The cold wind whipped across my face leaving its bright red mark behind. I shuddered at the cold and gripped my ski poles tighter with my frozen hands as I willed the ski lift to move faster than its current slow crawl. I looked to my right to see my older brother and dad hunched over trying to conserve their own warmth. For what felt like the fifty millionth time I chastised myself for agreeing to attempt the run ahead. I peered through the fog at the run that fell below. With my bird’s eye view, I could see the sharp moguls carved into the ice. At 11 years old I was decent at skiing but this run was far beyond my ability. When my dad first suggested going on the lift with the sign “Experts Only” in front of it, I was skeptical but did not want to back down from the challenge. So here I was, sitting on the lift, terrified of what was to come.
As I exited the lift I could feel the eyes of everyone boring into my head. I could hear the questions running through their heads, “This girl is so young, how can she
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Well I swear that it happened to me in that moment. The split second that I was in the air felt like it was going to last forever. Finally, my skis slapped the cold, unforgiving ice causing the moment of reflection to come to a close. To my utter astonishment and disbelief I stayed upright and was moving forward! My celebration, however, was quickly shattered as I hit a small bump. My weight was too far backward so when I hit the bump my balance was thrown off and my shoulder slammed into the snow below. The iciness, and steepness of the hill caused me to continue sliding uncontrollably. Another bump caused me to flip over and start to cartwheel down. With each thud my skis flew off, then each of my poles. In the moment it felt like I was on a rollercoaster, flipping and soaring through the air. Finally, about 200 yards from the top of the hill I came to a halting
The freezing wind had chilled my hand to the bone. Even as I walked into my cabin, I shivered as if there was an invisible man shaking me. My ears, fingers, toes, and noes had turned into a pale purple, only starting to change color once I had made a fire and bundled myself in blankets like ancient Egyptians would do to their deceased Pharaohs. The once powdered snow on my head had solidified into a thin layer of ice. I changed out of the soaking wet clothes I was wearing and put on new dry ones. With each layer I became more excited to go out and start snowboarding. I headed for the lift with my board and my hand. Each step was a struggle with the thick suit of snow gear I was armored in.
To do this, she paid close attention to the things in front her, such as all of the skiers zooming and gliding past the trees, which now began to look like ants from above. Sally thought, “This is easy, all I have to do is look straight ahead.” As time progressed, they got closer to the end of the ride. Since Sally felt comfortable with being on the ski lift now, she built the courage to look down to the ground that was now around 200 ft below her. She looked down and she saw a group of skiers looking up and pointing at the ski lift. Sally was confused, and wondering what she was missing out on. She looked back up and noticed that the ride had stopped! In an instant, this comfortable state vanished, as this was the exact reason why she was afraid of ski lifts. Little did she know that this was not a malfunction; the technician that heard the previous conversation stopped the ride on purpose, in order to scare her. The technician’s plan was not a secret, though, as there were cameras right near the controls, so anyone who checked the recorded footage could see it. This event was about to get a whole lot worse for Sally, her parents, and the
The ground moved farther away from me as I went higher up. I nervously swung my legs back and forth and placed my ski poles next to me. When I looked down, everyone looked like itsy-bitsy specks in the vast, white snow. Whoa…, I thought to myself, the sight made me feel disoriented. As I went up the lift shuddered, shook, and occasionally swung side to side which made me feel jitterish. I couldn’t believe I was doing this though, but there was no going back now. After a few minutes, or what felt like hours, I could see the end of the ski lift coming closer. I prepared myself by getting ready to stand up by grabbing my poles and tensing my legs. There was a bright red line printed on the snow a few feet ahead and when I reached the line, I quickly stood up and got off. “Phew, at least half the journey’s done”, I thought to
That thing was probably the most horrible thing I have ever seen. I have never been in contact with such a space consuming thing. It moved with a lack of elegance and fluidity. Snowboarders are probably the most annoying people on the earth. Don’t we have enough board related sports? Who had even invented the art of snowboarding? I had first learned to ski at the age of six, and had never even thought of learning how to snowboard. I was even annoyed at other snowboarder’s presence on the slopes and their laid back way of life. All I knew was skiing, and I loved it. When I asked my family what they thought about my skiing they said that I had a certain unique touch to it. Ever since I had learned how to ski, I had just wanted to get better and I was
I rush toward the mechanical clanking and rattling of the ski lift and collapse into the chair. Exhausted, I use this time to restore my energy. I begin to form the image of the steep route that I plan to attempt on my next run. Its nearly vertical face, large jagged rocks, and rough terrain send shivers down my spine and adrenaline into my veins. I painfully recall my previous attempt, where I did not perform the necessary technique in order to survive the run without a crash. This time,
BOOM! That's when i fell on the ground and had a sharp pain in back, all of my insides felt like ice and that if i moved they would shatter. My head was dizzy and i took one last look up at the snow falling and i passed out. beep, beep, beep i woke up and i thought i was late for work
80 countries have some form of ski area. Also, for the past 4 years skier visits have been estimated at around 400 million. Alpine, Cross-country and telemark are all types of skiing and at least one of them is likely to interest anyone.
There are a few things in my life I could use to write a narrative off of, one that could really strike my mind would probably be snowboarding, not even just the aspect of snowboarding but how it is something you have the ability to do to and kind of use it as a coping mechanism, just something that lets you be at peace with yourself and not worry about anything else in the world. If you were to ask a skier or another snowboarder about the feeling I am talking about. The one where you are going up the lift for the first time of the year or even before you are about to have a nice run from the summit where you are just sitting at the top before you go down the mountain and you are just one with yourself and the mountain
A few winters ago, some friends invited my family and me to go snow skiing at Paoli Peaks, Indiana. I did not know how to snow ski, and I leaped at the thought of trying this new sport. On the first morning we entered the pro shop to rent all the gear and make decisions about whether or not to take lessons or go it alone. We decided to be adventurous and go it alone—no lessons. Kent and Celeste, the friends who invited us, knew how to ski and snowboard. He assured us that he could show us the basics, and we would be on our way down the slopes. All of us, after a few minutes learning how to wedge our skis started down the family trail. Although the family trail had smaller hills and appeared safe, to me it seemed way
stood upon, was frightening. The only was to go was down. I took a deep
I almost fell off a cliff on the side of a mountain. I was in Pitkin, Colorado, on a camping trip during the summer of 2009. The trees were green, the air was fresh so were the lakes, rivers, and ponds were stocked with fish and wildlife was everywhere. Usually, on these camping trips, I would be accompanied by a large number of people. However, this time, it was just my parents, my three brothers, and my two sisters. I was almost 12 years old at the time and having three older brothers made me very competitive. Naturally, when my family decided to climb one of the mountain’s which were around us, I wanted to be the first one to reach its peak.
By 4 PM we had conquered most of the peaks. As we were climbing what we thought was our sixth peak, Big Red, a storm struck. It was a cold driving rain that froze us as we struggled up the mountain. We reached the top jubilant, but exhausted. As the crew tried to get a bearing I came to the slow realization that we were not on Big Red, but another peak. We had two peaks to climb, and in freezing rain! With no options, we hiked on.
With music blasting, voices singing and talking, it was another typical ride to school with my sister. Because of our belated departure, I went fast, too fast. We started down the first road to our destination. This road is about three miles long and filled with little hills. As we broke the top of one of the small, blind hills in the middle of the right lane was a dead deer. Without any thought, purely by instinct I pulled the wheel of the car to the left and back over to the right. No big deal but I was going fast. The car swerved back to the left, to the right, to the left. Each time I could feel the car scratching the earth with its side. My body jolted with the sporadic movements of the car. The car swerved to the right for the last time. With my eyes sealed tight, I could feel my body float off the seat of the car.
I saw all the green trees that had little piles of snow falling from branch to branch. We were at the couloir (rough terrain close to the peek); ready to go. I put in my earbuds and looked at my cousin. She put her thumb up and said, " 1...2....3... Go.
Digging into the snow with my boots while stabilizing my body with the uninjured arm, I inch across the hill, lose my foothold, and plummet downward.