Perfect Powder, Broken Bones and Suicidal Snowboarders.
August 18th, 2008
It was my last day in New Zealand yesterday and what a magic eight days of skiing we’ve had. In that time we got five good dumps of snow and three of them happened overnight with clear blue skies the next day. I spent my last day at Treble Cone skiing knee-deep powder. Not everyone had such a great day, however. While I was skiing slowly down a cat track between runs a completely-out-of-control snowboarder flew past and slammed into a skier in front of me with a sickening CRACK! The skier screamed in pain as he shot over the edge and landed in a messy heap. He had broken his leg (well, actually the snowboarder had broken his leg). While another skier went to get ski patrol I tried to get him as comfortable as I could without moving him too much. ‘You’re lucky,’ I said. ‘At least your leg is still attached.’ I didn’t really say that, but it could have been a lot worse. He could have been Gernot Reinstadle. In the annual Wengen World Cup downhill ski race of 1991, nineteen-year-old Austrian Gernot Reinstadle crashed. With only 200 metres of the 4.26 kilometre race to go, he flew so high off the final steep section that he sailed over the padded bags into the netting above it. One ski got caught in the netting. The rest of his body kept travelling. Travelling, that is, at 100 km/h. The force of the sudden stop split him in half. Right up to the bottom of his rib cage.
So, sadly it’s back home for me (although happily with my legs and guts still intact). And because I can’t really invite you all around to my house for the slide night, here’s a few snaps from our holiday…
Jasmine at Treble Cone
Fresh tracks at Treble Cone
The beer garden - Cardrona Hotel
Jasmine in the beer garden