I posted that story in the ‘stupid MFers’ thread. 
It’s likely the highway cuts across a slope, and the landing area probably sloped down from the road (not flat), with snow piled-up from plowing on each side. A ramp would have still been needed, and people do build-up snow ramps in order to do tricks.
Thanks – now I can see how the kid thought he might survive.
(I was going to say “Ignorance fought,” but in this case it’s too late. 
)
Competitive downhill ski racers like Lindsey Vonn have average speeds in the range of 60-70 mph, and top speeds of 85+ mph. If they skid out on a turn, they are going so fast they can easily get hurt.
On the other hand, a recreational skier like me has average speeds in the 20-30 mph range, and my typical top speed is in the range of 30-40 mph. That’s if I’m trying to go fast on a trail conducive to this (i.e. groomed packed powder). If I’m dealing with bumps or deep snow, I’m going much slower (like 10-15 mph).
I also don’t do jumps and stay away from trees. It’s still possible to get hurt, like the fluke injury I had last year, but recreational skiing is no more dangerous than riding a bicycle.
You’re talking about me, aren’t you?
I’m going today. You can catch me on the East Peak cam, waving to my friend.
People immediately start whining for a Go Fund Me ? The kid was an idiot adrenaline junkie. No sympathy from me.
God yes. How any of us survived is at times a mystery to me.
I’ve seen a heck of a lot more folks with skiing injuries than cycling injuries. Though granted, most of them were college students, so they might have been doing stupid things.
As a recreational skier and a cyclist, I would say that the two activities are fairly similar in terms of risk of injury, although you certainly have to consider that both activities have a wide range of danger. Riding on a bicycle includes low-speed tooling around a neighborhood, high-speed road biking (with the added danger of vehicular traffic), and mountain biking. Recreational skiing includes low-speed easy runs on a green trail, to high-speed runs on a steep black diamond trail, along with variable snow conditions like soft spring snow, deep snow, and moguls.
In both cases though (skiing and cycling), the speeds are about the same, though if one falls on a bicycle while riding on pavement, injury is quite likely. With skiing, it’s more of the luck of the draw as to the type of fall, type of surface (i.e. hard pack or soft snow), and whether one’s ski binding releases or not.
I will confess that I personally have been hurt more on skis than riding a bike, but the level of skiing I do is also more intense than the cycling I do.
On this note, I will add that counterintuitively, sometimes slow speed (or even no-speed) falls can cause more injury than a high-speed fall because the forces in the slower fall are insufficient to cause the ski bindings to release, which makes it more likely to end up with a knee injury, for example.
Returning to the Darwin Award winner of the OP, I guess this is what happens when someone gets bored doing tricks at the resort terrain park and has seen too many Warren Miller movies or insane ski runs like this (along with its two sequels) or this on YouTube.
I dunno. I’m a recreational biker and skier. Tho I definitely bike more than I ski.
Depending on where you bike, there is the risk of being hit by a car. But, if you aren’t mountain-biking or something, and aren’t biking at really high speeds or in really crowded situations, to hurt yourself you pretty much have to fall off your bike. Sure, you might hit a pothole, some loose gravel or wet leaves, but remaining upright on a bike is not all that challenging once you figure it out. Moreover, unless you are going down hill, as soon as you stop pedalling, you start slowing down. Press the brakes, and you slow even more.
Now skiing, you have to learn not only how to stay upright, how to turn, and how to stop. Even if you are going down a nice easy green, you might have someone fall down right behind you, or someone whiz past you at a pretty high speed. If you aren’t paying attention, it can e relatively easy to start going faster than you are comfortable, maybe even ending up on too steep of a slope. Heck, you could even ski off the side of a mountain.
Now should you fall, the advantage may shift to the skier. The easiest/fastest way to stop is to basically lie down. My guess is that more people get injured by trying to avoid falling, than by just landing on their ass/side.
Fall off your bike, and you are leaving skin on the pavement.
It is probably that I am a much more experience biker than skier, but I always feel there is more of a danger of injury when skiing than when biking.
If it was to the south of Winter Park, that topography is very steep and the road very winding. But if so, was his goal then to stop at the Fraser River?
Disagree with this. I would much rather take a fall while skiing than biking - any fall for that matter. A high speed fall on skis means you are going to slide for a bit, and your outerwear is going to protect you pretty well. On a bike you have way less protection and the surface you will be contacting will be much harder and more abrasive at any speed, as our Darwin Award winner in the OP has illustrated with his interaction with pavement (had he landed on snow he probably would have survived).
Yeah - I agree. Sorry if I was unclear. I fall often when skiing. It is EXTREMELY unusual for me to fall when biking. If I DO fall, I fully agree, sliding along snow is more pleasant than eating gravel.
So, considering everything, I thought that given the greater number of falls on the slopes - in addition to the additional factors of downhill speed, other skiers, trees…, that the likelihood of skiing injury was more likely.
The difference between skiing and biking is that bikes have brakes. You don’t hear much about out-of-control cyclists.
Actually you do, but it’s usually car drivers whining about cyclists out-of-control behavior, not cyclists crashing for failure to maintain control of their bike.
Now whether such whining is justified is not a question I’m qualified to answer.
The summer that I first got clipless pedals, I managed to fall three times. I was coming to a stop, unclipped my left foot, but was leaning to the right when I stopped. Ouch. Just when the scrape on my knee was almost healed, I’d fall again. Once I got used to them, I was fine.
You’re mostly right, though. Once you get the hang of it, falls are very rare.
(“Clipless pedals” always struck me as a misnomer. They have a cleat on the bottom of the shoe that clips into the pedal. They don’t have the little cage that wraps around your toe and holds your foot in place.)
I suggest that by discussing clipped/clipless pedals, you are placing yourself pretty much in the top echelon of folk who periodically/regularly ride bikes. I’ve never owned them (or biking shoes) myself. So - I dunno. Between bikers with clip/-less pedals and skiers who enjoy black diamonds, who falls/injres themselves more?
Is there a bicycle version of Sonny Bono?
You think so? I’m not really the carbon-fiber-frame-and-titanium-seat-rails type of rider.
I thought clipless pedals were fairly common, but now I’ll keep an eye out and see how many other cyclists I see with them.