Skiing into Disaster
By Hadley Cress 27’
Courtesy of Ila Reynolds-Kienbaum
From passing out on the mountain to tumbling down a route into a forest or crashing into trees, the students from Catlin Gabel School (CGS) have many hilarious stories of their time on the mountain.
I first started skiing when I was 4 years old and, although I do not ski as much anymore, I have an abundance of funny memories. Some of my most memorable stories include jumping off the ski lift and landing on my dad or getting launched off the ski lift because the ends of my skis were angled down and caught in the snow.
All of these experiences have created fun memories to look back upon and share, and your classmates have many more. Some haven’t skied since their mishap and some continue to enjoy the sport.
The tragic middle school ski trip
Senior Charlie Broad hadn’t been skiing since middle school when his experience occurred.
Growing up, Broad's mom always loved skiing. However, Broad did not share this passion. In fact, he did not like skiing at all.
One weekend, his mom decided to take him and his sister on a ski trip. At the time, Broad's mom was dating someone he was not a fan of, so he was not excited about this trip.
They got to Timberline Lodge at night and decided not to ski until the morning, so Broad was pleased he would only have to suffer through one day. The next morning, they got up bright and early, ready to ski, something Broad hadn’t done in years.
Naturally, Broad gravitated towards the bunny slopes because of his lack of experience; however, his mom's boyfriend decided that they needed to go on some harder slopes.
Broad, being rather inexperienced, had a difficult time going down this slope and ended up crashing multiple times. “I just keep on like rumbling and tumbling down the hill,” said Charlie. The experience continued repeating itself, with his mom's boyfriend pushing them to do harder and harder routes.
Broad was so fed up with this that he started crying. His mom didn’t notice and continued skiing down the slope, leaving him alone.
After being left alone crying on the ski slope Broad quit and decided he was not going skiing again. To this day, that was the last time Broad had gone skiing.
Trying to learn how to ski in Norway
Brittney Haldorsen, a senior at CGS, also had a unique skiing experience. One of her first times skiing was in Norway, where she used to live. At the time, she was around 4 and just learning how to speak and understand Norwegian.
She was taking a class to learn how to ski and didn’t know anyone else in the class. Her older brother and sister were at the more advanced level, leaving her all alone.
The instructor teaching her class kept pushing her to do harder and harder material which she wasn’t ready for. Haldorsen was very uncomfortable because she couldn’t fully understand the instructor and was not ready for the level of skiing he was asking her to do because she was only four.
Finally, Haldorsen was fed up and went to her instructor's boss. According to Haldorsen, she told him “I don’t wanna be with this guy… he's really mean to me.” So she was moved to the more advanced class with her siblings.
However, she was unprepared for this class and ended up sitting in the snow the entire time. “It was very sad … and I’ve never gone skiing ever again because it was a very mean time and no one cared about me,” said Haldorsen.
From passing out to getting pulled over on the mountain
The first time junior Violet Daly went skiing, she planned to take a beginner class. However, she was placed in the wrong one, resulting in her going down more advanced routes that she was not prepared for.
While on the way down the slope, a kid had fallen and Daly, being new to skiing, was unable to stop in time. She ran over the kid who had fallen and was later pulled over by ski patrol.“[Ski patrol] asked if I was drinking or doing drugs and I was like eight,” said Daly.
In another blooper, Daly passed out due to heat stroke. Her mom had never seen snow before so she bundled her up with too many jackets. Daly was so hot she fainted before even getting on the mountain.
When her dad saw her passed out he ran over and started praying instead of taking off any layers.
Daly continues to ski although now she is much more informed on the proper layers and ski attire that will prevent this from happening again.
A tumble down a cliff
Senior Ann Crosby had a traumatic skiing experience in Alaska. She was on a trip with her dad, cousins, grandparents, aunt, and uncle. It was the last day of their trip and they were excited to get a good run.
The conditions, however, weren’t the best. The mountain was icy, and they were headed down a double black diamond the hardest level of slope, that had a forest of thick trees and a cliff at the bottom. “If you fall, you'll go down off a cliff into some trees,” Crosby stated.
On their way down the slope, Crosby's aunt slipped and started sliding down the mountain. Luckily, she didn’t fall very far. Crosby and her dad stopped to make sure their aunt was okay, and when they both began to ski down the mountain, they ran into each other.
The two of them tangled together and began tumbling down the mountain towards the trees and cliff. Crosby's dad was able to grab onto a branch sticking out of the snow and stop them.
However, he was only able to grab Crosby’s ski, saying “Ann, don't worry, I've got you” right as her ski boot popped out of the ski and she started sliding down the mountain again.
Her dad yelled to her uncle, who was at the bottom of the slope, to try and catch her as she flew down the mountain. Terrified, Crosby did her best to slow herself down while also aiming for her uncle.
Finally, she reached the bottom and barreled into her uncle. They began tumbling towards the trees before coming to a stop just a few feet away.
Although Crosby still enjoys skiing, this is definitely an experience she will never forget.
Crashing into a tree turned hospital visit
Another particularly scary ski accident happened to senior Violet Kozak in her sophomore year of high school shortly after Kozak decided to join the CGS ski team. She was having a lot of fun going to practices and getting to ski all the time when tragedy struck.
It was only a few practices in and a fairly icy day. Before training had even started, Kozak was warming up for the day with an early run. She wasn’t super familiar with the terrain and came upon a fork in the route with a tree in the middle.
She wasn’t sure which way to go and didn’t have enough time to make a decision. So instead she went straight into the tree. “My brain kind of took a little pause,” said Kozak. Her skis went under the tree's root and she flew forward.
After the crash Kozak did not feel anything particularly alarming so she thought she was fine. She only realized something was wrong when she went to remove her ski boot “It felt like I was going to rip my leg off” she said. By the time she arrived home, her knee had already swelled up to the size of a small watermelon.
She went to the doctor for an x-ray and an MRI and found out she had torn her ACL and partially torn her MCL.
Although this experience was particularly scary, Kozak still loves skiing to this day and although she hasn’t gone skiing yet this year she plans to soon.
Throughout the stories shared here there are many funny and scary instances. However, even with some particularly harmful and scary stories many of them continue to love and enjoy the sport. Many shared skiing experiences have brought people together and made the sport even more enjoyable.