Nifty was proud of her pink cast.
In 1962, the children and I were spending the weekend skiing on the slopes at the Mittersill ski area, which is connected to Cannon Mountain in Franconia, New Hampshire. Cannon Mountain has been well known, for years, for the first aerial tramway in the USA, and also for the Old Man of the Mountain.
On this beautifully warm day in March, the spring skiing was at its best. It was shirt-sleeve weather, with a brilliant sun and a bright blue sky. Stevie, Trip, and Peter, already good skiers, were zooming up and down the Mittersill trails. Nifty, who was four, was skiing alone on the beginner’s slope. She was able to ski just fine and could ride the T-bar by herself. I would ride the lift to the top with the other children and would check on her each time I came down. Often I stayed and skied with her. It seemed that she had improved every time I saw her ski. It wouldn’t be long before she could join us to ski from the top.
Kennard Fletcher, a family friend and on the Mittersill ski patrol, had just returned from skiing on Cannon. He told me the corn snow was excellent! He offered to ski with Nifty so I might take the older children over to Cannon for one run. Nifty loved the idea that a man on the ski patrol would be skiing with her. Besides, she liked Kennard.
It was the end of the ski season and this would be the only day of the year that the children and I could ski on the Cannon trails together. It would be special and fun for the kids and me. We would be gone about two hours. Nifty was in good hands. We all enthusiastically skied the long trail connecting to the Cannon tramway from Mittersill, knowing that we would have a wonderful time.
The view we had as we rode up in the tramway was spectacular. Especially memorable was the glistening, snow-capped peak of Mount Lafayette on the far side of Franconia Notch. The kids also really enjoyed looking straight down seeing the skiers schussing under the tramway, two hundred feet below. Exciting!
The normally frigid summit was sunny and warm. Our non-stop run down the corn snow covered trails was fantastic. We all would have liked to have skied them again, but, we had to leave and ski cross country back to Mittersill. When we got there, the children skied off to the chair lift for a few more runs and I coasted down to the beginner’s slope to see Nifty. She wasn’t there!
Where was Nifty? Where was Kennard?
Another member of the ski patrol told me what had happened. While we were gone, Nifty was taking a lesson with Kennard when a beginner skier, an overweight shuss-boomer, came barreling, out of control, down this slope for beginners, and smashed into tiny Nifty who was perfecting her snow plow turns. Both skiers had fallen in a tangle. The horrible man got up and yelled at Nifty, “Get out of the way you little BRAT!” and skied down the hill. Nobody saw him again.
Kennard had taken Nifty to the Littleton Hospital. I immediately drove there. I felt so badly. It was the only time I had left her on a ski slope but Kennard was like a member of the family. He stayed with her all the time we were gone and was with her when I arrived at the hospital.
Nifty had a serious spiral fracture from her ankle to her knee. It was fortunate that both her knee and ankle were fine. My brave little daughter showed high spirits. She was especially happy to have a choice of colors for her cast. She selected raspberry. Back at our Bedford home, Nifty remembers my carrying her out to sit in a chair with blankets tucked around her in the spring sunshine. For the next few weeks, her bright pink cast was admired and signed by friends.
She had her cast taken off by a doctor in Manchester. He was going to use a small, circular saw to cut the cast. He promised her that all she would feel would be just a vibration. When he started cutting the cast, she began to scream and continued screaming until he was done. He probably thought that she was scared or misbehaving so he kept cutting! Finally, when the cast pried off, her leg was bright red with blood due to a six inch cut from the saw. OUCH!
However, life goes on; twenty years later, in 1982, she skied daily with a racing team in Aspen.
What a nice story! I love the way you describe things so I can see them in my mind’s eye. Oh my gosh, what an ending with Nifty being cut by the saw! I hope that doctor was sincerely apologetic! And for Tony to be seriously injured just two years ago shows what can happen to anyone. I’ve never skied, but it sure sounds like fun.
Laura
Almost 50 years later, the likelihood of injury from collision has increased to become now probably the single most common serious risk on the slopes.
High speed lifts [thus crowding the slopes], much easier skis to learn on, and the smoothly groomed slopes create an environment where poor skiers can go dangerously fast.
Remember, two years ago, I was heavily injured two years ago when a 250 pound man slammed into me.
Yikes !!!! What a story !!