Ski Patrol to the Rescue!

On our second day at Mt. Hood this past weekend, Ethan, Aidan, Grampy and I set out to the slopes on Friday morning. We were doing pretty well, and even handling the cold wind with determination. The boys were cruising down the greens, so we decided to head down a blue run that didn't look too bad at all. In fact, they had just come down a blue that was just as steep and we all did just fine. They were getting in good turning practice.

About half way down, we hit a sheet of ice. An unending sheet of ice. We could see the bottom of the hill, and the lift was just about 3 good hills away. Aidan slipped and fell into an orange safety netting, and Grampy went after him for a rescue. The only way he could get him out on this super slick ice was to pull him out with his pole. Aidan held on nice and tight, and after trying to stand up two or three times, Grampy decided the only way to get him down was to slide him down on his back. So grampy very slowly skied down the hill, dangling Aidan from his ski pole. It's a good thing Aidan held on tight because if he had let go he would have slid and it would have been very scary.

While all this was going on, Ethan and I were about 50 feet up the hill. I waved Grampy on thinking it looked like he had a good thing going, and I could surely get Ethan down. Ethan fell and refused to get up. I tried to talk him into trying again but he was clearly frightened. We ended up taking off his skis and he walked. For about 10 minutes. And he got about 30 feet. It was VERY slow going. So, after he saw that this method was going to take him a good hour to get down the hill, I convinced him to put those skis back on. We would very slowly side slip down while he held my pole, until we got to the edge, then I would literally pick him up and turn him around, then I'd turn around him and he'd hold my pole again as we slid down. This worked for the first hill. Then, it became so slick that we both fell and kept sliding, and sliding, and twisting around. We were both screaming like little girls, and we finally stopped right on the edge of the trees. I was contorted around in a crazy/painful pose and it took me almost 10 minutes to pry my boots off. Plus, every time I wiggled, I went flying down closer to Ethan and I was so afraid I was going to plow into him. Every time he tried to move he also slid closer to the trees. "Don't move!!!" I kept yelling!

We sat there for about 10 minutes, trying to call Grampy (our cells were touch and go) trying to get close enough to each other to help each other, but quickly realizing that we were helpless! I couldn't get to Ethan, and I literally couldn't see a way to get down the hill.

Finally, my cell came to life and I called my dad one more time. He said "hear that noise? They are coming to get you!" Ski patrol to the rescue! The ski patrol man came flying up the hill on his snow machine (mobile for those of you without Alaskan husbands) and rescued us both. Ethan quickly went from tears to giggles as we flew down the mountain on the sled. It was lots of fun after a very scary 30 minutes!

Hurray for our first ski patrol rescue! Aidan was even a little jealous. :) More skiing adventures to come soon. . .