climbing scars, ? or misadventures

after a serious bout of wind, superbowl sunday dawned calm and sunny at my local ski hill. from the top i ducked under the out of bounds rope for a solo tour on really light gear, (read lycra tights, fingerless gloves.)

the windslab was solid and skateable, trees were sparse at most of 11,000ft in montana. in a half mile i had barely left a track along a rolling ridgeline. i paused at the edge of a little drop to a terrace, just a ramp maybe thirty feet long, smooth untracked, indistinguishable as hazards go.

i pushed off into what became knee deep powder that reverted to windslab like a sidewalk except that my skis were underneath and i was arrested in place like i had just grabbed the catchwire on a carrier landing.

edit: i could add the object lesson here. the ramp was an area of deposition not subject to the slab producing effect of the wind. still no clue how to spot it other than by position knowing wind direction.

lower fib broken at the joint, i tractored back up the ramp using my skis crosswise till i regained the slab which allowed for crawling except that my knees would break thru often enough that log rolling worked better. removing my boots kept the flopping of my foot to a minimum and my fingers out of the snow.

shortly after getting back in bounds some nationals (weekend warrior ski trollers) came upon me crawling now boots first but i had been Out of Bounds and i felt so grateful for the "you are on your own out there" policy for OB'ers that, since the lift was in sight i declined and they p'trolled on. the lifty loaded me up in reverse, so on the trip down the chair i passed a buddy who i sent out to retrieve my ski's "at the end of the turtle tracks."

crawling again across midway to the lower chair a maintenance guy offered a ride on his snow mobile which i accepted. he scooted me right by the first aid room to my wife's car (automatic).

with my foot piled high in the passenger seat, next stop was the fire hall where i was a very active EMT and fireman, so i crawled up onto the public counter and asked the chief to splint my ankle. "oh hooblie, you're such a kidder."

paged (old style) my wife who was working in billings as a home health nurse and arranged to rendezvous with her outside the ER. she figured i was on an ambulance run so it would be a lunch date as we often did. i watched her eyes move quizzically along my extremity to the contraption in the passenger seat.

i knew that as soon as you land in the ER you have given up options so she went in, found out which orthopod was on duty, and sure enough we chose to go across town, based on her rapport with the doc on call at the other hospital.

the flight crews from the air ambulance and medivac helicopters all got a chance to razz me as they were accustomed to seeing me on scene or at least in uniform. my wife's sister had a house wheelchair distance from the hospital so i spent the night there awaiting surgery in the morning.

when it was time for the plate to come out our little hospital had just been saved from closing by community purchase so i was able to direct some needed business to the home front by arranging for my doc to be granted privileges in red lodge, where of course all the OR scrubs and staff were familiar. it was a jolly occasion, the date having coincided with a speech the doc gave to a group at a fine new lodge i had been a foreman on. later my anesthetist recognized me hitching back upstream after a kayak run.

weeks later my buddies who were pro patrol on the hill and had been puzzled by rumours of what had been observed that superbowl sunday, but not seen in the first aid room, put the whole scenario together and gave me kudos for being a non-issue regarding the out of bounds policy.

late that summer when i went into the admin office to ask about cutting some firewood on the ski hill where there had been a blowdown a few years previous. permission was granted, and the vibe was good enough i took a chance and broached the subject of the season pass that i had only half used. since early season passes were cheap just then, the boss fixed me up with a consolation prize. a season's pass for the coming year.

If you're going to aid-solo with a clove hitch as a belay, make sure that when your piece pops your fingers are clear of the hitch.