Last Run Of The Night

Ah! I awoke to an agonizing pain in my left leg. As I looked around, I thought to myself, "Where am I?" I was in a small white room with a large window on the wall to my left. Beside the window was a door, probably leading to a closet or bathroom. I looked up and saw that I had an IV penetrating my wrist. That's when it hit meÐ'--I was in a hospital. The events from the terrifying night before came rushing into my head...

"Last run of the night." I said to my friend Tyler while the ski lift gradually carried us up the mountain. As I awaited our arrival at the top, I anxiously clanked my skis together at an attempt to take my mind off the treacherous slope I was about to conquer. I was going to ski down a double black diamond for the first time. The sun had already gone down and visibility was low. Fear built as I saw the lights reflecting off the ice covered slopes.

Finally, our chair lift arrived at the top. As we left the frigid ski lift behind, we approached what seemed like a vertical plummet to the bottom of the mountain. I looked over at a sign that read, "Upper Thunder Draft" followed by two very intimidating black diamonds signaling that this was one of the most advanced slopes on the entire mountain.

"You ready?" Tyler asked

"Ready as I'm gonna be" I reply

Gorrell 2

We took off down the peak. It was much harder than I could have ever expected. The layer of ice over the snow made it hard to contain constant control and sense of direction. As my acceleration picked up I tried everything I could think of to slow down but nothing seemed to work. The farther I went darting down the mountain, the clearer it became that under these conditions, I did not have the skill to continue my decent of the double black diamond slope. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a sign with a big green circle on it. The green circle was a sign signaling a much easier slope branching off to the side.

A flush of relief came over me as I turned off onto the easier run. My relief, however, was soon overcome with fear and anxiety. The easier run had been closed off for the night because of technical problems with the lighting system. I tried to turn around as fast as I could, but it was too late. I didn't turn sharp enough and I was heading straight for a cluster of trees.

"How do I get out of this without killing myself?" I thought. The only thing that came to mind was to collapse and pray that I stopped before hitting something. Unfortunately, that didn't work. The next thing I knew, I was laying down on the ground screaming over the pain going through my body.

With my eyes closed I heard a voice from above telling me that I was going