The White Slope by confusedalarms . (reading an ebook .TXT) 📕

The end station of this particular lift was finally in sight after a long time, and here at the top of the mountain the visibility wasn’t as good as it had been down in the valley. It was foggy and it had also started to snow a little while we’d been in the lift. We got out and walked out of the station and onto snow that was much softer, fresher and deeper than the snow in the valley, which had been relatively solid because they’d been groomed the night before and there hadn’t been any snowfall before now. As we looked for an open space among the mass of people where we could put on our skis, we passed the information point which told you all kinds of things, like how cold it is here, how cold it is in the valley, what the weather predictions are for tomorrow, and the avalanche risk. It said the avalanche risk up here was 5 out of 5, meaning ‘very high’, and it warned us to not go off the groomed runs, as the risk was even higher there. ‘You guys,’ I said, ‘look at this.’ They walked over.
‘Oh Aaron, you shouldn’t worry about avalanches. I’ve gone off the slopes countless times with a ‘very high’ risk, and nothing ever happened to me. Now let’s go. We’ll do an intermediate slope first, just to warm you up.’


9

The difference was immediately noticeable. On these slopes it was a lot harder to keep your speed under control, and before I knew it I could no longer see Mike, Josh and Jake because of the fog, which was becoming denser all the time. All of the sudden I was completely alone, with visibility now so poor I could barely see ten yards ahead. Beyond that everything was white. Luckily enough I could still see the wooden poles that marked the end of the groomed run I was on. So I made my way slowly down the white slope, and after what seemed like a long time I could finally see three small specks of black among the endless sea of white, and I felt tremendously relieved when I heard Mike yelling ‘HEY AARON! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU BEING SO SLOW FOR?’ It was an insult, but I didn’t care. I made my way down the last fifty or so yards of the slope, and then I was finally standing next to them. ‘How’s that for a warming-up?’ Jake said, amused. ‘We’ve been waiting here for almost 5 minutes! What the hell were you doing?’
‘I lost you guys just after we started…..I couldn’t see anything…..’
‘It’s called fog, and you’ll have to learn to live with it, because we’re gonna have a lot more of it the coming days. Now let’s go all the way down to the valley, and when we get back up here we’ll do some advanced stuff. Sound good?’
‘Yeah, sure.’
In reality I was terrified.


10

But of course I didn’t say anything. We went down the slope some more and after five minutes or so we finally got low enough for the fog to go away. And when it had it went much better. I was still miles behind the rest but at least I didn’t have to be terrified of accidentally going off the slope and falling into an unexpected abyss anymore. Several minutes after that the intermediate slope turned into a beginner slope, and we skied into the little town where the lifts were. We got into one that we hadn’t been on yet, because when you got out of it there were only advanced slopes. ‘Well dude, here we go. This is the real stuff we’re gonna do now. No more kid’s slopes,’ Mike said. I nodded, grinning, but inside all I felt was fear.


11

We reached the end station at the top of the mountain (alt. 2675ft. a sign I walked by said) and got out. There was almost no-one here, unlike last time, when it had been very crowded. The visibility seemed to have gotten even worse since then, and I almost walked headfirst into an information point I hadn’t been able to see yet. The only people there were us and two skiers who were both alone and who looked determined to ski as much as they could. One of them got going down the slope, and it looked like he just disappeared into the all-encompassing white. But the worst thing was the angle. It looked to me as if the slope he was going down had about a 50 degree angle, which was almost twice as steep as the intermediate runs. ‘Are we gonna go down that one?’ I shouted, because there was also a lot of wind here, which made it very hard for us to hear each other. ‘Yeah! It’s gonna be very hard for you, I think,’ Josh said, ‘But you’ll just have to take it slow and try not to fall or go where the snow isn’t groomed. We’ll wait for you every one in a while, it doesn’t matter how long it takes you, ok?’ ‘Ok.’
We went down the last slope of the day.


12

It was horrible. Much, much worse than the last one. All I could think was Don’t fall, don’t fall, don’t fall. But I did. I skied into an unexpected heap of snow and tumbled over into it. Fortunately I’d already had some practice getting up that day, so it was relatively easy to do so. What was harder was to get going again from scratch. The fog was so dense now all I could see was white, and white that was a little lighter. That was the snow. I skied parallel to the slope for a while, and then a pole appeared suddenly amongst the sea of white. Oh shit! I thought, and tried with all my might to turn. I managed to at the last minute, but I felt like I’d narrowly avoided death. And maybe I had. After all, I couldn’t see what was beyond that pole at all. There might have been an abyss, and then again there might just have been more ungroomed, fresh snow. I would never know, so it didn’t matter. I had some speed now, so I could go on. An unknown amount of time passed in which I skied slowly in this white hell. And then, suddenly, there were people. Three of them. They looked familiar. ‘Look out!’ I heard Mike shout, and I tried to slow down, but couldn’t. I banged into the three of them and we all fell down into snow that was at least a foot deep. ‘What the fuck do you think you’re doing?!’ Jake shouted, furious. ‘I’m sorry..’
‘Oh yeah, sure you’re sorry. But that doesn’t help, does it. We just stood here waiting for you for like ten minutes, and then you finally arrive and you bang into us just like that!’
‘Jake, calm down,’ Josh said, still lying on the ground.’
‘No Josh, I will NOT calm down! He’s been a burden all day and I’m sick of it, you hear me? SICK OF IT!!’ Those last words he shouted at the top of his lungs. And then we all heard it. A loud rumbling sound coming from above us. ‘Oh shit!’ Mike shouted.’ Ski! Go! Now!’
But it was too late. Suddenly we were all swept from our feet by the wave of snow that was coming at us with enormous speed.


13

We were being dragged, first down the slope and then off it, as the avalanche chose its own path down the mountain. I lost the rest within seconds, and then I was buried in a world of white, going down a mountain I couldn’t see at breakneck speed. How long it took I didn’t know. All I knew was it was cold. The snow was everywhere, surrounding me like solid, cold water. After what seemed like an eternity I finally started to slow down, and when the great tsunami of snow finally stopped it was like I was in a sea of cold white nothing. At first I was perfectly still, still not believing what had just happened. Two minutes ago I’d been on a skiing trip with my best friends. Sure it hadn’t been going well just then, but in essence there’d been nothing wrong. And now this. I had no idea how deep in snow I was, or where I was, but what I did know was there was no-one who knew where we were, which meant they probably wouldn’t find us for days, weeks…or maybe never. No! Don’t think that! You’re gonna get out of here just fine if you just… There seemed to be only one thing to do, and that was to try to dig my way out of the snow. Just one problem: I had no idea which way was up or down. I decided to try yelling, to see if one or more of my friends were perhaps closer than I thought. ‘MIKE! JOSH! J-‘ But the final name was cut off rudely by the snow. Suddenly it filled my mouth, and when I finally managed to close it some snow had already found its way down into my lungs, and I felt an icy pain in my chest. I couldn’t say anything, and I couldn’t move. All I could do was stay still as my entire body started to freeze.


14

I don’t know how much time passed. All I know is that it seemed long. Very, very long. I never thought it would be so painful to freeze, but it was. Very. Obviously I couldn’t see the rest of my body, but if I could I would’ve seen that everything was blackening. First the feeling in my hands and feet disappeared, and than that sensation of numbness crawled further up my legs and arms. And I knew that when it reached my chest I would just die. I didn’t want to be there when I did. My wish ever since I was a little boy trying to grasp the whole concept of death I had known I wanted to die in my sleep, peacefully. And lying here I found that I was very tired. So I went to sleep for the last time. My last thought, as my mind wandered off into unconsciousness was So this is how it ends. Oh well, I guess there are worse ways to go. Then the peaceful sleep of eternity came and took me.

Publication Date: 02-19-2012

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