The coat of armor I adorned, made of down feathers and a nylon shell, yielded no protection against the daggers of that cold winter air. As I peered out toward the horizon, I saw nothing but tree tops, and some snow capped mountain tops in the distance. With my feet bound to freshly waxed skis, the only thing stronger than my ski poles was my determination to get down the mountain.
I turned to my right, only to see the immediate drop off of the ski slope. As I crept up a little closer to the edge, I noticed an incline that before now was only known to me through pictures of cliff diving, or an exaggerated road runner and coyote cartoon.
With a deep breath of that icy cold air that seemed endless at the time, I pushed myself off the
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Now, a little bit of pressure onto my right leg, and I'm back on my original course. I see a tree that was once in the far off distance, now rapidly approaching with speed of an oncoming train. With a look of confusion that I can only describe as the look of a deer in the headlights, I twisted my body to the right in hopes to avoid the oncoming danger, that devil dressed in the needles of a blue spruce.
As my upper body shifted to the right, everything from my waist and below stayed true to the course, including the ski poles. I ran over the handle of my ski pole, with my stomach. The pole was pushed up into my lower abdomen, propelling me off of the slope entirely, I was airborne. I landed on my back, completely out breath, and dazed to the point I had no recollection of where I was. The next moment was particularly scary for me, all I can recall was the ringing of a whistle in my ear, and the red lights flashing from the ski patrols snowmobiles. Unsure of any injuries, the ski patrol had braced my back and neck, strapped me to a board, and began to tow me down the mountain.
I spent the next three hours in the lodge under the watchful eye of a very pleasant paramedic, who prescribed me the perfect blend of warm blankets and hot chocolate. The throbbing pains finally ceased, and I was able to stand up under my own power. I slowly staggered out the door, eternally grateful to the paramedics and ski patrol that came to my
Besides soccer, sledding is something my sister and I love to do on snowy afternoons. We have this amazing hill at our house thats super steep and has lots on turns; its the perfect sledding hill. The only problem with it is that at the end of the hill there is a road. My father didn’t want us sledding on the hill until he could put a fence up to keep us from sliding into the middle of the road.
As I ran, I felt my foot come down on top of a moss filled rock, and I knew I was in trouble. The slick moss ripped away from the slab of granite and it sent me flying. I knew the fall would be inevitable, and took the it as best I could and prayed for some luck. Branches ripped apart my face, snapping from the contact. Blood flicked up into my eyes. My shoulder made contact with the trunk of a tree as the rest of my body dug into the mud. My legs flipped up over me, crashing into piece of granite bulging out of the ground, pain traveled its way up my leg.
terror. The thing was almost upon me, and I had no way to escape. Still I pushed myself up and
Omg! I am going to have so much fun snowboarding! Today in my life I am at a super cool place. It’s in the UP and it’s called Ski Brule. It has all the snow hills you could possibly think about. I could never stop imagine me going down the hill and be so proud of me. But hopefully I don’t break any bones in my body. Because I still have basketball in the winter. But after I just took a soft energize nap. Then… We arrived. OM to the G! It was exactly what I imagined. The people gliding through the snow with their cool snowboards and their ski’s.
In the California mountains of Big Bear on a medium-sized hill, feeling the cold freezing air brush against my long straighten ponytail as I looked below me, kids sledding down the small slopes. In the distance, I see my family waving to me and I hear them yelling in disagreement and warning of how high I was. However, the wind was muffling their words, and I did not care if they did not agree. I was going to do it no matter
“Life is like a baseball game. When you think a fastball is coming, you gotta be ready to hit the curve.” -Unknown. Baseball is a game, one that is not timed, one that is not rushed either, but is only allowed twenty-seven outs. For some it means everything to them, for some the opposite. Even though it is just a game, the characteristics and necessities that come along with it, is what people don’t understand. Baseball can teach individuals, all ages, the tools they need to help themselves, schooling and their future. Within this comes the aspects of teamwork, self-confidence, and the importance of family.
As I heard my alarm clock go off at two in the morning, feeling prepared mentally but not physically. My mind,at that point in time raced with thoughts and expectations, although my body felt like it wanted to die. Finally dragging myself out from under the soft covers, I pulled my gear to the bed of the truck and threw my bag up over the side of the truck's bed,-- hearing a giant thud from the heftiness of my pack. I felt mixed emotions coming from my body, my mind ready and my body said: “go back to bed hate you, I hate you, I hate you”. As soon as I plopped myself into the truck squished with three people in the back seat, after about five minutes of driving all three of us passed out fast asleep. The moment I woke, pulling into the parking lot of Mount Washington, New Hampshire I felt ready. When I stepped out of the car, I threw my hands in the air, the best feeling of stretching after a car ride. I look up to see this mountain completely covered with snow and only one round part completely treeless; that's where we hiked too. Strapping my fifty-pound pack on my back containing ski boots, skis, poles, winter gear, and food felt more tiring than it should have.
Just this past summer, under the hot, and sticky sun, we pushed our car to the limit, on our 1,000 mile journey to the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, although in actuality we might have pushed our fears to the absolute limit. Flipping through the Colorado vacation brochure proved to have posed some interesting vacation destinations, such as "Big Bear Lake" and Trail Ridge Road. With the intent to get high in the sky, our family headed out the next morning to Trail Ridge Road, which is a road that takes you up to a staggering height of 12,000 feet. Although optimistic, we imagined of the vast fields of green, the glacier-topped mountains, and the valleys that undertake the them. As we climbed up to the peak, it seemed apparent that there
Last year I started a new sport, cross country. I only did it because my lacrosse coach said that it might help me get better for lacrosse. So I went to the first late summer practice last year to see what this was like, so then we did warm-ups and a lap around the track. Then it was the first time I met coach Chase, My first impression of him was going to be very strict, But soon realized that this was false because of one of the first things he said. He said “I know there are a lot of nerves here right now, but cross country isn’t about winning every race, that comes later” then continued with “Cross country is about showing what you can do to yourself.” This struck me very hard because I was not that fast and was near the back. Through that fall the team did very well, I also made some progress myself. After the season was over I made a decision.
We slowly drove out to the faster speed limit part of the lake, once there I was given a small briefing about hand signals. Gracye’s Dad told me, “Thumb down means slower, thumb up means faster, and hand horizontal means perfect.” After the briefing we got our life jackets on and literally jumped from the boat to the tubes which were now almost out of reach, quickly trailing behind the boat. The rope attached to the tube was quicklypulled out very far and was tightly being pulled from behind the boat, me on the biggest tube in the middle and Gracye on the smaller one on the right of me. We got to a moderately fast pace for me and it ended up not being as frightening as I thought it would be. Her Dad had started picking up the speed by this time and I was beginning to get scared. I signaled to have him slow down and he ended up slowing down after five minutes, or so I thought, but he was just winding the boat up for a whip which while happening, I was holding on for dear life and I felt my life flash before my
Throughout the active school year, I take part in cross country, track and basketball. I also played volleyball for a year, but I decided to concentrate on my main passion, cross country, instead of dividing my time and attention into two sports at the same time. I have been running cross country ever since I was old enough to run in the munchkin races. The sport has been passed down through the family, almost every single one of my siblings have run or at least tried it. In track, I have ran the mile and two mile since the seventh grade. These last couple years I joined into the long distance relays. In 2016, the first year we decided to start a relay it consisted of my sister, Victoria, Tristen Ness, and Sammy Swanson. The first time we ran
Then there were a lot of obstacles. They kept getting in my way. A stone fence was in my way and when I tried to go around, I fell. When I was close to the end, I fell. I made back to where I was.
It was October 2016 of my junior year, right in the heart of the Cross Country season. Cross Country was fun and team was doing great, but I was looking forward to the upcoming winter track season. High jump is where it is at and that is where I wanted to be and then it happened… I went down and my ankle was caught underneath me and twisted. I'm not exactly sure how it happened, but I was hurt. I was on the ground, in pain as other racers passed me. I was able to get to the finish it wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t fast, but I did it.
I am a ski coach at Craigleith Ski Club in Collingwood, Ontario. Last year I was a float coach, so I got to work with about four different teams over the course of the season. Generally, I must be a mentor to all the kids I coach. I always make sure I exhibit lots of energy, have a positive attitude, and am friendly and helpful. I try my best to ensure the kids are comfortable around me yet also respect me.
I put my foot down on a slippery piece of ice and immediately felt my body jolt back and forth as I tried to stabilize myself. For a second I thought I was in an ice skating rink, falling. But then I looked at my surroundings and realized I was on top of one of Iceland’s biggest glaciers.