I usually try to stay clear of celebrity news, but a story this week has caught my attention. Natasha Richardson, wife of Liam Neeson and an accomplished actress in her own right, died yesterday from a head trauma she received while skiing. The incident reminded me of something that happened to me when I was 16 or 17.
In high school I didn’t really participate in sports. I was in the Astronomy Club. I was in National Honors Society. That’s right; I was a nerd. But during the winter I was also a snowboarder and I wasn’t too bad. This was circa 1990. At that time snowboarding was just starting to take off. A lot of resorts still didn’t allow snowboards on their slopes, and some near my hometown in Wyoming had only just started allowing them.
My cadre of snowboarding friends spent weekends in the Big Horn Mountain Range, an off-shoot of the Rocky Mountains in Wyoming. We hung out at a tiny resort at Meadowlark Lake. The resort itself was on nation forest land, so you could ride anything you wanted to ride. Snowboards were always welcome there as long as I could remember. I think the resort was called “High Park” back then, but I could be high.
View Larger Map
As you can see from that aerial view, the resort is not big. If you look closer you will notice a rock outcropping along the ridge of the resort. Those were the cliffs we foolishly jumped off on our snowboards.
The first time I jumped was exhilarating. I jumped from a 20′ cliff into powder, and was at the bottom of the hill in about 2 minutes. I was so excited I just cruised straight down the run. A few weeks later we were back and everyone was jumping from the cliff. Soon this was something we did every time we went. Well, until one day. We hadn’t been to Meadowlark Lake for a few weeks and it had been warm, and then snowed in our absence. We all got off the lift and hiked up to the top of the cliff. I strapped in and headed down the short run leading to the drop-off. I remember being in the air, then I remember being at the bottom of the mountain. The rest I have been told by friends.
I landed in a couple of inches of powder sitting on what was basically packed snow and ice. My head slammed down into my knees. I crumpled over and passed out. Apparently I became functional enough to get up and tell people I was OK, and wheeled off into the back country with the rest of the group. I apparently did a log slide and a couple of other jumps along the way down. When I got to the bottom I was just standing around and a friend asked me if I was OK. I didn’t remember that he had come up with us. I asked, “When did you get here?” I sat next to him in the car on the way up, so this got everyone’s attention. That is when I was sent into the lodge to rest. That was my last run of the day.
I did end up jumping from a higher cliff later, but we always checked to make sure there was powder. And none of us were wearing helmets. I guess I could have just as easily brained myself right there that day or any of the other times we did really stupid things, and not it made it any further into my life. It really brings things into perspective when you read about a tragedy like the one reported in the news this week. The next time I go snowboarding I am wearing a helmet.
