Nic (another housemate) and I made some serious speed down the Saddle, stopping about half way to check on Rachel, who was following behind at a much more conservative speed - no problems.
So Nic and I take off again at pretty good speed and accelerating. Just then I notice a whole group of skiers, carving from left to right like crazy who came in on the side of the run. Nic flew right past one guy, and I slowed down a little to see what he was going to do. Turn right, so, I went left, and accelerated down the hill. Then just as I was passing him, he turns hard left and hits me from the side. I see him coming at me and try to turn away, but I didn't manage to avoid the collision.
Travelling quite some speed, I completely stacked it, flipping over about 10 times, snapping both bindings clean off my board. Lucky for me, I was wearing my helmet, and got up with only a tiny bruise on my knee. The other guy wasn't wearing a helmet and looked a bit cross-eyed when he got up, saying "Sorry, mate. I didn't see you there. Got a bit of a blind spot on these goggles."
Turns out he was part of an advanced ski school, training to be a ski instructor. Clown.
I walked, carrying my broken bindings down to the Peak Chair, where the Liftys got on the radio and sent a Skidoo (motorbike on skis) to come get me, and I rode down the gondola to the village. Where I just managed to get home in time to go to work.
Shailee, being ever so helpful, took my board and broken bindings back to the shop where I bought them, and - to cut a long story short - replaced the broken parts. Which means now I have even more cool mismatched "frankenstein" bindings. :)
Just in time for us to leave for Calgary the next morning to see Jodie and Mike and go snowboarding in Banff/Lake Louise.
Later, Matt
