Really all I was doing was repeating the same pattern I had been living for the last couple of months. Going a bit farther than common sense dictated and seeing what would happen. In the last month this philosophy had caused me to get lost, wipe out on my bicycle, and have to negotiate my way around a rattlesnake and a shooting range. For the most part it meant going out, not paying quite enough attention, getting in a bit of a pickle and then doing what it takes to get out. This involves frustration, determination, and a certain amount of satisfaction once I am able to extract myself from the situation.
On this fine day my friend Kyle and I were above tree line and hiking right around 12,000 feet. We had seen snow on the way up under trees and in other shady places that was sticking around despite the last month’s unrelenting heat. There were also lots of high altitude flowers speckled across the tundra for our viewing pleasure. It had been a relatively late start, 9:30, but we traveled quick and had been able to summit Fall Mountain and were looking to tackle Comanche Peak when my knees began to ache. We decided to head back by cutting down to a lower trail. This involved descending a rather steep slope to a picturesque lake.
A week and a half later I would watch Touching the Void where one of the narrators explained that 80% of all accidents happen on the descent. But for now I didn’t know that but it was rather obvious as there was lots of loose rock and the lead person was in constant danger of being struck by a displaced rock from the person following. To try and get around this landslide in waiting we headed for some snow with the thought in mind that we could slide down and find ourselves on flatter terrain. The top of the snow looked just a little too steep for traveling so we went down about 40 feet to reassess the slope. Things looked a little safer here so I whispered a quick prayer and got onto the snow.
I slid a little ways and stopped myself and repeated the process just to test things out. But when I started sliding again I was unable to stop or even really direct myself. I quickly gained speed while desperately trying to get a grip on the slick surface. There have been moments past in tight situations where I felt that even though things looked bleak, I was on a path that fate was dictating and what appeared as beyond my control was in actuality a series of dynamic moves no more dangerous than crossing a foot bridge. Then there are other times where I tumble along like dice and my fate rest in cold probability. Interestingly enough Einstein said that God does not play dice with the universe while quantum mechanics says just the opposite. Of course they were talking subatomic particles, not foolish hikers.
Somewhere in that snowfield was a small buried boulder. My left foot struck it painfully and though I lost some speed I could also see and was beginning to feel that the ankle was severely dislocated. I slid a little farther before tumbling into more rocks and my resting spot guestimated as 200’ below where I started. Pulling myself into a sitting position I assessed my injuries as a really messed up left ankle, a sore right leg that I would later find out was broken, a bleeding posterior, and a rather cut up face that was having blood soaked up by my stocking cap. I was also five miles from the nearest road and I felt like dice.
