From Excitement to Fright: My Dangerous Skiing Experience

On a chilling February day I made the long and treacherous walk from the warm and cozy ski lodge out into the cold and frigid air of sugar mountain. I took no time as I quickly paced toward the ski racks in an excitement to grab my skis. I glanced at the hundreds of skis and suddenly saw mine. I reached for the skis and grasped them with my hands. I then made the trek to the ski lift.

In a hurried excitement I placed the skis down into the powdery and soft snow. I gently placed my heel into the heel cup of the ski. I slowly pushed my heel down into the binding and heard a loud click. My feet were now locked into place. I slide up to the lift. The chair swung around and I pushed forward to get into position. I slide my poles between my legs as the lift approached. I slowed down the chair by gently placing my hand up against it to slow down its momentum. The chair hit the back of my legs and then I began to sit.

A new sense of excitement arose from me as the chair began to lift. I adjusted my poles to a more comfortable position. I then lowered safety bar which was above us. I lifted my skis onto the metal ski rest which lied below. The lift slowly began to creep above the mountain. Skiers and snowboarders of all ages passed below us. I was overcome with adrenaline as I made my way up the ski lift. On the way up I was accompanied with my brother who sat right beside me on the lift. Both of our nerves started to kick in as it was our first time skiing in 6 years. As we got closer to the top of mountain the wind hit us like a bullet. It was blowing the cold snow all over our uncovered faces. I leaned forward in an attempt to keep me face from the windy blowing snow but that wasn’t much help. I took a gander to see how close to the top we were. We were within a few chair lifts as I began to the see the chairs in front of us lift their safety bars.

People stood up and slide from their chairs. I lifted our bar up and grasped my poles in my right hand as I positioned myself to get ready to get off the lift. I pushed off the chair with my left hand and rode down the little 5ft hill. This was harder then it seemed as the hill was crowded with people. It was also very icy which made it hard to stop. Luckily, I was able to come to a stop without running into anyone. About 15ft in front of me I saw a trail map. The map showed us the different trails to take down the mountain. I looked in excitement as I tried to map out the journey down. Most of the trails down were blue squares which were fairly easy to go down yet still somewhat tuff. There was also a double black diamond which is the toughest rated slope there is. It is for experts only. As I stood looking at this map I heard my brother yell “let’s go”.

I followed him as I carved side to side and started to get the feel of skiing again. I was suddenly in shock as I saw him make a sharp right turn and head straight for the double black diamond. I came to a rapid stop as I stood looking above this extremely steep slope. From my point of view it looked like a 90 degree angle. I was blown away that someone could go down this.

Suddenly, out of nowhere I saw my brother drop down and begin to carve side to side down the slope. I didn’t know what to do. I stood there in awe as I debated back in forth if I was capable to do it. After a moment of thought, I not so confidently decided to go for it. I figured if he did it then so can I. A blast of adrenaline charged throughout my body as I experienced the initial drop. I shifted my body's weight from side to side moving swiftly in a zig zag like motion. Every turn was invigorating. I kept my skis parallel to maintain a smooth edge. I was moving at a rapid pace in a fluid motion.

Occasionally, I would dig my poles into the powdery snow for balance as I applied pressure to the skis.The slope seemed to get steeper as I made my way down the mountain but that wasn’t stopping me as I began to feel more and more confident as I went. There wasn’t a care in the world as the snow lightly fell from the air onto me. I was in my groove. I went flying flying past my brother at an unimaginable rate. Turn after turn, I pushed my legs to the limit. I could feel the burn in my knees. I felt like they were about to give out, but I pushed through and somehow managed to keep going.

The end was in near and I had almost made it to the bottom. When suddenly, out of nowhere I saw an ice patch in front of me. I quickly leaned as hard as I could to the left and somehow merely avoided it. After overcompensating from this nearly disastrous slip, my balance began to fail and my knees gave out as they couldn’t hold up to the change of momentum. My left hand plowed forcefully into the ice as I tried to catch myself from falling. I braced for the fall as my skis slid out from underneath me. I merely avoided disaster as it could ended a lot worse if didn’t brace for the fall and ended up tumbling down face first.