Wrecked & rolling in a 700-foot vertical drop, Matag washing machine, whiteout WOOSH! wipeout, ka-KLUNK! ka-KLUNK! I am caught up in the clouds of ice crystals & white-light bone shattering pain, CRACK! OUCH! & lay prostrate like a patron saint of disaster worshiping in a grand cathedral of fear*, visited by the contorted & maimed snow angels I created rolling in the slopes, gently bestowing snowflakes melting like morphine crystals w/body-numbing coolness mixing with the hot, throbbing amphetamine-adrenaline rush to my head, like a sketchy ghetto speedball** inserted into my virgin white veins, NOT!***

*In the movie First Decent, I thought Terje Haakenson said with his thick Norwegian accent, "AK (Alaska)...it's like a mecca for fear, riding..." and I was like, "damn, coming from Terje riding Alaska is like a religion of infinite fear." Wiping out one day, dazed & seeing stars, I visualized a beautifully soaring "cathedral of fear" made of ice-crystals filled with extreme-sport patron saints with broken arms/legs, black eyes, and missing teeth. Later, I watched the movie again, and realized Terje never said "mecca for fear, riding...", he said, "mecca for free-riding..." his thick Norwegian accent actually helped take my writing up to the next level.

**A speedball is the mixing of a narcotic like morphine or heroin with an amphetamine such as cocaine.

***Please note drug use is not being promoted here, quite the contrary, a snowboarding wipe-out is better than a sketchy ghetto speedball, so if you're hooked you gotta start riding!

by TJ Richter

© March 27, 2008 Theodore J Richter