blood on my pants!

by | Dec 11, 2012 | Awesomeness

Not mine, fortunately.

This last weekend was opening weekend at Mount Cain. In what I thought was a clever plan, I volunteered to be Director on Duty for the entire weekend. This decision was based on the fact that last year on opening weekend, there was no new snow and not many people at the hill. I surmised that opening weekend would be quiet, and I would not miss any good skiing.

I could not have been more wrong.

Not my blood, but it’s still on my Mammut pants!

Needless to say, it snowed all day and all night Friday, and it stayed very cold.

At approximately 1 am Saturday morning, after falling asleep around 1030 pm, I heard a ruckus downstairs in the lodge. Hoping the perpetrator(s) have left, I go down to investigate and visit the washroom. I am greeted by one of the new staff explaining that someone is going a little crazy, and learn that a shirtless man is running around in the snow, yelling, and bleeding (it turns out he punched in the back window of his own truck).

Over the next 4 hours, the shirtless man (who will go unnamed as he is now the subject of a police investigation) repeatedly yelled at all of us, ran around, kicked things, and was generally a major PITA. When the police finally arrived, and cuffed him, the 6 or so of us present all breathed a sigh of relief.  Major kudo’s to the volunteer ski patrollers who tried to treat his self inflicted injuries and kept him calmish.


The front door of the lodge…broken again.

After getting another two hours of sleep, for four total, I awoke to what many long time locals at Mt. Cain described as one of the best opening days ever.  40 cm of fresh, cold powder everywhere.  I skied fresh, untracked lines almost every run. Fortunately, the remainder of Saturday was largely uneventful.

Sunday – it rained.  Yay! No more powder skiing to miss! (not that I missed that much). However, as I arrived at the top of the lower tee-bar at 10 am, I received a radio call from the ski patrol. “DOD (director on duty), can you please call an ambulance.”

Now, the ambulance does have to come up to Mt. Cain at least once a season.  Also, the police are called up to the mountain on average once every two years. Both on the same weekend? Highly unlikely.


The silver lining.

Even with all of the drama, it was an excellent weekend. I reconnected with all of my Mt. Cain friends, skied some incredible powder, learned an awful lot about how a ski hill runs, and overall had a lot of fun.

I just hope my next Director on Duty shift is quiet.