The Day the Mountain Bit Back
Three years ago, I was skiing with family. The snow was very firm, and all the non-groomed parts of the mountain were closed due to icy conditions. We were skiing an expert run with a drop of about 150 vertical metres that looked very steep when you were standing at the top. Finn was fairly new to skiing but he is always keen and spells confidence with a capital C.
An aerial view of skiing looks like a never-ending S. You complete one turn and immediately turn back the other way.
Well, at the top of this run on the second turn instead of turning down into the next S curve Finn continued around with the first curve, making a U. He quietly came to a stop facing back up the hill. Time stood still for a moment.
Time may have stood still but gravity kept going. I don’t think people really understand gravity. If they did, then they wouldn’t blame themselves for trips and stumbles. Gravity is like a large dog that is always pulling on the leash and doesn’t listen. But we have got so used to it that we forget the dog is there.
Well, that big dog kept pulling Finn down the hill but this time backwards. He picked up speed and couldn’t turn, one ski flew off, gravity then pulled him over onto the snow, and he lost his other ski and his poles. Now gravity really got going and he accelerated down the hill. There is no stopping on a steep slope, and very soon he was sliding out of control, past other skiers.
At the bottom of the run, there was a vehicle track cut across the slope with a 1m bank of snow on the uphill side; after sliding down 200m, Finn shot off the top of the bank and landed 2m out from the side of the track and continued to slide across the track and over the edge onto the next section of slope below and he picked up speed again. There was another vehicle track below this slope and this time when he went over the bank, he landed in the middle of the track with a thump but had lost his momentum.
Usually, the more experienced skiers stay at the back to help pick up the pieces of abandoned equipment, so I had seen the whole thing from the top. Finn is very robust and plays as a front row forward in rugby. He normally bounces back up after a ski accident.
This time he stayed down, it must have hurt. After a minute, he slowly got to his feet. I was so relieved.
Gravity got my brother that day, as well. He had a similar fall on that same slope but didn’t travel down as far as the access tracks. They closed the run an hour later. We all carried on skiing on other runs, some of us more bruised than others.
The point of my story is for the next time you bump a nice glass of wine, or a cup of tea and gravity pulls it down and spills it on the expensive carpet; don’t say “I’m sorry”, just grit your teeth and think, ‘That bloody gravity!’
Words by Steven Knowles
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