Sledding and alcohol?

[sledderdoc]

I know I will open a can of worms with this one BUT I read something disturbing yesterday regarding alcohol. I realize everyone is entidaled to their own opinion and I totally respect that.
HOWEVER someone said that if they came across a badly injured sledder and smelled alcohol on there breath that they would not help them and leave.

I would never do that because its the unwritten code that you always help your fellow rider!!!

Do I drink .... yes I always pack a few along but save them for after lunch when the my tough riding is done.(sometimes lunch is at 2) Look in the parking lot and you'll see that 75% - 90% of riders are the same! Its part of the sport regardless of what you may think. I think we just need to be responsible with some general guidelines as follows;

Know your limits and stay within them
If you have some beers save them until you are finished highmarking and your out of the challenging riding (ie back at the cabin or parking lot)
NEVER LEAVE YOUR WINGMAN!
ALWAYS HELP SOMEONE IN NEED!
DON"T STEAL STUFF
Your responsible for the guy behind you make sure you turn around often.
Take an av course and check condtions before you ride.
I could go on forever but you get the idea

and to the fellow that wrote that stuff know this.... I don't even know you and I would still risk my life to save you if you were in trouble because thats what sledders do! nuf said be safe

PS. remember no matter where you are there will always be numbnuts who abuse everything, they just need to educated but still deserve your help.

 

[Cameo]

Very well put. I rarely brink beer when quadding, cant afford sledding. but the same rules apply.
Know your limits
If you hauled it in, you can haul it out, empty cans take up less room.
Help your fellow riders, it could just as easily been you.
And girls look good in mud and helmet hair!

 

[RETODD]

HOWEVER someone said that if they came across a badly injured sledder and smelled alcohol on there breath that they would not help them and leave.

My Quote from the post mentioned above:

Answer me this CR500R…you get ‘hurt badly’ sleddin, you are alone, I come across you, I’ve had X (you pick the number) beer…do you want my help?

 

[KORE]

Come on, if you're alone you'll take any help. I cant imagine somebody leaving someone hurt and alone drunk or not.

 

[Hillclimber]

I agree with that help any one out yes there in the wrong for riding drunk but be the guy they can thank.

 

[weldor]

I would never do that because its the unwritten code that you always help your fellow rider!!!

I can honestly say it depends on the situation. If somebody is hurt or in trouble and it doesn't matter if they are stone sober or fallen down drunk if they are in a situation that may put me or my riding buddies in danger than no I may not run over and help them. I would however do everything in my power to get the help they need. There is a certain calculated risk we all take every time we strap on our helmet, so a guy would have to look and made a judgement call at the situation. Don't think I would just ride away and continue on with my day like nothing happened at all, I would do everything I can to get the help they need.

 

[sledrocs]

no matter what i woulnt ever leave a sledder on the mtn drunk dead or alive unless u want to be he might be the last person he sees before its all over but in another case if i came across a guy in the ditch in a vehical drunk id finish him off just the fact my parents where killed buy a drunk when i was 5 months old and my sister was kill at age 22 when i was 13 so depends on the situation but i will say i will have a few on the mtn while ride ,cheers lets have a safe ride

 

[snochro]

drink resposibly.

 

[my mod]

I think that anyone leaving someone that is hurt, drunk or not, has questionable morals. I do not think we can undoubtedly declare anyone drunk without more information or tests. It is not up to us to decide who lives or dies, and unless there is danger and risk to the rescuer, anyone and everyone injured deserves help. If there is a risk, at least call for the correct help required. There is serious charges and fines if this would happen with a vehicle.
how would you feel if you or someone you know was hurt and people abandoned them because they felt you or your injured friend was drunk even though they were not.

 

[Senshi]

Do everyone a favour and save the goofy juice 'till the sleds and vehicles are put away for the day! It's fine to know your limits, but ask yourself this: would you get into an airplane if you knew the pilot had a couple recreational cocktails but knew his limits? I doubt it. Ride sober, ride safe! As for leaving someone behind, c'mon. Leave their ride but get them out. The cost of retrieving the machine over and above the healing and rehab is punishment enough; no one desrves to die for it.
Senshi

 

[sledrocs]

ill go to jail for leaving a fu***in drunk in an accident if i new for sure hes pissed u not read i dont have time for nonsence u decide to drink and drive on the road hope im not the only one to save u cuz im not 15 people in my fam have been killed by drunk drivers hang then dont give the a dui i speak for experiance i know the hearteak, sorry for the way i feel ride safe drive safe play safe u no??????

 

[mudboy]

My Quote from the post mentioned above:

Answer me this CR500R…you get ‘hurt badly’ sleddin, you are alone, I come across you, I’ve had X (you pick the number) beer…do you want my help?

Guess I could offer you another to help me :d

 

[Dragon 8]

Welll said!!

 

[RETODD]

Guess I could offer you another to help me :d

I'd take it...give you half...and we'd both get out safe!!

All joking aside, I'd NEVER (and I know I talk for my group) leave a fellow sledder, quadder, skier, hiker, driver, golfer, camper, fisherman, boater or hunter to die just because there was 'alcohol' on his or her breath. PERIOD.

 

[Powertool29]

I ride my sled with the same rule while driving my truck. If you are caught with open liquor while driving your vehicle you can be charged. A couple of beers in your napsack with an empty or two also gives the impression that you are going to drink them while riding. Therefore I apply the same rule that I am required to follow in my vehicle while riding my sled (to me there is no difference). The people who drink while riding their sleds are probably drinking while driving their vehicles(whats the difference). Don't get me wrong, I do like to drink and sometime's excessivly regretting it the next day. I just know where the time and place is. I value the ability to drive a vehicle to get from A to B (because its not a right but a privilage) and have a zero tollerance with drinking while driving anything, even my lawnmower. I would prefer to drive than to walk. But I would still stop and help someone in trouble to the best of my ability without bringing myself into danger.
(personally I think that people drink while riding their sleds or any other type of recreational vehicle is because it is not policed and they can get away with it and feel they are within their tollerance zone. It has been proven that more than 75% of people tested that feel they are within the legal limits blew over the limit. While driving their vehicles there is the chance of running into a check stop and loosing their licence and fined. The reason for making drinking and driving a criminal offence is because it posses the ability to harm yourself or someone else?? whats the difference being on a sled ??
which brings us back to the discussion about helping someone in need...
Just my two cents !!
Bash Away !!

 

[CR500R]

In the past, I've come across idiots out sledding, the 2 that stick out the most in my mind were in Valemount one in Clemina, on the trail down at the end of the day, we were playing in a cutblock catching air, this moron comes flying down the trail right below us catches the ditch, launches big time,and crashes on the trail. We went down to see if he was OK, there were a few empties laying on the trail that had come out of his trunk and bag and he could barely stand up. Said his "buddies" were already down waiting for him at the P/lot. Before we could do or say anything he was back on his sled and off again. Can't say what happenned to him, because I don't know. Second time was in Allen, headed back to the cabin , got to the narrow little trail behind the hillclimb thru the creek at the avy zone, found this other idiot laying on the trail crashed. He broke his collar bone and his "buddies" were no where to be found. We fixed him up, I doubled him up to the top of the trail to find his "buds" all sitting at the bottom of the back of the hillclimb, you guessed it, drinking away. They took it from there.

I'll tell you this much,since those days I've seen first hand the devastation caused by drinking and driving/ riding. I run a heavy wrecker and have been to many accidents involving alcohol, and more often than not the drunk survives and the innocent are dead. Lots of studies have been done on the subject, alcohol starts to double the effect at elevations over 5000', so 1 is 2, 2 is 4, etc. It takes 3 hours for the body to dissolve one ounce of alcohol.
I could go on but why. When you have had to lift a semi trailer off a car so the ems crews can extracate the body of a 17 yr old girl and her drunk boyfriend is alive in the hospital, unscathed other than some scratches, or had to lift a cement truck off a unidentifable car so the other tow truck can drag it up onto the deck with the bodies of 3 innocent toddlers and their father still wedge inside so bad that it has to go the coroners to be cut out, and the truck driver is unscathed and unaware of what he's done, you too might have the same opinion.
As far as helping someone out in the back country, I'll be the first to help, ask anyone who knows, and if your hurt and don't smell of booze you have nothing to worry, I'll help until my help isn't needed, but if you smell of booze, like it or not, I couldn't care less, you best hope there are others there that are a little more compassionate than I, because you deserve what you get, plain and simple!!
Flame on!!

 

[catmando]

Emotionally Right...................Morally Wrong!
catmando!

 

[Powertool29]

I'll be the first to help, ask anyone who knows, and if your hurt and don't smell of booze you have nothing to worry, I'll help until my help isn't needed, but if you smell of booze, like it or not, I couldn't care less, you best hope there are others there that are a little more compassionate than I, because you deserve what you get, plain and simple!!
Flame on!!

I agree with everythig except not helping someone in need.
Even if they are stupid or not.
I treat thy neighbor the way I would want to be treated !!

 

[RETODD]

In the past, I've come across idiots out sledding, the 2 that stick out the most in my mind were in Valemount one in Clemina, on the trail down at the end of the day, we were playing in a cutblock catching air, this moron comes flying down the trail right below us catches the ditch, launches big time,and crashes on the trail. We went down to see if he was OK, there were a few empties laying on the trail that had come out of his trunk and bag and he could barely stand up. Said his "buddies" were already down waiting for him at the P/lot. Before we could do or say anything he was back on his sled and off again. Can't say what happenned to him, because I don't know. Second time was in Allen, headed back to the cabin , got to the narrow little trail behind the hillclimb thru the creek at the avy zone, found this other idiot laying on the trail crashed. He broke his collar bone and his "buddies" were no where to be found. We fixed him up, I doubled him up to the top of the trail to find his "buds" all sitting at the bottom of the back of the hillclimb, you guessed it, drinking away. They took it from there.

I'll tell you this much,since those days I've seen first hand the devastation caused by drinking and driving/ riding. I run a heavy wrecker and have been to many accidents involving alcohol, and more often than not the drunk survives and the innocent are dead. Lots of studies have been done on the subject, alcohol starts to double the effect at elevations over 5000', so 1 is 2, 2 is 4, etc. It takes 3 hours for the body to dissolve one ounce of alcohol.
I could go on but why. When you have had to lift a semi trailer off a car so the ems crews can extracate the body of a 17 yr old girl and her drunk boyfriend is alive in the hospital, unscathed other than some scratches, or had to lift a cement truck off a unidentifable car so the other tow truck can drag it up onto the deck with the bodies of 3 innocent toddlers and their father still wedge inside so bad that it has to go the coroners to be cut out, and the truck driver is unscathed and unaware of what he's done, you too might have the same opinion.
As far as helping someone out in the back country, I'll be the first to help, ask anyone who knows, and if your hurt and don't smell of booze you have nothing to worry, I'll help until my help isn't needed, but if you smell of booze, like it or not, I couldn't care less, you best hope there are others there that are a little more compassionate than I, because you deserve what you get, plain and simple!!
Flame on!!

There seems to be a little contradiction here…above you talked about “finding this idiot lying on the trail with a broken collarbone and helping him get back to his drinking buddies”…so you do help folks whom have had a couple?

Cause I find it highly unlikely that collarbone boy was an angelic member of a cast of drinkers.

Yet you go on to say that “if you smell of booze, like it or not, I couldn't care less”.

I do not condone getting pie-eyed and driving anything but the line you supposedly draw in the sand is a bit bothersome.

No flame….just discussion.

 

[fargineyesore]

CR500, don't act as if you're the only person that has been affected by drunk drivers, because you are not!! And furthermore, you have no business telling me or others how much beer they can handle. I've ridden with many people, and yes they have some beers. Not one of them was pissed drunk, or even close, but according to you, they weren't in any shape to ride. I've never been drunk while riding. Just because some people abuse it doesn't mean all do.

There are many stupid riders out there that are stone cold sober. Are you going to apply the same logic to them, if they do something stupid in your eyes, you're not going to help them? You're a real hero!