Crying & Kvetching in Park City

[Click on the pictures for larger versions.]

I eased into skiing on the first day, to see how much the tendon injury that had hung over from my trip to Telluride would interfere with turning and braking. The pain was manageable. After washing down a cookie with two bottles of American Ale--Budweiser's laughable entry into the craft brew market--I left Wes, Courtney, and Aaron to ski double black diamond runs in Park City's Jupiter Bowl by myself. The first two runs in the bowl were a  blast. 

These shots show the West Face run on Jupiter Peak.

I decided to do a third run and then rejoin my pals. While skiing down an icy but not very steep ridge above the Portuguese Gap, I hit a series of ramps too hard. I lost my balance after the third lip and the impact pushed my right ski up and back with force, which aggravated the damaged tendon in my right calf. 

The next day pain woke me up at 4:00 a.m.  The pain proved invulnerable to topical analgesics and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. I tried to ski that afternoon but forcing my foot into the boot was cringe-inducing, and walking in  boots was low level torture. I had to give up on skiing for the remainder of the trip.

My friends mocked my debilitated state with taunts  like, "Pansy Ass Motherfucker!" and "If you were a man, you'd shake it off, faggot!" While they skied, I cooled my jets back at our condo, deprived of any consolation other than a secret malign hope that they might become casualties of their own mountain accidents. But the lucky devils rode and skied their guts out. For the second season, Aaron made serious progress with the snowboard. They stayed healthy and I was denied the schadenfreude I so richly deserved.

My tormentors making their way to No Name Saloon on the night before the last day of snow sports. The iPhone camera is terrible except in ideal lighting.

Aaron took this one and the remaining pictures on the last day, at the Canyons Resort outside of Park City. 

On the last day, Aaron was traversing across a run at speed when he and Wes collided hard. The impact sent Wes sprawling onto the run and Aaron fell down a ten or so foot embankment onto the run below. Passersby were shocked that neither of them got hurt, and regretted that they had not recorded the spectacular crash so as to boost their e-cred with a highly viewed YouTube video.

The top of the embankment that Aaron fell down, with Courtney pointing out to a slightly concussed Wes where exactly the collision occurred.