| A little O.T.
Beswift, I hope your "tree" jumping accident didn't sap your confidence to take on steeps too much. I too have taken a number of pretty tough hits (a couple on the slopes) over time. Maturity tends to instill a bit of extra caution in us, but when we get our timing and rhythm nicely tuned up, we can still make some terrific runs on challenging terrain. An occasional "out of bounds" foray is fun when there is not much untracked in-bounds snow around, but I don't do anything stupid and always err on the side of caution. I once had a windbreaker catch on a mid-station get-off at Vail that took me about ten feet up in the air before I managed to wriggle out of it and drop. I wasn't hurt that time, but a few more seconds would have lifted me out over a serious drop. The attendant was doubtlessly focused on the "snow bunnies" in the chair behind me and never saw anything! I also had a woman skier, who was stopped at the edge of a trail, suddenly slide right into my path just as I caught an edge and was sort of dancing for control. I hit her squarely, spun around, and went into a backward snowplow. I thought I had it under control when my right heel binding let go and dropped my forehead down on ice. After I regained consciousness, I refused help but as I skied down to the base realized that I was going into shock. I skied right to the front of the aid station and dropped to the ground and announced my problem. They took me to the local hospital, and held me for observation. I didn't know which way was up for about ten days! I now tend to announce my presence to stopped skiers rather loudly these days. Of course, since I rarely ever ski week-ends, this is much less of an issue. Ain't retirement great. |