Good thing I wasn’t there

I was supposed to go skiing this morning, but on my way down the hill, they hadn’t plowed yet, and things were a bit slick. I never made it to the trailhead. This is the scene from the road where I waited for the tow truck.

From what I hear, the skiing was great. At least for the first lap. There was a good-sized crew out, so my lack of attendance didn’t leave any partners high and dry. Mike sent me these pictures of Tanner and Jon S. getting the goods. Would have loved to be there for a cold smoke day like this instead of waiting for a tow truck.

On lap two, things started falling apart. Jon center-punched an untracked slope, and triggered a slide about 40 feet wide. It wasn’t huge, but it was enough to catch and carry him into some trees.

Fortunately, he wasn’t buried. Unfortunately, he hit the trees hard enough to fracture his left tibia. They were 2,000 vertical feet from the road, and he was starting to go into shock.

Mike and tanner used some webbing and cord to strap Jon to his snowboard and drag him the rest of the way down the mountain. From there, they loaded him into the car and drove him to Alta View hospital. The prognosis is good, but his timing was bad—he was supposed to leave this afternoon to spend spring break in Moab. He’s looking at six weeks with a cast before he can start therapy, so cycling season will be off to a slow start as well.

Jon and I both should have known to just stay in bed today. Bad stuff always seems to not really happen on April 1st.