This story has been repeated quite a bit, but no matter how many times it has been told there are always more who have not heard it yet. So here it is and if anyone wants pictures all they need to do is click on the thumbnail to get the full picture.
It was a great day. The sun was out, it had been snowing heavily days before and well, the sun was out. Stephanie wanted to try snowmobiling. We had gotten into a beginner's group, which was made up of a bunch of soccer fanatical, fun at all means, we're-on-vacation Londoner nursing an all night of drinking hangover. The group reminded me of Monty Python movie, not because they all had English accents though it helped, but the spontaneous bursts of insanity that occurred everytime the convoy stopped.
It was a fun bunch of people we had and the trails the guide was taking were breath-taking. We were taking the trails at a pretty good pace. After a while I was almost tempted to take off my helmet, but I resisted knowing how cold it would get whipping through the trails. I started off in the front of the pack with the guide (that's me in the yellow). The guide took the group to a frozen lake to allow everyone some practice time driving their snowmobiles.
- They have a centrifugal transmission, which means that the higher the transmission revs it shifts to the next gear.
- Unless you have been riding for a while and have had a lot of practice, you have to go up an incline straight on or you tip over.
- When you let go the gas, the snowmobile will come to a stop...Unless it is downhill.
The frozen lake we were on was surrounded by a road, at some points there was a 4 to 6 foot high incline onto the road from the lake bed. In order to get to the road from the lake bed one has to drive up the incline straight on or risk toppling over.
According to Stephanie, she was still trying to get used to driving the snowmobile when she wanted to go up to the road. In trying to get up enough speed to up the incline she revved up the snowmobile a little too hard... Ok, a lot too hard. She turned that incline into a launching ramp. She flew over part of the road. The back end of the snowmobile landed on the far end of the road and jack-knifed the snowmobile into a 25-foot ravine on the other side of the lake. Stephanie flew over the handle bars and landed flat at the bottom of the ravine.
Fortunately, it had been snowing heavily the days before so a thick, soft bed of fluffy snow broke her fall. According to Stephanie, she was more embarrassed about the situation than hurt. She in the process of evaluating her condition, wiggling her fingers and toes to make sure she didn't break her back or anything like that. What she did not realize was though the snowmobile was no longer revving, it was still uphill from her location. It slowly inched its way down until the snowmobile slowly stopped right on top of her and pushed her even deeper into the snow. By this time, she was now 3 feet deep in the snow, making a pretty good "Stephanie silhouette" in the snow.
One of the guys from London found her and quickly called the rest of the group for help. One of the guys found me at the other end of the lake and told me, "Your wife is hurt!" My first reaction was, "My wife? I don't have a wife..." Then I thought, "Oh you must mean..." I got there just in time to see the guide do this most amazing thing. He zipped up his coat and slid down the hill Frosty the Snowman style! Considering the urgency of the situation, I thought that would be the quickest way down so I tried to get down there the same way, only to have a totally different outcome. I ended up making my own silhouette in the snow. By the time I reached the "crash site" the guys were already rolling the snowmobile off Stephanie's back. When I heard Stephanie talking to the guide, I asked her if she was ok and if we were going to need to take her to the hospital. She reassured everyone that she just a little shaken and that she's fine. Hearing that, I just HAD to tell her "smile" and started taking pistures. One of the guys seeing me snapping away started clicking away with his camera.
Song of the Day: "I Can See For Miles" by The Who
posted by Angel at 2/15/2004 08:31:00 PM
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