone) the statistic that the patrol gave me was for every one ski/snowboard accident resulting in a hospital trip there were six mountain bike accidents.

Damn non-bouncy dirt.

Couch

PS M33P Wade was very capable of doing that jump unfortunately, mountian elves moved a stump over while he was in the air. You can see it clearly on the video ;)

[flowrider]

Originally posted by chauncy
At Whistler, the majority of riders are downhillers and freeriders and many trails there have jumps/drops. In skiing, the majority of people there (at least when I was there) are recreational skiers. There's more of a chance getting hurt ripping down A-line than snowplowing down a green run on skis.

In the winter A-line is a green run .

[Spaz]

Part of the problem has got to be people with way too much money, buying bikes that are too advanced for them.

"Look at me, I've got an 8" travel bike. I can jump off anything now"

[Leifless]

most locals here ride hard and ski even harder and winter always takes a bigger toll on peoples health than riding in the summer because everybody is pretty much an expert skier, which essentially means that they dont fall often, but when it does happen, they go down HARD. but anyways, saying that bikeparks are that much more dangerous doesnt take into account that most skiers/boarders are the recreational type playing it safe, whereas the majority of bikers are very good and thus crash maybe less than the average joe, but go down much harder.

[eeyun]

bummer Robin! The whistler trauma park strikes again!

[parksvilleguy]

yeah skiers jump and land on snow, we jump from dirt and land on dirt, rock, trees, and anything else in the way. so we have a bit more of a probability of hurting ourselves. and yes there are trees in the snow, but the hardest part of the trees, are the bottom 15 feet which is usually buried in the snow

[dirty deeds]

Originally posted by rcoope
I broke my right index finger on clownshoes today.

I'll bet I know where - you were trying to make that really steep bit with the sharp right hand turn at the bottom (before the log rides and the drop). The rocks had a nice film of powdery dust. You lost control. Your front wheel dug on the corner. Over the bars and out goes the stopper.

I hate that corner. I've seen so many guys endo at it and I have zero confidence on it. I'm not saying it shouldn't be there. It just worries me, so I end up walking it. The rest of CS is cool though.

[rcoope]

Originally posted by dirty deeds
I'll bet I know where - you were trying to make that really steep bit with the sharp right hand turn at the bottom (before the log rides and the drop). The rocks had a nice film of powdery dust. You lost control. Your front wheel dug on the corner. Over the bars and out goes the stopper.

I hate that corner. I've seen so many guys endo at it and I have zero confidence on it. I'm not saying it shouldn't be there. It just worries me, so I end up walking it. The rest of CS is cool though.

Good try but no. It was on that log that runs across the slope down below the rollerocaster and just above the final drop. I just lost the front wheel at the end of the log where it goes into a wider latter. I smacked the ladder with my helmet, smashing my visor. My finger must have got under the handle bar and hit the wood or something.

[Oldfart]

I think if one looks at the acident rate in the winter terrain parks, you'd see a lot of accidents, maybe right up there with the bike park. Its the stunts combined with the unforgiving nature of landing on dirt versus, usually soft or at least soft packed snow. I think on icy days the emerge sees a lot more injuries. Of course crowds don't help either. Blackcomb sees more winter accidents than Whistler I think partly due to more skiers there on a given day and the design of their runs. Blackcomb has this green trail crisscrossing intermediate and expert runs all down the front side.

Also a typical beginer skier has bindings set at very low so the least bit of instability and they blow a shoe. Kind of a built in speed governor. I think skiing well takes more skill than riding well too. That means that some one can buy a bike with good brakes and suspension and few skills go out and get in over their heads easy. Not so easy on skis as you'll fall down before you get up to dangerous speeds.

Its also true that more skilled skiers and riders go faster and bigger and crash less, but when they do, they crash bigger and the consequences can be more serious.

But hey! If it was safe it wouldn't be fun. We should thank those who get injured for reminding us that our sport is risky.

[ATN]

Stand on top of a ski run, and you pretty much see the whole thing.

Stand at the top of Joyride and you see around 30 ft, and that 30feet isn't that steep, nor are there any rockfaces or stunts.

With skiing you know what you are getting into.

[corey@nsmb.com]

With riding, if you would read the signs and the maps, you would know that around that first 30 feet lurks things you are not quite ready for.

It is up to each rider to be responsible.

[cheeba rider]

"Taking a shit 25x more dangerous then taking a piss!"

Danger is relative.

[Incorrigible]

geez i feel so much better knowing i took one for the team when i crushed my hand 3 weeks ago.

it was sure frustrating to watch other guys ripping down the hill yesterday, knowing i might not ride again, since i now have 2 longish, steel knitting needles embedded in my hand. no idea if and when they come out.

[CraigH]

Originally posted by sir HUCK-A-LOT
whistler dirt is glorified concrete with sharp pointy rocks sticking out of it.

Thanks for the laugh! :lol:

[Voleurz represent]

what are the stats in the Double Black park at blackcomb in the winter... if you compared that park to the bike park it might be a closer comparison. Snow in snowboard parks hurts like a bitch to fall on.. especially in the morning.
Rails have a tendency of fucking people up too.

[Clownshoe]

I broke my right index finger on clownshoes today. Suck. Anyway, in chatting with the doctor, I found out that for mountain bike downhill, the probability for an injury resulting in a hospital visit is about 8 in 1000 per run. That means if 1500 riders have an average of 10 runs in a day, there will be about 120 visits to the hospital IN ONE DAY! That compares to 3 in 1000 per day for skiing, so 1500 skiers would expect 5 hospital visits per day. Crazy huh?

Although you are right that downhilling is more dangerous than skiing, your numbers are a bit off. The injury rate for the winter here at Whistler/Blackcomb is about 2 per thousand. In the bike park over the last two years its a little under 6 per thousand. These can be misleading however as the winter stats come from 2 million visitors and ths summer stats from about 50,000 visitors. Having said that, if you really needed stats to tell you that downhill mountain biking is more dangerous than downhill skiing.....

[theoriginalhardcore]

Originally posted by cheeba rider
"Taking a shit 25x more dangerous then taking a piss!"

Danger is relative.
lol