BBC News: BBC Sport - Michael Schumacher Injured In Skiing Accident In France

[6Foot2]

Link: BBC Sport - Michael Schumacher injured in skiing accident in France

[teejay]

Now being reported that he's in a coma and in a critical condition.

[GREED]

Apparently hit his head on a rock even though the helmet...

[XiJ]

Former F1 Doc on Twitter is worth following. He's provided great medical info

[synaesthesia]

aye keeping a close eye on this. Not deserved. Too many morons on Twitter are calling it Karma. The guy has a family, he's easily the best modern driver since Senna and is believe or not a decent bloke. The difference between him and Vettel is a mountain of skill, ability and Schumacher being on a crossover of eras, from when you could get away with cheating bare faced (1994, also see Senna) and where you have to be damn clever about it (Red Bull/Vettel). Moot though, it's not deserved, hope he pulls through. The majority of people think Schumacher when they think of F1.

[plexer]

Indeed can't stand him as a driver personally but hope he makes a full recovery.

 

Ben

[AMLinington]

Having also suffered a head injury whilst ski-ing I can empathise with this situation. He was wearing a helmet - a very wise investment and this story only serves to promote slope safety. I imagine if he has not been wearing a helmet we would be reading an obituary - ski-ing accidents can be horrific with a goodly portion of less experienced skiers literally knocked off their feet by flying snowboarders (I've been taken out myself a few times despite being moderately competent with lower-reds) or each other and this early in the season the snow cover can often be icy and patchy so I imagine these factors will have affected his accident. Broken legs and arms are common sights apre ski and one memorable year my partner was treated to the glorious view of a woman's shattered tibia as it protruded out of her gore-covered trousers. Risky business Ski-ing but all skiers understand and accept the risks inherent to strapping yourself to one or two bits of plastic and throwing yourself down the side of an icy mountain. Unfortunate but sadly commonplace and if the plight of a celebrity might raise awareness of piste safety then mores the good.

[6Foot2]

...with a goodly portion of less experienced skiers literally knocked off their feet by flying snowboarders...

 

In a news bulletin I heard earlier today they speculated that a technical fault may be a factor here. Possible causes were speculated as follows:

 

Faulty binding giving way or [perhaps?] Schumacher had not done the bindings up properly before setting off.

 

All guesswork on the part of the journalists at this stage.

[synaesthesia]

There is a lot of rubbish from the journos at the moment. Jennie Gow suggested only believing what comes from the press conferences, mostly after everyone (and I mean everyone) was reporting about a 2nd operation last night which never actually happened.

[AMLinington]

In a news bulletin I heard earlier today they speculated that a technical fault may be a factor here. Possible causes were speculated as follows:

 

Faulty binding giving way or [perhaps?] Schumacher had not done the bindings up properly before setting off.

 

All guesswork on the part of the journalists at this stage.

 

Ski Bindings are designed to pop open in an accident so I'd be wary of assuming too much and reading too much into 'journalist' reports. I've become separated from my skis a few times in accidents. He may have had a faulty binding on the ski but boots have multiple binding points and an experienced skier will KNOW when their boots are too loose immediately so it is doubtful he'd proceed onto a run with loose boot bindings. A too loose boot is not always detrimental to the skier either - it depends which bindings are loose - as long as the shin bindings are done up then the toe bindings are more or less superfluous. I've skied with my toe bindings loose loads of times.

 

Purely speculation but what is more likely is that he hit a patch of something - ice, dirt, protruding rocks etc, spun out and whacked his head. A lot of it will be determined by how fast he was going and what method of ski-ing he was using - the 'french' method has skiers ski with their skis very close together and they zoom around like crazy - I'm not brave enough to try it tbh. I just stick to my hip width stance and my carving.

[Andrew_C]

Huh? Bindings are the bits that hold your boots to the skis; front and back of the boot. If these are loose, you can loose a ski if you put a lot of effort into a turn. If your toe clips aren't done up, you don't get so much "feel" for what is going on, and no, you boot clips most certainly shouldn't come undone!.

 

I've broken the heel clip once, not sure if it was before or after the fairly hard, but ultimately not too serious, fall. It was a long walk down the mountain. I could ski black comfortably, but haven't been for some years. And I hate the sound of an out of control snowboarder slithering towards you.

[synaesthesia]

Is there a particular noise one of those makes? Other than "wwwwwaaaaaAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHH" of course?

[jinnantonnixx]

I saw some footage of Schuey on skis - he looks like a highly proficient skier.

 

The media don't have many facts, so they speculate. It fills air time and inches of webspace.

 

It's probably just a horrible accident - just bad luck.

 

It comes out of the blue - a few of us went off-piste (snowboarding) and one of our crowd wiped out and broke several ribs on hidden rocks under deep snow.

[plexer]

The Self Test for Alpine Skiers - http://www.ski-injury.com - Ski Injury

 

Ben

[AMLinington]

Is there a particular noise one of those makes? Other than "wwwwwaaaaaAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHH" of course?

 

There is a particular sort of sound the Snowboard makes, especially when the piste is packed hard its a sort of Skrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrsssssssssssssssshhhhhhhh sound and it's terrifying when it's coming down behind you.

 

I should clarify re: Boot clips and Ski bindings.

 

Ski bindings are designed to release at a certain force. This is set by the technician according to your weight, experience, height etc. This is the DIN setting. If you own your own skis you likely manage your own DIN settings and more experienced skiers will likely have the release force set considerably higher than a beginner. If you rent skis at resort (TBH I prefer to rent skis rather than have to worry about maintaining my own. I have my own boots though) the DIN setting will be high enough that the boot stays put under standard ski-ing 'stresses' but low enough that it will release before you end up with your knee bending the wrong way. Front and back tensions can be managed individually.

 

This is a good link for basic info: Ski Bindings Guide - Ski Equipment - Mechanics of Skiing

 

Similarly ski boots are not uniform. The more experienced a skier, the less flex the boot will have because it makes it more responsive. My partner has a much harder boot than I do. Different brands of boots will have different types and numbers of clips. I have a pair of HEAD boots similar to these but about 3 seasons old (they will need replacing in the next season or so): Head Dream 8.5 Ski Boots (Women's) | Peter Glenn

 

My boots have multiple clip adjustments from macro to micro adjustment and this was what I meant when I said I've skied with the toe clips undone - the top 2 and the power strap are the ones you open to be able to walk in the boot (out the locker room for example) but you can't ski at all unless they are done up. The one at the top of the foot is the one I have the most trouble with - too tight and my foot goes dead, too loose and I ski like a beginner. The bottom toe clip for me isn't all that important as the one at the top of the foot will often be tightened to the point that the toe clip can't get any tighter and it sits loosely. The fit of my boot changes throughout the week and day by day so there are no 'default' settings - what fits at the beginning of the week is really loose by the end - I don't know if others have found this but I defo end up doing my boots tighter towards the end of the week (apart from Black-and-Blue Wednesday when I can barely move). Some boot manufacturers have less clips - I once hired a spectacularly uncomfortable pair of NORDICA that had two clips (they were pretty old tbh) I ditched them within about 30 minutes of attempting to ski in them. Different boots fit differently too. Salomon tend to be really narrow which seem to work well for my partner but they shred my ankles. HEAD are wider so they accommodate my ankles better. Rossignol are too expensive for me lol. Although I do have a lovely pair of custom heat-moulded insoles for my boots - they are lush. I have quite flat feet though so to avoid ankle shreddage the techs at the boot shop built up my left arch support. My boots are brilliant now. Really not looking forward to having to replace them :-(

Edited December 31, 2013 by AMLinington

[plexer]

"A new scan was taken this morning and it showed a slight improvement, a slight radiological improvement."

 

Latest update.

 

Ben

[synaesthesia]

The only trustworthy source in this case has updated for the humans among us:

 

Tuesday press conference – take 1 | A Former F1 Doc Writes

[AMLinington]

Ultimately Ski-ing is a dangerous sport. You strap yourself to two pieces of wood/plastic/carbon fibre and hurl yourself down the side of a mountain covered in powdered frozen water. Accidents happen, people get injured - sometimes very seriously, sometimes fatally and sometimes just enough to win bruise-of-the-week at the ski school awards. The person in question in this story was demonstrating good sense in wearing a helmet he just happened to be one of the unlucky ones that clobbered his head while having an accident doing something he was quite capable of doing - he wasn't out of his comfort zone, it was no-ones fault. It happened to me and it didn't dominate newspapers and news bulletins for days. I came over a blind crest on a short, steep red run that I've done hundreds of times that was well within my skill level and a beginner had accidently ended up on the run and instead of putting her skis straight and going for it (schuss) or taking them off and walking down to one side of the piste she was snowploughing. As it was a blind crest I didn't see her until I was already going quite fast. I attempted to avoid her (snowplough takes up a good chunk of the run and this one was pretty narrow), caught my ski in the side wall of the chute and went face first into a fence. I had migraines for months, debilitating, horrible migraines that landed me in hospital waiting for an MRI a couple of times. I nearly lost my job at the time because my then-boss (this was a previous role long before my current job) didn't believe that a migraine could be bad enough that I would be unable to work through it. I wish anyone suffering ski-related head injuries a swift recovery but know from experience that it will affect them for a long time - I still have trouble with it 5 years later especially when the weather gets cold because it aggravates the damage I did to my trigeminal nerve.

[XiJ]

The only trustworthy source in this case has updated for the humans among us:

 

Tuesday press conference – take 1 | A Former F1 Doc Writes

 

He's actually just commenting in the medical procedures rather than the case itself. It's fascinating and very educational though. I've followed him on twitter for a while - he's a good read!

[Andrew_C]

Ultimately Ski-ing is a dangerous sport... sometimes fatally and sometimes just enough to win bruise-of-the-week

Anything you do on a mountain is dangerous.

 

Climbing - 10% of all people to attempt Everest die

Go for a walk - the mist comes down, and you're lost.

Driving - hairpin bends

Skiing - I had that bruise!

Mountain biking - you get the picture

[plexer]

The only trustworthy source in this case has updated for the humans among us:

 

Tuesday press conference – take 1 | A Former F1 Doc Writes

 

The only trustworthy source just being someone who's watched the press conference and is commenting on it?

 

Ben

[AMLinington]

Anything you do on a mountain is dangerous.

 

Climbing - 10% of all people to attempt Everest die

Go for a walk - the mist comes down, and you're lost.

Driving - hairpin bends

Skiing - I had that bruise!

Mountain biking - you get the picture

 

Ironically my two black eyes from my face-to-face meeting with the fence lost out on Bruise-of-the-week to a woman with an orange-sized bruise on her bum. I managed to get a spectacular black, purple and blue bruise on my knee from the most ridiculous of falls a couple of years ago. We had pulled to one side of the piste with our instructor to let some snowboarders pass while she explained our proposed route and I was standing there perfectly fine one minute then for no apparent reason the snow under my right ski fell away to reveal a bit of a hole and I very very gently pitched to one side on my bum. I didn't even think I'd hurt myself until I saw the vivid bruise that must have resulted from my knee coming into contact with the binding of my opposite ski. I won bruise of the week for it. I felt like a fraud when our class nominated me.

[synaesthesia]

The only trustworthy source just being someone who's watched the press conference and is commenting on it?

 

Ben

 

Very much so, because a) he's knowledgeable unlikely the journalists and b) unlike the journos he can actually translate it into something meaningful. Of course that does mean the press conferences are the only reliable information, which is indeed true.

[Sunnyknight]

Joint childhood hero.

 

As the coma news hit, i think the whole world just went into shock. Hope he makes a speedy recovery. Just one last race schumi, bring it home son!