| | | I have a sore wrist...
Had hiked up a mountain on a beautiful sunny afternoon... but when a cloud suddenly covered the sun the temperature on top of the peak plunged from high 30s into the teens, and the mud on the soft trail suddenly turned to black ice. Was only a thousand feet back down to the thermocline (spell check suggests "thermonuclear") but in the time it took me to get there I slipped a couple dozen times, straining to stay upright, and I fell hard three times... jamming a finger and spraining my right wrist pretty badly in the first fall... so falling twice more... yeah, that felt nice. At least it distracted me from knees hitting rocks.
I could have just gone off trail and walked in the snow with good traction, risking only a bit of frostbite if I didn't work hard enough with a fast enough pace allowing me to stay warm... but, there were also families up there, out for an afternoon drive, inexperienced, and totally unprepared, who were suddenly unable to keep their cars on the road... One in particular, kids in the back seat, Dad with no experience driving on an icy mountain slope, the car sliding dangerously toward an edge with every move. Way too scary to allow me to just walk away from it. So my three hour jaunt of a day hike became a seven hour plus ordeal lasting well past sunset, as I helped three families get the kids down to safety first, and then helped them get their cars off the icy mountain slope without anyone losing control or going over the edge of any cliffs.
Hmmm. Maybe a message about markets in there... about how sudden but subtle shifts can impose unexpected risks that you're forced to realize... just because you're there at the wrong time ? |
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