Powder days

When you work 12 hours a night in a bar, any time you’re not too exhausted to get out of bed becomes an exciting day for searching for any powder that might be left on the mountain. My friend and I did just that two days ago. We were lucky enough to finish work the previous night by 3am, giving us plenty of time to sleep and still ski before we had to start work again at 6pm. It’s always an amazing feeling to get back onto my skis and dominate the mountainside. This time we decided that there were too many people on the slopes, so we would do a little exploring and find fresh untapped powder in the trees and forests where most gapers (tourists to the mountain who can’t really ski) would not dare to go. What luck that we decided that. We had some of the most amazing powder runs through the trees, a few forays near the river that were a bit too close for comfort and an epic bail!

I was flying through the forest and had just glided off a fallen tree covered in snow, making it the perfect jump and was absolutely delighted as I cruised towards the road to wait for my friend. Unseen to my elated eyes the drop from the forest onto the road was slightly larger than expected, about 3 feet larger! If, as a skier or snowboarder you have ever dropped something onto a completely flat landing you will understand the pain involved in an unexpected flat landing! Due to gravity and laws of falling bodies and Newton and all that stuff, the ground stopped my feet but gravity kept my face moving, straight into my knee! It was an extremely fast, powerful slam of my poor nose directly into my leg, leaving in my excruciating pain, blood squirting everywhere and a hysterically laughing friend! Guys…. Well the good thing about falling in the snow is that there really isn’t a problem icing the injury. I’d hate to think what my nose would look like if I hadn’t instantly iced it. At the moment it’s about twice the size it normally is and when you have a large nose to start with that’s the last thing you want! Especially when you have to work in 2 hours’ time!

However, the moral of this story is that when it is a powder day, and you get to make fresh tracks through a forest, explore new areas and generally roll around in the snow, the minor discomfort of a swollen nose is completely worth it. Any time the pain becomes too much I remember bursting through powder cushions that covered my waist… ah pain? What? No, it’s a minor scratch, all worth it!