My Memoir

A couple of years ago, my youth group took a trip to the snow covered hilltops of Winterplace in West Virginia. There were four of us middle school girls: me, Haley, Christian, and Brady. We were all very eager and excited. Christian and I had skied together before, but Brady and Haley were on their way to their first ski trip. Eager and excited I could hardly wait to go down more difficult slopes with Christian. I knew I had a partner to go down the black diamonds with me. Black diamonds are usually the steepest slopes.
That night when we arrived at the warm and cozy lodge, we ordered pizza and hung out until about midnight. We knew that skiing sucked the energy out of you, so we wanted to be well-rested for the next day. The following morning, Brady and Haley straightened their hair, and put on makeup. Christian and I just rolled out of bed and threw up our hair. Skiing is not the most flattering sport in the world. We dressed in our bibs, jackets, scarves, and hats and headed for our thrilling day in the snow.
The cold wet snow, falling like rain, dropped on us as we walked up the stairs to the rental shack. Because they had never skied before, it was really funny to watch Haley and Brady stumble through the cold wet snow in the narrow ski shoes. Christian and I headed for the slopes, while Brady and Haley practiced on the simple beginner slope.
Christian and I had a great time together. I took on the difficult challenge of snowboarding. It was a lot of fun. We spent the first two hours speeding down slopes, goofing off, and making friends. We decided to go to the cabin and get some water. It's funny how you get so hot skiing when your out in the snow.
When Brady and Haley saw us, they were apparently surprised at how much fun we'd had. Brady wanted to go on the slower slopes only, and Haley had more confidence and wanted a challenge. She asked us what slopes we had been on and was shocked when we told her that we'd been on all of them.
Haley begged me to go on a black diamond with her. I explained to her that the dreaded sloping hills of the black diamonds were a lot more challenging than the green circles that she'd previously been down. Despite my warning, she wanted to try it anyways, so I agreed. Brady didn't feel sure enough, so Christian stayed behind with her.
On the ski lift, I explained to Haley that as soon as we arrived at the top of the mountain, we would be going almost straight down. I told her to keep her poles in her right hand and ski to the right. I would do the opposite with my left hand. I said this, so we would go in opposite directions and not ski side by side.
We arrived at the top of the monstrous and intimidating mountain and Haley bluntly ignored me. I figured that she was scared and felt she needed two poles for support. Haley's skiis crossed mine. Arms swinging, she abruptly fell. Quickly moving, I unhooked my skiis and ran over to her. She wasn't crying, but you could tell she was in pain. I asked her if she could get up, and when she said no, I ran up the slope to the guy at the lift. Within a few minutes, a snowmobile arrived and helped Haley onto the back. I followed them down the mountain to the emergency cabin.
Haley had broken her leg and had to ride home with her leg duct taped to a cardboard box. My two youth leaders had to carry her around the rest of the trip. Haley is a very accident prone person, so we thought it was funny that she had gotten hurt of all people. To this day, she tells people that I never told her to go to the right, but she and I both know that I did. Even though Haley broke her leg, it was one of my best ski trips ever.