did you leave a cliffhanger ending on there
as a wry and artfully subtle joke?

warrappened?!
( djol, Sat 1 Feb 2003, 6:31, archived)

jeez-louise....
Can't you read it? He picked up speed like no man's business!
(Fellmeister, Sat 1 Feb 2003, 6:34, archived)

that's what i mean
could he slow down? if he slowed to to less than 50 mph, would the bomb in his parka go off? did it all end in a spectacular triple salko with a half pike and a perfect landing?
( djol, Sat 1 Feb 2003, 6:38, archived)

sorry I got distracted - checking the stats on the website for last month. - nearly 55Gig! and no nasty e-mails from blueyonder. I'll should be able to top 100 this month maybe ;)
Well I had the full kit - a couple of ski poles, goggles etc. Because it was a black slope in the couple of seconds it took to realise what had happened I was already going too fast to just try a controlled falling over.
I did the only thing I could, my instincts took over and I tucked down and went for it!
Full on downhill 40 + mph or whatever the normal speed is for a black slope.
It was fantastic, the slope wasn't a moghuls one thankfully, we'd been on a Red one that had a big field of them near the bottom the day before. So I was fine, no looking back, not that I could have anyway. I was flying!
Then I saw the end of the slope was coming.
( Professor Fnord Regius Professor of B3ta Chronology, Sat 1 Feb 2003, 6:51, archived)

oh man oh man
this is like those black and white serials they used to show on early morning tv.

"tune in, next time....."

*ahem* warrappened?
( djol, Sat 1 Feb 2003, 7:04, archived)

It levelled off with a hook around to the right
As I was coming down towards the end having reached terminal velocity I saw that if I didn't turn to carry on with the levelled off bit, which then went into another slope, I would be heading up this 'snow dune' and behind it all I could see was solid rock, I'd passed high above these particular rocks on the chair lift ride up to the top with my feet dangling into the abyss, so I knew how perilious they looked.
I was going faster than i'd ever been before under my own steam so I had no idea about stopping distances or anything, or how to stop other than just waiting until I've slowed down enough to do some snow plough turns and come to a stop. I surmised that I was most likely heading up the dune and I was going to launch off it eddie the eagle style and go slamming into the cliff.
( Professor Fnord Regius Professor of B3ta Chronology, Sat 1 Feb 2003, 7:06, archived)

yikes!!
the finale???

/edge of seat
( djol, Sat 1 Feb 2003, 7:12, archived)

Still running on instincts...
I just 'went for it' and tried to pull a parallel sliding stop a la Ski Sunday, only this was as I was starting to go up the dune, those people normally have a nice flat surface to do it on and loads of practice.
Anyway my subconscious is clearly quite staggering because it worked out all the physics and I actually did it. Spot on. Perfect decelleration curve, not a wobble or a shake - I just slidsideways up the dune and came to rest at the apex - seeing that in fact the cliff was a long way away and if I had flown off the top i'd have had a snowy landing.
I had the biggest grin on my face ever and I so wish someone had caught it on film. I didn;t even have to move my skis to balance to stand up properly. I just skidded to a stop, and I was facing pretty much straight up the Black slope now and could see how HUGE it was. And I couldn't make out where the others were at first because they were just little dots, I only recognised the snake shape of them and then I had to wait a good 15 minutes before the arrived at the bottom, and they all expected me to have crashed out somewhere. I did get a few appreciative 'woos' from some other skiiers who'd been further down the slope and passed while I was waiting for the rest of them to catch up.

The End.
( Professor Fnord Regius Professor of B3ta Chronology, Sat 1 Feb 2003, 7:17, archived)

woohoo!!!
such an epic deserves something nice and fluffy:
( djol, Sat 1 Feb 2003, 7:23, archived)

that#s cool
he's come a long way from such humble beginnings
( Professor Fnord Regius Professor of B3ta Chronology, Sat 1 Feb 2003, 7:25, archived)

just think
at this very moment, he could be clawing his way through someone's sofa
( djol, Sat 1 Feb 2003, 7:36, archived)

or
pissing in the corner
( gracielou, Sat 1 Feb 2003, 7:56, archived)