Tired, cold, brutal

I've been a ski patroller for a while now... I think this is my 9th season.  Yesterday, specifically last night, were the worst conditions I've ever patrolled in, or skiied in for that matter.  It would be bad enough if it was just bulletproof ice, but last night was worse.  Imagine taking a hockey rink, covering it with ball bearings that somehow manage to stick in places, tipping it on its side, then having skiers push the ball bearings (we call it "sugar snow") into irregular and unpredictable islands between the oceans of bulletproof ice.  So you start down the ice which although not fun is at least steady, then -- WHOA -- hit a pile of sugar, which attempts to slam you to a stop, throw you over the side, or at least make you look stupid (and it succeeds at that quite well, thanks) -- then back to the bulletproof then blam, back into sugar, then back onto bulletproof... you get the idea.   Makes for some pretty sporting conditions, especially when taking a huge guy down the hill in a toboggan, especially since we're expected to be able to stop & turn and all that.  Oh, add in the peak gusts to 84 mph on one side of the ski hill, 82 on the other, and yes, it's pretty sporting indeed.

On sweep (when we slowly & carefully look over the sides of all the trails to make sure skiers haven't managed to land themselves against or upside-down-under trees, rocks, hoses, pipes, and so on) I even had a ski blow off the slope and over the side.  Stepped out of my bindings for a few minutes to roll up a net so the groomers wouldn't turn it into net-confetti... turned around to step back in and "wait a minute, I swear I had two skis here just a couple minutes ago."  One of them was gone, missing, see ya!  Fortunately the patroller I was with noticed it over the side just down the hill.

It was blowing so hard, that I was actually blown UP a slight grade when I put my arms out like a sail.

Strange, strange night.

Thank goodness there were not so many skiers out there last night, or things could've gotten truly nasty.  Of course no hope of getting a helicopter in last night, so anyone who had been bad hurt would've been ground-pounding only to the hospital.  Thank goodness it didn't come to that.  We had a few injuries, but mostly routine stuff, shoulders, elbows, heads, knees, puking, shins, and so on...  Dodged a bullet last night...
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