Up the Hill:

It was a crisp and cold day on the mountain. The untended trail had been discovered by a group of professional skiers, who were always looking for a greater thrill. That morning, the three went up alone. They climbed to the top and brought few supplies aside from their skiing equipment. When they reached the summit, they noticed a small wooden cabin some hundred yards away. The three, after putting their skis on, surveyed the mountain. One of them said cautiously, “Are you sure about this? We don’t know anything about this mountain.” Another, brushing aside his comment as irrational, said, “You see the snow. It’s packed.” And with a strike of his ski pole, he hit the ground of the hill. The snow sunk and compressed quickly beneath the pole. The other skier turned aside and looked to the cabin. There was a light in the cabin now. “I don’t know about this either,” he said. All of a sudden, as if to instigate and challenge his friends, the lead skier propelled off the ground with his poles and started down a clear path in the trees. The other two huffed and chased after him. It didn’t take the two long to catch up with him as he was waiting for them. Then, in unison, the group skied boldly down the hill, vigorously and enthusiastically evading bumps in the trail. All of a sudden, the group heard something like a clap behind them. Thinking nothing of it, the group continued flying down the hill. The rumble grew, kind of like a thunder, until one of the group glanced back and saw the avalanche quickly rolling up from behind. And then, it hit them. They were struck blind from behind. And for a moment, the skiers each tried to see their friends. They couldn’t see them. They reached out for their friends. They couldn’t reach them. They were held solidly in place. They tried desperately to call for their friends. The more they tried to scream, they more they were silenced by the packed snow that covered their faces. What kind of mistake have I made? The lead skier thought. And having dragged my best friends into this with me. Oh, what I would give just to see them and hear them again. He was about to resign hope when a few moments later, he began to see light growing from within the snow as though it were being removed above him. Until finally, he was able to breathe. He gasped for breath and saw the man responsible for saving him. With all of his strength, he cried out, “There are two others here!” The man continued to dig until he found the other skiers. When they had all been liberated, the man put them all onto a sled and dragged them slowly back up the hill. Each of them slept quietly, stressed from what they had just experienced. When they woke, they looked around. And seeing the man who had saved them, they all asked, “Where are we?” The man responded, “You are in my cabin. Saw you fellows a while ago as you came up the mountain. Figured it couldn’t be good if you were trying to ski, since there’s avalanches all the time up here. Only thing that keeps my cabin here safe is the fact that it’s built on rock. Rest up, boys. You’ve got a long way to the bottom. And Heaven knows, you can’t ski down.” He released a gentle laugh but his eyes relaxed. The following day, one of the group was still struggling greatly. The others did not want to leave him. When the cabin owner called the local mountain authority, he discovered that the group of skiers were being looked for. And after telling the authority that they were unable to descend the mountain on their own, he was told that the group need not worry; that they would be airlifted to the hospital. - From my book Fables of Good Will.