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Your record speed on snow

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Jimme
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Location:6 miles West of Jiminy Peak, MA

Posted: Jun 01, 2012 - 6:44 PM GMT

Using a Garmin GPS, I clocked 42 mph at one area and 49 another time. Both 'felt' extremely fast to me. I'm not into speed, so I don't expect to beat my records. It was more of a curiosity to get an idea of how fast I was actually skiing. I would have guessed over 50mph, because to me it felt that fast.

I became acutely aware of 'record setting' one night when I sat between two young guys on a chair ride. From the left I heard 61! From the right 62.5! I had a hunch they were not talking temperature. Both held an iPhone. In short, they had both schussed to see how fast they could go. At least they said they were doing this only because the area had so few people on the mountain. I suggested they do this one at a time, and use a spotter.*

So it looks like we have a new game on the snow. Speed Record Setting. Now, it's just so simple to record this on a cell phone, I expect it to become more common on the slopes.

* They're going to do this even under the possibility of having their ticket pulled. (They had already done it...) I figure if I give them some solid advice, maybe, just maybe they will heed it; and with a spotter, there is a greater margin of safety for all.

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mapnut
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Posted: Jun 01, 2012 - 7:27 PM GMT

Edited: Jun 01, 2012 - 7:29 PM GMT

I'm ridiculously low-tech for an engineer; I still have the first cell phone I ever bought, which has all the features I need to . . . make phone calls. So for a low-tech speed trial, I'd just time myself on the run, then scale the length of the slope off Google Earth. Couldn't be more than 5% off. I don't think my target would be more than 40 mph. Does a GPS give your peak speed?

What slopes do you think would be good for such trials? Would need to be uncrowded and groomed, steep enough to get going as fast as you're comfortable, with no flats. Not so steep that a spill would be dangerous. Wide and no sharp curves. My first thought is Dot Nebel at Belleayre, though one might lose a little speed on the lower section. No need for a spotter the last time I was there:
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njski
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Location:St. John USVI

Posted: Jun 01, 2012 - 9:19 PM GMT

I always remember hitting high speeds on a combo of trails at Sugarbush North/Mount Ellen off the North Ridge Chair

watatic rox
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Posted: Jun 01, 2012 - 9:37 PM GMT

Edited: Jun 01, 2012 - 9:39 PM GMT

I would imagine somewhere around 40-50 miles an hour. Night skiing at Sunday River can get a bit boring

One of my favorite speed runs is probably Ecstasy to Sunday Punch at SR later in the day. By then a lot of people have cleared out and you can get going pretty fast. The amount of traffic the trails get usually leaves them just as flat as when they were groomed by the afternoon as opposed to bumpy and messy like other trails.

newman
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Location:The mighty SKI WARD Shrewsbury MA

Posted: Jun 02, 2012 - 3:11 AM GMT

Cloudspin or Skyward at WF will get you there. Just be careful.

skizilla
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Posted: Jun 02, 2012 - 3:05 PM GMT

65 mph according to my phone gps. I did this at cannon on what i think is avalanche it is supposely the lower part of the rrace course. it was wide steep groomed immacualtely and the bottom had lots of space to dump speed. I am sure i could hit 70 without the bulky clothes and skis even vaguly designed for it. 65 did feel fast but i routinely ski 45 to 50 according to my gps

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jimk
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Posted: Jun 02, 2012 - 5:13 PM GMT

Edited: Jun 02, 2012 - 5:17 PM GMT

Quote:

I would imagine somewhere around 40-50 miles an hour. Night skiing at Sunday River can get a bit boring

I'm so low tech I've still to acquire a cell phone. Never bought a GPS either. Although my wife will operate one in the car when my innate masculine sense of direction periodically fails.

Made first visit to Sunday River in Mar 2012. I could appreciate that there are a lot of groomers there suitable for high speed runs even by a turny guy like myself.
I think first pic is Ecstacy or Risky Business and the second is Black Hole:
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downdraft's last tree
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Posted: Jun 02, 2012 - 7:11 PM GMT

Nose Dive at Stowe - you have to catch it at the right time - early morning I'd say, on an uncrowded day. The trick is that it doesn't look steep after you come out of the top turns, but there is enormous vertical there, it's quite wide, and you can really get cooking without realizing how fast you're going. The net of this is that you feel no need to rub off any speed. There's no feeling of acceleration at all - you move at this constant high rate of speed......and then you try to stop and it takes two turns to allow that.

I caught it on a perfect mid April day about 20 yrs ago, groomed to perfection, slightly overcast so the corn did not go to slush for 2-3hrs.....I've never carved arcs (on old straights mind you) and gone so fast - ever.

oldsnowboarderme
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Posted: Jun 02, 2012 - 7:18 PM GMT

10 mph I guess .. I am old and slow

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bobbutts
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Posted: Jun 03, 2012 - 5:04 PM GMT

I've slowed considerably as I've grown older and more risk-averse. None of my personal speed records will be quantified I'm afraid.

jaytrem
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Posted: Jun 04, 2012 - 12:32 AM GMT

Hmmm, not sure my record speed on snow would be on skis or on a snowmobile. Pretty sure the fastest on skis would be Ripcord at Mount Snow, it was probably the first time they ever groomed it with the winch cat, and an empty weekday. One friend tucked all the way from the entrance. Would love to know what the speeds were that day. No way I'd want to go that fast these days.

obienick
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Posted: Jun 04, 2012 - 4:43 PM GMT

Edited: Jun 04, 2012 - 4:50 PM GMT

Not to burst anybody's bubbles or rain on anyone's parade, but GPS instantaneous speeds are notoriously inaccurate because they calculate the slope (speed) over a short time span. The error of any one GPS waypoint by standard civil GPS's can easily be 20 meters (60 feet), and this error is amplified by short measurement intervals. To improve accuracy, you need to be in one place not moving (where you can get down to about 3 meters or 10 feet), and to further improve accuracy you need a dGPS (Differential GPS) system, where if you are close enough to a base station you can easily get to error down to 10 centimeters (4 inches).

That said, I have brought my GPS watch skiing on one occasion and I seem to recall it topping out at 37 mph on one trail I think. It was a fairly mellow blue. I forget if I had it on for steeper runs or if I even looked at my watch at the bottom of other trails.

It is well documented through several studies that the average GOOD skier skis at around 25 mph. Other ski forums have talked about speed a lot. Unfortunately everyone brags that they are going 50+ mph down an open groomed trail with fellow civilians. This is just like weekend warrior golfers bragging about hitting a 275+ yard drives when they really struggle to get 225 yards.

I am a faster skier, but when I hit 37 mph I was literally flying. I wasn't bombing the hill in a tuck, but I was doing the best I could, all SG turns carved. I had brand-new wax for the conditions and the trail was empty. I can't imagine people going faster at any other time.

Also, if I'm correct, ski helmets are only rated to around 30 mph.

spk27alumni
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Posted: Jun 04, 2012 - 5:56 PM GMT

Back in the days of my prime (the '80s), a benefit to being on Patrol was the time on the hill before the public could load the lifts. With the hill freshly groomed, and nobody out there, it was often a perfect time for a WFO run. (WFO stood for Wide F...ing Out)
Our favorite, and fastest, at Hunter was the combo of Hellgate, Broadway and Kennedy...hence a WFO down HBK! We would hold a tuck from the top, standing briefly before the right footer down Hellgate. It would be tuck again until right before the knoll starting down Broadway. Approaching that knoll at speed was downright scary, so that was the reason for the air braking stand up from the tuck. After the knoll at the top of Broadway, it was time to hold the tuck all the way down Kennedy to the bottom.
I had the opportunity to get a top speed reading of 65 MPH from a strap on Pitot Tube type device we were sharing one morning. It was a dead calm day, and I was on my 210 cm GS Skis that day, but I don't know how accurate those devices were.
I sure would like to know how fast I was going, when doing the same run, on those occasions when I was on the 225 cm Downhills!

oldsnowboarderme
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Posted: Jun 05, 2012 - 12:35 PM GMT

Quote:

Also, if I'm correct, ski helmets are only rated to around 30 mph.

I believe it is 15 mph, but it makes the clean up a whole easier with a helmet on..

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bobbutts
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Posted: Jun 05, 2012 - 3:19 PM GMT

Testing with a few different android phone in the car, the speed is reported within 1-2 mph compared to the vehicle's speedometer very consistently. I don't think lack of accuracy is as big an issue as obienick makes it out to be. Not sure what to make of this:

Quote:

I can't imagine people going faster at any other time.

Speed skiers exceed 150mph so just because 37 feels fast to someone, doesn't make faster speeds unimaginable.

NJSkiBabe
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Location:Great Gorge South, New Jersey

Posted: Jun 06, 2012 - 7:12 PM GMT

Top speed for me is 49 miles an hour. Clocked by an official speed gun!

Skileader
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Location:Long Island N.Y.

Posted: Jun 07, 2012 - 7:37 AM GMT

Some of my favorites are:
Hunter HBK, Belt (midweek), Belt to Wayout.
Belle. Dot Nebel
W/F ( you better be damn good, or lucky to bomb Cloudspin) Parkway., Excellisor, Broadway to Boreen, Lower Northway, & Wilmington.
Gore Twister, Showcase, Echo, Sagamore.

Dont have a timing device but in my younger days regularly did belt in under 3 min. I'm told it's close to 2 miles.

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