Personal Narrative: Backcountry Skiing

I could hardly believe my eyes that day when I received the invitation from my very good friend and skier, John. He had invited me to go backcountry skiing with him on a mountain in Salt Lake City a month from now, something I had never done before. Though I lived in Salt Lake City, where there were plenty of unexplored places to go backcountry skiing, I had always stuck to resort skiing because I had the idea that backcountry skiing was something very difficult and dangerous. However, I had full trust in John, who was very knowledgeable and experienced with skiing in the backcountry. I accepted his invitation without any hesitation.

Finally, the day came, and I found myself staring up at the summit of the mountain with John. Eagerly, we took out our backpacks from the trunk of John’s car, and started the four-hour long, extremely strenuous hike to the summit. By the time we were halfway up, we were huffing and puffing from exhaustion. We decided to take a short lunch break before we continued on. It took us slightly longer for the second half of our journey due to a shortage of …show more content…
However, John became a bit too comfortable, and pushed his luck by trying to get even closer to the elk for a picture, only a few feet away from the massive animal. This was the last straw for the elk, and it quickly became disturbed and angry and decided to charge at not only John, but at me too. Thankfully, both of our reflexes were sharp, and we ducked to the sides as the elk rushed at us. We landed on the soft snow but were very badly shocked. No further harm came our way as the elk did not choose to come back and attack again. After lying on the ground for a long while, we finally sat up and stared at each other, still not completely recovered. Soon though, I gathered myself together and asked him, “Are you alright, John? You seemed to take a pretty nasty fall