Melissa Earley

Lovely evenings by the fire at night.

It was amazing.

Until...

the last run of the last day.

We were going in a section that had been closed for the four days that we'd been there.

And so, and they had just opened it.

And we were the first ones to put down tracks in the fresh powder.

It was like a dream.

You know, I'm swishing down the mountain, like skiing as well as I could and feeling just really good.

And then I heard, ah!

And I stopped, and I looked across the run, and I didn't see Cory, but I heard him yelling again.

I skied over there, and at first I was sort of slow to pick up on what was happening, and I kind of was chuckling to myself, because first was his hat, and then over there his goggle, and then a glove, and a pole, and a ski, and as I picked up his belongings,

and got closer and saw him with his head thrown back, grabbing his leg and trying to stop yelling.

I realized this was more than just a yard cell on the mountain.

This was serious.

We waited for what seemed just like hours and finally ski patrol came, bundled Corey up and put him in the sled and someone skied with me down to the clinic.

When the doctor showed us the x-ray, he said it was a spectacular fracture.

The doctor said it looked like he had broken it jumping off a roof.

He was gonna need surgery.

So after the medication took effect, the painkillers, and they put him in an immobilizing splint, we slid him into the back of our SUV and I drove us to St.