Ski Trip Gone Wrong

My legs were starving to get out of my bindings on the last chair up the mountain. We had a huge day, starting on the first chair at 9am and now it's 3:45, quarter till closing. 

“We gotta do something easy man, My legs are killing me” I groaned. As much as I love snowboarding, when I'm done, I'm done. 

“No way! You know how much powder is still in those woods? We aren't coming back this season, we gotta take one more tree run, c’mon Scot.” Matt begged me, and eventually I obliged. As we hopped off the chairlift I could see the lift operator packing up for the end of day. I strapped as fast as I could while Matt complained we gotta go or the sweepers are gonna be right on our asses and not let us ski in the trees. We sped down the still fresh corduroy from the groomers and hopped into the woods when we came upon the entrance. 

“Alright it's getting kind of dark, let's not go too deep and get lost,” I jokingly murmured. Before I could finish my sentence Matt was hopping over rocks and dancing between trees, like usual outdoing me in everything he could. I leaned back really feeling how soar my quads were after having to float over the powder all day, I can't complain about it though.  I noticed that we've been going left pretty far and if we want to get back to the main trail we should probably start heading back to the right. 

“SCOT GO FAST AND HIT THIS DROP!!!” Matt hollered from below it.  I couldn't miss a good drop opportunity so I sped up, popped off the top of the boulder, and watched the powder spray out around me as I landed. I took the opportunity to lead Matt to the right as I was in the lead and waved at him to follow me. It seems takes so much focus to not hit a tree because they were so close together, but that's what made it fun. It would be kinda scary to lose control in these woods though I've always considered. 

“Why hasn't Matt skied past yet?”  I wondered. I heard a few small clanks and quickly but carefully made a heelside turn and leaned my hand against the tree to rest and check what Matt was gonna bother me with. “Matt?” I shouted assuming he would pop out of the trees in just a second to zoom past me. My heart beat skipped when I saw his skis barely popping out of the snow right under a big pine tree. I have read about tree wells but I never really considered them something I would have to deal with. From what I've seen tree wells seem to be an air pocket right next to the base of a tree that if you run into, can easily make you drop down into it, even headfirst.

I knew it would be hard to walk to him in the three to four foot deep powder but it would be even harder to jump over there still attached to my snowboard. When I heard Matt’s muffled yells I hurried up realizing how dangerous of a situation he was in. It's impossible to breathe with so much snow on him so I can only hope he has a small air pocket. My feet sunk into the snow so deep my breathing quivered from fear to the point where I needed to stop moving to make any progress. “I’m coming as fast I can Matt, stay calm!!” I cried out, only really to reassure myself. After what felt like ages I made it to the snowy tree and reached to unclick Matt’s skis. Quickly I dug and dug, faster than I've ever moved in my life and reached his shoulders. I pulled on his ski coat and pulled his face out of the snow. He gasped for air and grabbed on to me for his life.He huffed and puffed and wiped the loads of snow off his face

“Maybe we should've gone with your idea to go on the blue square trail haha” Matt barely was able to squeak out. 

“I just witnessed you almost suffocating to death Matt, no need to crack a joke” I said, astonished he would even consider making one. After we both calmed down we now had to hurdle the challenge of getting our board/skis on and getting out of these stupid woods before it became to dark. I used the patted down area of Matt’s “Almost-Suffocation” spot to strap in and slowly we both made our way out, often looking back at each other and going as far right as quickly as we could. When we made it back to the groomed trails I fell and kissed the ground as if I were a pirate lost at sea who had finally found land. The ride down was one of the most relieving rides I've ever had, even if my heart was still racing at a million miles an hour.