The Curse of the New Skis

Last Friday, Team Hart ventured out for a weekend long ski excursion. We both had the day off, so we decided to leave early and ski for the day, drive to our hotel in Germany and then ski Saturday in Austria and possibly Sunday too before heading back.  We were packed and ready to go and even brought snow chains and a map (because sometimes a GPS just doesn't cut it).

Bluebird skies...beautiful day for skiing...or so we thought

The first sign that this trip might be a bad idea was the fact that I woke up with a terrible cold and slept no more than 30 minutes the night before.  Brenden tried to tell me to go back to sleep and that we could just leave later, but my stubborn self was determined not to waste a good ski day.  We hit the road for Obereggen, Italy, a ski mountain about two hours north of us on the way to Austria/Germany.  The day could not have been more perfect- not a cloud in the ski, small crowds, and good conditions.  This was Brenden's first day skiing on his new skis and he was eager to break them in.  We started the day zipping down the slopes and making our way across the mountain.  By mid-morning, we were enjoying a chair lift and discussing how much we had improved from all the skiing this year.  This was a big mistake.

The next run we did didn't seem to challenging, but it had an unexpected, steep drop off that was hard to see from the top.  I hit this part of the trail doing my best Lindsay Vonn impression and realized as I was in the air that I was going way too fast.  Luckily, I caught myself and stopped before continuing.  I looked around for Brenden to tell him how I almost ended our day with a fall and I found him in a pile at the bottom of the slope surrounded by Italians.  Not good.

Needless to say, he hit the same spot and lost control.  We're not even sure what happened or how he fell, but it caused serious pain in his knee.  We managed to get to the nearest lift and tried to ask for help.  In Italy, there is not a ski patrol like there is at home.  Instead, there are national ski police.  I was able to tell one of them that I needed help and he fired up his snow mobile and got Brenden on the back.  The Italian ski police man put on his siren and the two sped off riding tandem.  I had to resist the urge to take pictures of this comical site.  I was having an Aunt Judy circa 2003 moment when she tried to tell my brother to smile as they loaded him into a sled and that he'd laugh about this later.  Nobody laughed when we found out Shawn's leg was broken.

After the epic snowmobile ride, we had a decision to make- continue to Germany or return to Italy.  We pissed off the Italian police when we refused an ambulance ride to the hospital, but we knew pretty well that it was not a life or death situation.  The decision was made to continue to Germany- we had already paid for the hotel and far better to be sitting somewhere pretty than at home all weekend.

The view from our German hotel room

On Saturday morning, we decided it was time to go to the German hospital to try and get the knee taken care of.  This turned out to be quite an adventure.  The Nothlife (emergency room) was not on the side of the building we entered, so there we were looking like idiots asking where the emergency room was.  Fortunately, many Germans speak English, so a nice lady put B in a wheelchair and showed us the way.  Not surprisingly, the German emergency room visit was the fastest we've ever had- very efficient and in and out.  Unfortunately, we have no diagnosis on the knee and we're waiting on an MRI here.  Safe to say ski season is likely over :(

To cheer ourselves up, we decided to go to the Dachau Concentration Camp northwest of Munich.  This site was on our list of places to go in Germany, so we figured it would be worth the trip. Surprisingly, the camp was very interesting and informative.  It was the first camp and one only to be open all twelve years of Nazi rule.  Visitors can tour the grounds and walk through the famous gates with the inscription "work will make you free".  The museum was full of information and we easily could have stayed even longer, but we were working with only three functioning legs between the two of us.

The gates of Dachau

Although the weekend did not turn out to be the ski extravaganza we hoped for, we were able to enjoy a winter weekend in a nice German ski town....and those new skis will still be new next year too.