When I was younger, winter was my favourite season. Every fall I was looking forward to playing hockey with my friends and planning downhill ski trips.
I don’t play hockey anymore but I still enjoy downhill skiing and I look forward to it every year.
Even getting out tobogganing can help break up the winter.
It’s interesting to me that all of my favourite winter sports and activities have an element of risk to them.
I was never seriously hurt playing hockey or downhill skiing, but I certainly got my bell rung more than a few times.
When I was a teenager, my sister and I went out tobogganing at the escarpment immediately south of Downey Green one night when it was snowing heavily. Not much thought went into it, it was a “Look at all that snow! Lets go!” situation.
It was well after dark but the glow from the streetlights against the fresh snow gave enough illumination to see where we were going.
We had the hill all to ourselves and the fresh snow was incredible.
I was flying down the hill when I got my foot stuck under my GT Snow Racer sled. Pain and nausea swept over me and I knew it was broken. I couldn’t move, all I could do was sit in the snow and moan. My little sister ran home to get help.
I can still picture my Dad’s Buick ploughing through the deep snow in the park with snow flying up over the hood and windshield. We made it back home that night and to the hospital the next day. I spent the next five months with my leg in a cast and let me tell you, the rest of that winter seemed like it would never end.
