Into the void

It's probably not a good idea for anyone directly or indirectly related to me to read the next few paragraphs.

i have a slight bruise on my right wrist.  That is not so bad.  However, the bruise was caused by impact with my head.  i have a matching bruise on my right cheekbone and eyebrow.  These bruises are as a result of falling just over 3 meters on some off-piste and landing face-first.

The good news is that it totally wasn't my fault.  We were skiing off-piste and the conditions were fairly clear.  Unfortunately, as we got further down, we sunk into the mist, and we found ourselves in a whiteout in fairly unfamiliar terrain.  i skied on ahead to try and find us a way down.  i made a turn to the right, but then, as i was turning to the left, my skis just dropped out from underneath me and i was falling into nothing.

i must have landed on my chest and face (i don't really remember), hence the bruises, and i carefully checked all my teeth because they hurt a lot after the fall, but luckily i still have a full set.  This time i remembered to put my hands out to stop my fall, so at least i'm learning.

When i had done a full system health check and sat up again, i saw, when the clouds conveniently cleared, that i'd skied off a wind lip, which is a small over-hanging corniche, over a 3m ice cliff.  i landed with my skis pointed directly vertically downwards, hence the face-plant, and ensuing forward somersault.

So, it wasn't poor technique that caused this, which i feel good about, but very poor mountain-sense to ski on ahead off-piste when i really couldn't see anything.  The whiteout conditions somehow convinced my brain that there was a nice flat slope between me and the next trees, but unfortunately there was a big hole between us.

To the people that ignored paragraph one, rest assured i've learnt my lesson.  If you can't see it, don't ski it.

From the left: Celeste, Andrew, Leena, and Ian (the gorgeous one).

Anyway, in other, less painful news, Andrew, Leena, and Celeste are now here and after very little sleep and two days of excellent skiing,  they all seem to be enjoying it and progressing nicely.  i do have a very interesting photo of Leena using Celeste as a stopping barrier, but i have been strictly forbidden to publish it.  Can you believe my blog is now censored?

See, Celeste, i didn't publish it.  This is a photo of a totally different person doing some tobogganing with a sled made of Leena.

The Phils (Phil and Phillie) and Siobhan are here this week as well and we've been having some excellent powder skiing sessions with them too.  i'm pleased to report that Phil's angulation is slowly improving.  With a lot more expensive lessons from me, i'm sure he'll master it.

From the left: Phillie, Siobhan, Phil, and Natalie.

For the non-aware, Phil and Phillie taught us to ski.  They are both supremely excellent skiers and put up with us when we were struggling beginners.

Tomorrow's supposed to be sunny but then over the next four days, we're going to get nearly half a meter of snow.  Needless to say, the conditions are absolutely fantastic right now.  Today's skiing was great, and i'm happy to report that my total cliffs-skied-off count today, was zero.