Towering over the looker's left side of the KT-22 lift—a Palisades Tahoe classic—stands McConkey's (previously known as Eagle's Nest—Palisades changed the name in honor of the late, great Shane McConkey), an imposing, near-vertical face that's functioned as a big mountain test piece for years and years.
The zone's weighty reputation is well-deserved. Popularized by the likes of—you guessed it—Shane McConkey, McConkey's functions like a no-fall-zone-lite. Bailing doesn't guarantee a season-ending injury. However, a trip to the hospital certainly isn't out of the question in the case of a crash on McConkey's, thanks to a rapid compression and smattering of rocks in the exit area.
Against this legendarily fearsome backdrop, professional skier Trevor Semmens had everything go wrong but still managed to ski away unscathed earlier this winter. Check out his harrowing crash in the embedded video below. Tap/click to play.
Semmens' ill-fated McConkey's bid took place this past February when he was coaching the Olympic Valley Freestyle Team along with local legend Noah Gaffney. The pair noticed that no one had skied McConkey's that day, so during their lunch break, they headed to the top of the line on what Semmens calls a "whim."
Most of Palisades was skiing well, but the snow on McConkey's—as you might've noticed in Semmens' video—wasn't great. Still, he and Gaffney forged ahead, each selecting their own lines. Gaffney dropped first.
After finishing his run, Gaffney called up to Semmens, saying the snow in the landing and the runout was "complete garbage." Semmens, who initially planned to take it fall-line, recalibrated, choosing a new angle of descent that involved less air time.
As Semmens sped towards the first air of his line, his left ski got caught up in a patch of wind crust, yanking it backward. He was left standing on one ski with the lower air of McConkey's rapidly approaching. To avoid getting hung up in a patch of rocks, Semmens mustered as much strength as he could and leaped forward into the air.
I'll let Semmens tell the rest of the tale. A portion of his and my email conversation follows.
Trevor Semmens Q&A
The average person will never ski terrain with such high consequence. Can you try to capture what it feels like to go head over heels down McConkey's? What was going through your mind the moment you knew things went wrong?
"Going head over heels on [McConkey's] is a full "ohh f*ck" moment. It's one of those lines you really don't want to mess up while you're on the face. There's a lot of sharp rocks on the face and then a group of big trees below, so you really want to do everything in your power to make it down clean, or else bad things can happen. The moment I started going head over heels all I was thinking was to do anything I could to not land on my head or back on the actual rocks of the exit air."
Speaking of which, what do you think went wrong with this line?
"So before I dropped into this line, I was planning on taking it more fall line coming out, but Noah had dropped before me and relayed that the landing and especially the runout were complete garbage. Knowing that, I tried to take the middle air more crosscourt to make it to the smaller and smoother part of the exit air. When I hit the lip of that middle air, my left foot got a little bucked and ended up landing pretty high on the face compared to my right leg. As I said earlier, there was a weird wind crust in spots.
My left ski went under the wind crust, which caused it to be thrown behind my head. At this point, I was on one foot, leaning pretty far forward. The only thing I could do was pop forward off my right leg as hard as I could and hope I clear the rocks at the bottom. Luckily, I was able to send myself into an accidental Screamin' Seaman front flip and clear the rocks to safety!"
In the caption to your post, you mentioned that you didn't suffer any serious injuries during this crash. Were you at least sore in the morning?
"As I was fortunate enough to clear the rocks, I ended up having no injuries other than a little bit of whiplash. But given the circumstances, that's as good of an outcome as one could ask for. I actually decided I needed some redemption from the crash and skied the middle knuckle of the fingers on my way to the chair, which went a whole lot smoother."
What can POWDER readers expect from you in the future?
"You guys can look out for me being featured in multiple Salomon projects coming out this fall. I will be in the Blank Collective Films movie along with a project with Josh Daiek about skiing in the Caldor Burn Zone. Both really cool projects. Also you can find me ripping the Tahoe Backcountry or Palisades Tahoe resort the rest of this year and for all years to come!"
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