February 9, 2025 Collision at 6000 feet

Pain. So. Much. Pain.

It happened so fast. Button felt great, and the turns on snow linked together in a joyful dance. His vacation had just begun, and he was feeling his legs in sync as he sped down the mountain. 

Then it happened.

One second, he was skiing down Powder Gulch toward Sleepy Hollow. He made the turn, then came the collision.

It was a body slam like none he’d ever experienced.

Or expected.

Then came the pain.

He knew it was bad, he felt his shoulder move in a way that wasn’t right.

He remembered turning left when, out of nowhere, a skier slammed right into his side. It wasn’t the impact from the skier that hurt. 

It was the sudden impact with the ground.

The next thing he knew, he was lying under a tree just off the run. And the pain was coursing through his shoulder. 

Braffster and Barrman were somewhere nearby, and he felt a surge of regret. He’d been looking forward to doing a few turns with his friends. They’d left the top of The Ridge Chair only moments before. 

Now he was lying in a heap wondering if his ski season was done. 

“Hey man, you ok? What happened?” Barrman’s voice broke through his painful haze. Was he okay? He sensed the loose movement in his collar and knew the answer.

“No, I’m not ok. I think I broke my collarbone.” Button trend to move, “Ah fuck that hurts.” Pain spiked into his arm.

“Okay Button, just relax, ski patrol is on their way.” Braffster’s voice came from up the hill.

God, he wanted to go back in time and change the last five minutes of his life. What the hell happened anyway? It was like he’d been hit by a freight train. He glanced around and tried to get his bearings. Barrman helped him back to the run and he stood up. “Argh, that hurts.” He sat back down it was easier just to sit and wait for rescue.

“Sorry man, I assumed you were going straight, I didn’t expect you to turn.” It was the voice of the freight train that hit him. He really didn’t know what to say he just glared at the guy, wishing he’d been more careful. 

Where did the guy come from anyway?

Barrman and Braffster stared at him and he could feel the worry in their eyes. Shit, shit, shit. He’d just got to the hill only four days earlier. He was excited to have eight weeks at his favourite ski resort in Canada. It was supposed to be an epic holiday. As he sat waiting for patrol, pain pulsing through him, all he could think about was how this was going to fuck that right up.

It seemed like forever but was probably less than ten minutes, and two young ski patrollers showed up with a toboggan. This was not how he planned on getting to the bottom of the mountain.

“Don’t worry, buddy. These two will take good care of you.” Barrman reached over and grabbed his helmet and his toque. In a blur, the young man and woman patroller checked his vital signs and handed him a couple of pills. 

Every movement hurt as they eased him onto the sled. The laughing gas was a blessing, it dulled the pain while they wrapped him like a moth in a cocoon on the sled.

He heard the skidoo pull up and they shifted around and started hauling him off the mountain. He felt secure on the sled, yet a mixture of feelings surged through him. Pain, fear, and a bit of excitement pulsed in his body. Excitement? That must be the drugs.

“Hey, Button, I think you could have come up with a better way to get a free ride on the tobbagan.” Barrman’s voice came from the distance.

He nodded and tried to smile. Indeed, there was a better way to get a tobbagan ride. 

With every bump the sled took, he felt a new surge of pain, yet it felt like it was happening to someone else. He sure wished it was someone else being dragged off the mountain on a sled.

He sensed a jumble of movements and motion as he was whisked to the bottom of the mountain. The next thing he knew, the tarp was being pulled off his head. 

“We’re here, at the patrol hut. You made it.” Braffster stared down at him. They made it off the hill, now what?

His body felt disconnected from him as he tried to stand and walk into the patrol hut. At least his legs worked, even though his brain could barely tell his feet what to do. That was the drugs, definitely the drugs.

Everything was jumbling together; the pain was still there in the distance. Numbness circled him, and his wife stared at him with a look of love and concern. Where did she come from anyway? That’s right, he’d asked Braffster to call his buddy Gusman to let him know what happened. Like magic, they appeared. 

A young doctor came into the hut and checked his injury. It wasn’t as bad as he’d feared. His collarbone was dislocated and didn’t appear to be broken. Maybe his season wasn’t over. 

The next thing he knew he was in Kelowna General Hospital. The doctors and nurses in the hospital treated him with such good care. They did an x-ray and scanned him, four hours later, he was on his way back up the hill.

Gusman drove the road back up to his mountain home. He glanced at Button and asked, “How you doing, mate?”

The pain was in the distance, and his hope for a new tomorrow pulsed through him, “I’m pissed that I’m going to miss some ski days.”

His wife laughed and shook her head. “Yup, he’ll be right as rain soon enough.”

The nxt morning he stared at himself in the mirror, his collarbone out of place. It look weird and very freaky seeing the bulge in his neck. Here goes nothing, he pushed on the bone. “Faaaack!” The pain surged through his body.

But his collarbone was back in place, the bulge wasn’t near as big.

When he saw the orthopaedic surgeon the next morning, he stared at the x-ray and then at Button. “Hello, I thought you were here to have me put that back in place. Looks like you took care of it.” The doctor glanced at him sideways, “That must have hurt like hell”

“Sure as hell did hurt.” Button grimaced. 

“Ya and the $2500.00 charge would have hurt even more.” The doctor laughed. “Get better soon.”

***

This is a true story from Big White Ski Resort.

This was the second friend of mine who was taken off the mountain on a sled in the last month. We all love our sport, but this is a stark reminder of how fragile we can be. It is so vitally important to be careful on the slopes. People should never assume anything. The guy who hit Button was traveling too fast and too close. He assumed that he was going straight, when Button made a turn to go left.

The result was disastrous.  

I hope my friends are back on the slopes to do what they love. 

I know I will use this to remind myself to use care and be aware.