Board Trip Lesson: Mountains are steeper than they look.

After travelling up two different lifts to get to the top of the mountain, we headed for an easy trail that my friend had already scouted out. I was relieved that it did not appear to be too steep on the map, but to my dismay, it was still steep. And covered with trees. But this time, I was going to beat the mountain, vertigo or no. I had primed myself by watching the "X Games" and playing "180 Snowboarding" on Nintendo. I was ready for this. I started down the mountain with no fear, picked up speed, and even managed to turn without falling. Then I must have leaned a little too far forward, because I was suddenly greeted with a repeating vision smacking white...sky...white...sky...white...sky......tree. When I came around a few seconds later, Terry was nowhere to be seen; he apparently hadn't seen me fall. Thankfully, I had not broken my leg. But one of my boots had ripped from the board binding, and I could feel my ankle starting to swell. And I was starting to gather an interesting crowd.