I knew I just needed one more day to get a back flip. So I went up Friday 4/16 (T-2 days til close), despite the fact I had to be at the Hammies in Longmont 6:30. And I would need to be able to walk and speak coherently.
After about an hour of straight, I decided to take the lift up and meditate about the how this was all going to go down. Plus, every hike up to the drop in would give me a big shot of adrenaline. So after a ridiculously long time, I got off the lift, skied down and waited at the top of the drop-in. I was scared, so I thought about for awhile and then the skis started moving. I skipped the first two kickers and concentrated on the third.
Then, I came to the third one and gave it everything I had, which turned out to not be quite enough. I shorted it and caught the knuckle with my tips. The next several were too hard and I landed too far back to ski away. The one after those was way too hard. It knocked the wind out of me and I thought cracked some ribs over my sternum, even though I landed on my back. I waited about twenty minutes and had my lunch before I tried the next one.
Then…success. I don’t know what changed, but I landed on my skis just beautifully. I did another that was a little over-rotated, but followed that up with a beauty. From there I skiied down to the car and left.
Mission accomplished–goal complete. I guess I really wanted an iron cross, but a plain old back flip will have to do for this season.
