Odds
I’ve been welcomed home by the friends that I missed when I was in California, and definitely took for granted before I left. I never realized how important my family in SLC has become to me until I was removed from them for three months during my internship. Today, however, reminds me to love them even more. We had our first in-bounds slide of the season, on West Baldie at the ‘Bird. I was skiing with Cody, Carston, and Aaron when I found out, and the look on Cody’s face as he hung up the phone hinted to the worst. We have had too many calls like that in the past two years; Billy Poole flown from a Warren Miller shoot last January, John Nicoletta’s crash during World Tour Finals in AK, and Asher’s accident almost two years ago. My roommate Molly’s conclusion when she decided not to compete again this year, that she simply doesn’t want to be on top on a mountain worrying if her friends are safe, crossed my mind once again today as my nausea set in. But how do you answer this fear? Do you quite skiing the lines you love to ski, simply because you worry that your loved ones may hurt themselves doing the same? Or do we continue to charge everyday knowing the consequences and understanding that it may one day just be our day? At what point are we being reckless? Just how calculated are our risks?
My mum has always referred to the backcountry as a numbers game, the more your ski in the backcountry, the more likely you are to get caught in a slide. After the past couple seasons, it seems the more you ski, even inbounds, it could just one day be my day. I’ve always thought of falling like this as well, ie, if I haven’t fallen in awhile, I should probably try and crash, or the next one might really hurt. However, I can’t really support this theory, as my nice long list of injuries still shows that even if I crash once a day, I still may not be eligable for health insurance come my 24th birthday…… so maybe don’t take my advice on odds just yet.
My heart goes out to Heather Gross’ friends and family, and our LCC family. How about wearing our peeps all the time now? I love our LCC family, and I’m so happy to be back in UT!
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Pip’s Site Pimp’d by:
good call pip. avi becons at all times. I LOVE YOU TOO!!!
Ya Pip, I think peeps all the time is a good idea, we still have to be smart and not get complacent or let our gaurd down. We just had a former patroller die here skiing “side country” by him self on Aspen Mountain. He left behind 2 beautiful young girls and their mother.
… everyone lets be safe this winter, there is no reason for another one of us to die. your friends can’t handle it any more.