First day of Ski Season

[oakville smoker]

Ah yes, I have been waiting for this slightly longer than my sausage supplies from the wild, wild west.  Finally ski country gets a great dump of snow and the season starts.  Its winter and when an almost young mans heart turns to sliding down frozen hills.

Day 2 of the season was Saturday.  A blue bird day, not a cloud in the sky.  Keeping with tradition, we have to be first in line waiting for them to spin the lift and start loading addicts.  First tracks in the morning are almost as good as first ribs from a Bradley smoker.  The grooming team has done a phenomenal job getting the hill ready.  Its going to be a great season.

My buddies have told me I am no spring chicken anymore.  At damn near 50 I can ski circles around most of the young whipper snappers.  But since I have not used these muscles for a while, we decide not to over do it.  My buddy and I take a couple of breaks during the morning and even stop for lunch.  Mid season that is sacrilege.  Nothing smoked for lunch but what can you do?  I know, that is sacrilege too !

Back out for a few more runs in the afternoon.  My legs are coming back to me.  I can start to feel the flow of the hill coming back to me.  Then skiing a run called "Stretcher", my buddy takes a header.  Head over feet twisting body.  Ralph is laid out on the hill screaming in pain.  The ski patrollers come by and try to figure out how to get him in a stretcher to the bottom of the hill.  A little ironic, skiing a run called Stretcher and leaving in one.  No one can figure exactly what is wrong.  Call an ambulance and off to the hospital he goes.

I pick up all the gear and put it in the car.  What are friends for?  I head to hospital stop number 1 in beautiful Barrie Ontario.  4 hours for an x ray, a cast, and advise that suggests we should go back to our own hospital in the city.  The place is filled with broken skiers and snowboarders.  As a skier, I don't feel sorry for the snowboarders, somehow it has to be their fault.  LOL  By this point Ralph has a pretty good buzz going as the hospital gave him some Percs to numb out the pain.  He is loving the drive back to the city.  The lights apparently look much prettier when you are buzzing on pain meds.

Hospital stop number 2:  Oakville Ontario.  Arrive around 9, depart at 2 30 AM.  Arrive with cast, leave without cast.  Arrive with x rays, leave with new x rays.  Surgery sounds probable.  Need to go to another hospital in the morning.  Ortho surgeon will decide what to do.

Hospital stop number 3:  11 AM next day, actually it's the same day after leaving Oakville.  Going to see orthopedic surgeon in Milton Ontario, 30 minutes from Oakville.  Ralph is prepared for surgery.  Surgeon says he did a good job.  I say go big or go home.  Apparently Ralph has accomplished both.  Nice spiral break in tibia.  Shattered fibia.  Might be able to avoid surgery.  Surgeon suggests he might be able to re set the thing and cast it after a twist of the bone and leg.  I am not the patient and have already exceeded my pain tolerance.  Time for a morphine trip, not for me but for Ralph.  Ralph is doing all the flying and I am doing all the driving...  LOL  Whats wrong with this picture?

1 hour later, leg is snapped back in place.  Morphine is working nicely.  Nice new cast from toe to hip.  Some more drugs to take home for pain management.  4 month sentence to wearing a cast.  Bye bye ski season for Ralph.  Maybe ski career depending on what happens.

I am going to hang a big "H" sign on my roof. My other buddy falls a couple of weeks ago and winds up living at my place for a week.  Ralph eats some snow, now he's eating my food, monopolizing my TV, wanting to know what I am smoking next, not sure how he is going to feel about watching Pitmasters tomorrow night...   LOL   My other buddy will be moving back in for a week before he moves into a retirement home.  This good Samaritan stuff is expensive..  LOL and tiring and taxing. But what are friends for?

I hope my second day of ski season is better than my first !  and not nearly as long.
Snow, baby snow.

[Tenpoint5]

Sounds like I don't want to be your BUDDY!!! I don't have the best of luck as it is. ;D ;D

[FLBentRider]

Wow.

Sounds like some of my adventures. I've had that fracture, and that cast. got away without the surgery.

I'm not sure I want to be your friend either - there seems to be a level of risk associated with that  ;D ;D

[manxman]

At damn near 50

I hit 50 this year and am going skiing for the first time next March. Reading this perhaps I should reconsider!!  ;) :D

[KevinG]

Only went skiing once, there was a lake at the bottom of the hill, need I say more! --- Had you thinking I went in didn't I. Well I didn't but had to fall to stop myself before I did. It was a lot of fun, but I'm thinking I might be a little too old for that now too. Pretty sure most ski places have bars at the bottom so you can watch other people crash while your getting plastered. A lot less painful!

[justpete]

Wow oakville that's not the best ski trip I ever read about that's for sure.

You are a good friend. You should take a first aid course and do on slope first aid when you go with these fragile young guys.

I understand the snowboarder thing. It was probably their fault to begin with.  ;D

[oakville smoker]

Well Ralph is 66 so you wuss 50 year olds, get on the hill and slide some
for me, the steeper the better
I dragged Ralph through some pretty interesting places on the mountain over the years, places he would probably havenot gone if he had common sense but of course he was following me !

For the record:  I was behind Ralph when he fell. I am only the convalescent care person now.
For the record:  I was in a different city when my 86 year old buddy took a dive

But I can see why people would not want to be my friend anymore....  LOL   Its too damn dangerous

[Tenpoint5]

But I can see why people would not want to be my friend anymore....  LOL   Its too damn dangerous

That's what I was trying to say but in a kinder gentler sort of way!! ;D

[FLBentRider]

For the record:  I was behind Ralph when he fell. I am only the convalescent care person now.

So you are saying you pushed him... I got it now.... :P ::) ;D ;D

[Pachanga]

I had a buddy take a dive and the bindings didn't release.  Same spiral fracture.  The screaming covered the hill until the morphine kicked in.  Then, like you said, he was flying.

Six months in a cast and the leg was never the same.  He happened to be a surgeon.  He did developed more empathy for his patients.

I winter fly fish more than I ski now when we go to Colorado but still "smoke" (pun intended) it down the mountain occasionally.  It is nice being the only one on the river.  The crowds are on the mountain.  Be careful out there.

Good luck and slow skiing,

Pachanga

[car54]

Oakville smokers,

All can can say is that you are a devoted friend. Priceless.

Brad

[oakville smoker]

Thanks all

Slow skiing, Pachanga, NEVER....   LOL
I live for that feeling when I glide up to the start of a run and all I can see is air under my ski tips because the terrain is so steep
that once you commit to the run, you are in for the ride of your life.  Slow smoking yes, slow skiing never.

Good old Ralph is still hanging out on my couch.  They are cutting the cast off tomorow morning for the first follow up  xray.  Then of course putting another cast on in its place and so the process will continue for the next 4 months.  Ralph is depating tomorrow for his own place so I will once again have a bed available for anyone convalesing.

Pitmasters on TV tonight should make the fight for the converted a little more intense     :o    Actually Ralph is no trouble and I owe him.  He has poured me off a few buses upon arrival at a ski resort and even carried my suitcase up 3 flights of stairs to a room we shared.  He was the first guy lined up to help me when I needed some help with some junk going on in my own life. This is the least I can do.

Without sounding sappy, I think we are blessed with a couple of high quality friendships throughout our lives.  Ralph qualifies for that as does my 86 year old buddy who is damn near reduced to tears every time I put some smoked ribs in front of him at my kitchen table.  Not a lot to do to make an old guy a very happy guy.  What comes around, goes around.

[tsquared]

I'm going for the first trip of the year over New Year's at Sun Peaks here in BC. Lots of snow so far this year here in our province , which bodes well for the Olympics in February. Worst injury  I've ever done to myself in, hmmmm--49 years of skiing is a couple of cracked ribs. Keep it up, Oakville!! You're never to old to go skiing!
T2

[oakville smoker]

I just shipped my injured friend home.  He will survive his injury and should be making his tail induced turns again next season.
I am off for 2 weeks, its only been 24 hours and I have cabin fever.  I think I will be driving to  the ski hill tomorrow or Monday night
and get some turns in.

I have heard Sun Peaks is amazing.  I have skied Whistler, Sunshine, Norquay and Louise out  there.  Louise by far is my favourite hill
in the world.  The last few years have been Stowe, Quebec, Maine.  One day before my knees give out I will break the bank and go
heli skiing for a day.  Major reno on the foundation of the house this year has killed away ski trips this season although I have my eye
ona trip to Stowe in March if I see any kind of a performance bonus this year.

Now I have to get back to my sausage making.  I may go in the garage and melt some ski wax  just because.....   LOL

[tsquared]

Now I have to get back to my sausage making.  I may go in the garage and melt some ski wax  just because.....   LOL

Well, either activity will produce smoke!
This is my first time at Sun Peaks, I have heard good things too. i have skied most places in BC but for some reason never got there, so I'm looking forward to it. Most of my skiing these days is here on the island at Mt. Washington, which gets 20-25 ft of snow a year but rarely gets that dry, interior powder which I crave.
T2