January 7th … My Life and Death Story – Part 2

(continued from yesterday…)

After take off, we rounded a corner and the sled slid out wide to the left going down into the ditch next to the path we were on. (Picture a water skier going out wide behind a ski boat). Unfortuately what none of us saw was the row of telephone poles lining the ditch as well. We were headed straight for a pole at 35 mph. Faces buried in the sled, eyes blinded by the snow, an imminent collision ahead.

The ski rope hit the telephone pole first and then jerked the sled up into the telephone pole. Nick’s neck curled up into the toboggan sled and I struck the pole literally “head on” at an estimated 50 mph. The sled shattered and the two of us were thrown 20 feet beyond the pole. The guys came running up to us yelling and cheering until they saw me face down in a pool of blood.

Taitem, who had been a lifeguard all summer the year before, reached me first and recognized what was happening. He stablized my neck and rolled me over all the while shouting, “Call 911!” Nick was moving around but was experiencing immense pain in his neck. After Taitem pulled my ski mask off of my face he couldn’t figure out what the white powdery stuff was all over my mask. The powdery stuff was my 3 front teeth. They had been smashed into the back of my brother’s head. and never mind the powdery stuff, I had a golf ball sized bump protruding from my left temple, and blood coming from my ears.