Orb accident at Russian ski resort results in death
One man was killed and another seriously injured in a zorbing accident at Dombai, a Russian ski resort. The incident was caught on video.
Two men entered a giant inflated rubber ball and were bounced down a ski run. In theory, some spotters at the bottom were supposed to keep the orb from bouncing down the cliffs on either side of the run.
When you see the size of the orb, as well as the nature of the drop-off, it's pretty easy to see what can go wrong, and that's exactly what happens. The orb, rolling irregularly with two people inside, careens off the path and down a cliff, hitting several jutting rocks on the way.
A man identified as 27-year-old Denis Burakov died from a broken neck, while his companion Vladimir Shcherbov, 33, was hospitalized and later released with a concussion and multiple lacerations. Burakov was a father of two.
According to emerging news reports, the orb came to rest on a frozen lake around a kilometer (0.6 miles) a way. A discussion thread on Reddit lays out just how horrible a way to die this would be. It's hard to imagine a different result, when you take into account how heavy the rolling orb would be, how fast it would be moving, and how difficult it would be to grab and control on a snowy surface.
The video seen here has been associated with the mishap, but it should be pointed out that the footage has not been verified: the presence of an edit tends to raise eyebrows these days.
The Dombai ski resort is located along Russia's border with Georgia (map).
