The wayback machine: My First Epic

The wayback machine is a collection of stories that took place years ago, but demonstrate elements of, or turned into full blown epics. 

Background

so, I was about 12(maybe less) , my parents, my brother and I were skiing the 8 or so kilometers from where the road closed near Spencers Ck to Charlottes Pass.

The plan

We were leaving late in the afternoon, not a lot of time to get to Charlottes. Dad was going to rush back to Charlottes where he had access to a skidoo, Mum was to watch both of the kids, and bring us along as fast as she could, and we'd get a lift the rest of the way on the skidoo.

The decisions

I honestly can't recall whether I was told this plan or not. But I chased after Dad, with no hope of keeping up, and kept on going... no headlight, no supplies, and night setting in.

The Story 

So I chased Dad, and had well and truly lost him by the pass. But I knew the way to Charlottes (it's pretty easy even covered in snow. Follow the snow poles up the valley till you see the lights). At some point night fell, and I lost the track, ending up slightly lower in the valley.

At this point the stories differ, by mine, - which I take to be true - I left the track at times, but followed it most of the time, and at some point I saw a skidoo pass close beside me, but it didn't stop, so I kept on going, following my memory, and the knowledge that I knew where to go, at one point losing the track and ending up in the bottom of the valley and having to turn back up to the road when I found the creek.

Eventually I saw the sign, and road into Charlottes, unfortunately my memory failed me, and I thought the road was after the sign, so I kept heading up the main road... Eventually I decided I must have made a mistake, and I decided to head straight at the township.

I made it maybe 10 meters off the road before I crashed... I couldn't figure out how to get up, so released my bindings... shortly followed by a short sound of a ski heading down the hill... I looked around, but couldn't find it, so I walked down the hill in the snow with one ski, through Charlottes and into the foyer of the lodge, glad to be finally able to stop and hungry as hell. I racked my one remaining ski, my poles, and lost my boots, knowing I couldn't take them upstairs.

I headed for the stairs, looking for food. Pushing through a crowd in the foyer area, not giving it a second thought. I was stopped by someone in the crowd, for of course it was a search party being prepared for me... but still. I knew where I was.



Dad's story is that he never passed that close to me, went and got mum and my brother, found that I wasn't there. He then took them to the lodge and started the process of starting a search...which I interrupted...

The next day I took him to where I crashed, literally straight to the point. and found the ski about 5 meters away.

Since then I've forbidden rescues until daylight the day after I'm meant to be somewhere...

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