The agony and the ecstasy

Yesterday I finally achieved my last ambition of the season: to do the Dive. Delirium Dive is Sunshine's extreeeeeeme freeride terrain and I felt like I was the last person in the world - or at least among my circle of friends - to do it. Even Darrell did it a few days ago with some friends of mine while I was stuck at work and when Kate came in yesterday and mentioned she'd just done it, I knew I had to get up there asap. I was planning to do it today with Zander, but when Isaac offered to take me there yesterday afternoon I was determined to 'get her done', as we say out here.

In order to go to the Dive you have to go with a partner, be carrying an avalanche beacon (and know how to use it) as well as a probe and a shovel. I borrowed a friend's and we headed up at
2pm for our ride break. I got nervous as I reached the top - the drop in is ridiculously steep and you really don't want to fall there because you'd just keep going! Took me a while to get into the jump turns on the steeps but, with a bit of
side slipping thrown in, I was soon getting the hang of it. We were having a ball - it was so hot I even stopped midway to take half my clothes off and Isaac threw huge snowballs at our boss Casey, who'd joined us. Then, when we reached the relatively flat run out, we decided to gun it though the powder. Fatal error.

As I zipped through the still very deep but tracked out powder, I managed to catch an edge. I took a big tumble and felt my leg twist as I did so, though to my surprise my ski didn't release. I sat for a moment afterwards and realised my right calf was really rather painful, but assumed it was just muscle spasm. I got up and tried to ski down, it was hurting but if I put all my weight on my left foot and didn't turn much, I was able to get down to Casey & Isaac. The pain started getting worse, but I still had to get out of there, so I kept going with Isaac's help, doing the difficult bits on my bum or walking. When I got back to the piste I was able to straight line it down to the gondola station, which was very painful but what choice did I have? Got on the gondola, but by the time I got off, I was in agony. Still reluctant to acknowledge it could be anything other than muscle damage, I got back to Guest Services with Darrell's - who was waiting at the bottom for me - help (piggy
back!) and got changed. Went to walk back to the bus and realised that I couldn't walk. I asked Darrell to get ski patrol for me. Larry from ski patrol arrived promptly, did a few tests and said he thought it could be broken, so a wheelchair was obtained and I was wheeled to the infirmary to be splinted. I sat outside in the sun with Andrew, a fellow skier who had landed badly off a jump in the terrain park, waiting for my lift to the hospital (no ambulances here for us foreigners with no health care cover) and to cut a long story short, yes, the damn leg was broken. A classic skier's 'boot top fracture' of the fibula, in case you're interested.

I'm still in a lot of pain - back to the Percocets for me! - and unable to do a goddamn thing for myself, but can't say I'm devastated. I mean, I've managed to do everything this season I really wanted to do. I learnt to ski, I did my Level 1 ski instructor's course, I've had awesome road trips to Big Mountain, Fernie, Castle and Revelstoke. I had a go at snowboarding and even bought a board, despite not really liking it very much! And I finally did the Dive. There's only 3 weeks of the season left and yes, I won't be skiing, but I've had such an amazing season to date that I have to be damn grateful. And far better that I broke my leg doing the Dive than on some tame green run.

Darrell bought me a badge, which says: Delirium Dive: No Guts, No Glory. I couldn't agree more.