Thrill ride down ski slope inside zorb ends in death when giant plastic ball flies off course

Lynn Berry
The Associated Press 

MOSCOW—What was supposed to be a thrilling ride down a ski slope inside a giant inflatable ball ended in tragedy for the two Russian men inside.

The transparent plastic ball — called a zorb — veered off course and sailed over a precipice in the rugged Caucasus Mountains of southern Russia. One man died and the other was badly injured. The terrifying ride was captured on video.

The man who died, 27-year-old Denis Burakov, was with friends at the Dombai ski resort, where they frequently went snowboarding, on Jan. 3 when he decided to take a ride in a zorb being operated next to a beginners’ slope. His friend Vladimir Shcherbakov joined him.

An eight-minute video taken on Burakov’s phone by one of his friends shows the two men being fitted into harnesses inside the zorb, which consists of two polyurethane balls with a layer of air between them. The zorb is then released to roll down the hill, the two men spinning inside.

But the zorb bounces off the intended path, and a man waiting for it at the bottom of the hill tries in vain to catch the ball before it pops over a rocky ledge and disappears down a gorge below Mount Mussa-Achitara.

The Emergencies Ministry said both men were ejected from the zorb as it tumbled and they landed on the snow about 10 metres apart. They were rescued by two skiers, who then pulled both men up to the top of the hill. Burakov suffered serious spinal injuries and died on the way to the hospital. Shcherbakov suffered a concussion and other injuries and remains hospitalized.

The accident prompted the emergencies minister to demand on Wednesday that Russia address its lax enforcement of safety rules for winter sports, citing a series of accidents over the January holidays. Vladimir Puchkov said during a televised meeting with officials in charge of rescue services across the country that they should take extra measures to ensure safety, in particular at Russia’s ski slopes.

Sergei Loginov, deputy director of Z-orb.ru, the largest supplier of zorbs in Russia, said the zorbing run that killed Burakov was conducted in violation of all safety rules. Zorbing requires a groomed gentle slope with fences on both sides of the track and a secure spot at the bottom where the ball can be safely brought to rest, he said, but none of this was present at Dombai.

“It’s not even irresponsibility. It’s an experiment on life,” Loginov said. “It’s all or nothing. They either survive or they don’t.”

The sport of zorbing originated in the 1990s in New Zealand and is now done around the world, most often on grassy slopes.

mon fo� l c �x� �΢ t the finger of blame in sex crime cases at women’s clothing, or the fact that they worked alongside men.

Such views are not unique to India but they point to growing discomfort among some conservatives about a perceived erosion of traditional values in fast-changing cities where Western ways are gaining popularity.

President Pranab Mukherjee’s son described women who protested against violence in New Delhi’s streets in the days after the rape as “dented and painted.” He said the protests had “very little connection with ground reality.”

New Delhi and other cities have seen a considerable crumbling of caste and gender barriers over the past decade, creating more opportunities for social mobility and a more open culture with women playing a larger role.

But just a few kilometres from the capital, village councils with the power to set local laws made headlines last year by banning women from using mobile phones and wearing jeans.

A global poll of experts last year by TrustLaw, a legal news service run by the Thomson Reuters Foundation, showed India to be the worst place among G20 countries to be a woman.

Activists say most sex crimes in India go unreported, and official data show that almost all go unpunished. Reported rape cases rose nearly 17 per cent between 2007 and 2011.

In many ways, the rape victim represented the new India.

Her family moved to New Delhi from rural Uttar Pradesh state when she was small. Her parents encouraged her to study and she worked in a call centre for a U.S. company to fund her education.

“How will they progress without freedom? They should study well and progress in life,” the victim’s father told Reuters when asked in a telephone interview if he regretted giving his children the opportunity to work and study.

The case ignited fierce protests against the government and police for their perceived failure to protect women from violence.

The leader of a Hindu nationalist organization that wields influence over the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party said that gang rape and sex crimes need to be punished harshly but they were a problem in urban India, not in Bharat.

Bharat is the Sanskrit name for the Indian subcontinent, often used as shorthand for the Hindu heartland. The name India is seen by some as a relic of British rule representing Western influence.

“This is happening in India and it’s increasing and very dangerous. But such things don’t happen in Bharat,” Mohan Bhagwat, leader of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, said on Friday.

“Where there’s no India, but only Bharat, you should go and check, this doesn’t happen,” he told supporters.

His opinions clash with the facts. The National Commission for Women has documented a pattern of gang rape and sexual humiliation of lower caste women in rural India.

Bhaskara Rao, who heads a New Delhi-based policy think tank, said Bhagwat’s comments reflected a society in transition.

“The people who are there in the police, judiciary, politics, they are old minds trying to deal with new problems,” Rao said.

Women politicians such as West Bengal state Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee have also invited controversy with their comments about rape. Last year, Banerjee said rape cases were on the rise because men and women were interacting more frequently.

And in 2011, Delhi state Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit told a television channel that the city was still too conservative for women to travel on the street late at night.

“All by herself till 3 a.m. at night in a city where people believe ... you know ... you should not be so adventurous,” she said after a television journalist, Soumya Viswanathan, was shot dead as she drove home from work in the early hours.