At Wildcat Mountain In New Hampshire 1999!
Dave, Gary and Tom, behind us you can see Tuckerman Ravine.
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This picture shows all of us enjoying a gorgeous day of skiing at Wildcat Mountain. However, it doesn't tell you the whole story of what this picture really represents, it's really a story of one persons courage. Tom, had a terrible accident the year before skiing at Cannon Mountain one of New Hampshire's challenging mountains. Tom, while skiing down a narrow expert trail suddenly found himself confronted by a large group of skiers blocking the trail. He tried to slow down but lost control and veered off the trail and went into a thickly wooded area. Being and expert skier he tried to gain control, but was unable to. He hit a few trees finally, he stopped, fortunately for Tom he had recently purchased a helmet and when his head hit a tree the helmet probably saved his life. After the accident Tom, got himself back onto the trail and skied down the mountain, he was in so much pain he had to hold his arms above his head while skiing. When he got to the lodge he went to the medical facilities, on this particular day there was more than one accident and they were very busy. He was taken to a local hospital for treatment for a broken back {T-6 and T-7} and put into a body brace. Tom was hospitalized for five days and released. Days later, Tom was still in severe pain at home in his rented hospital bed, so he went to see another doctor in his home town. At the doctors it was discovered he had injuries to his neck {C-6} vertebra, and according to his doctor, Tom was very lucky to be alive. As you might expect this was very serious and Tom was fitted with a halo collar and body cast. If your not familiar with this I've included a picture of Tom with it below. Mainly a halo is a metal ring with screws over the top of your head, held with screws, screwed into your skull to prevent any movement of your neck. Judy Carne from the old television show "Laugh In" also had one of these many years ago for those of you baby boomers....I remember it well....cause it scared the hell out of me seeing her in it. Seeing Tom in person with his halo, well all I can say is...."scarey"! Tom was required to wear the halo and body cast for thirteen weeks. There were quite a few things he couldn't do on his own.....but I'll let Tom tell you about those ok. So like I stated earlier this is about Tom's courage, he's fully recovered after a year of no skiing, he still has a stiff neck but other than that seems ok. On this day of skiing, he amazed me, not only is he skiing again but he's skiing at expert level. Wildcat Mountain is perhaps our most difficult mountain to ski, and Dave is the strongest skier in our group and to keep up with him you have to ski hard, yet on this day....we all were "flying".....down the trails. I mean there weren't too many skiers beating us to the bottom of the mountain and we had maybe twenty runs on the day. I don't know if I could have recovered so quickly if at all from an accident like Tom had......so I'd like to tip my hat to Tom. Not only has he come back to skiing.....but he's skiing better than ever and enjoying himself living life as he wants too. Some of you may think it's foolish for Tom to be skiing again, but to me it's living. We all face many challenges through out our lives and how we deal with those challenges defines our character.
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