We took a day trip through Shoshone National Park and crossed into Montana. I don't think that I have ever seen as much snow as I did that day. It was unbelievable how much snow was in the mountains up there. As we drove on the road up there we passed multiple areas where the snow was higher than the height of our van. It was beautiful. I was upset because my DSLR could not capture the same image that I saw with my eyes and I eventually gave up trying to recreate reality with my lens instead I went into the snow. It was glorious. I walled into the snow and within a few feet I feel in to my knees and instead of getting out, I sat down in the soft snow. The weight of my big booty made me sink in and was just like I was sitting in a chair, I even had lumbar support from the compacted snow along my spine. I just looked out across the ridge that was in front of me and tried to relax for a moment, forget the people annoying me, the stress of trying to understand geology and just enjoy my life for the moment. The moment was short, but I felt completely content and I knew that it was worth the thousands of dollars that I had to spend to come here. A moment later I got hit by a snowball. Karma. I wasn't mad, I loved throwing snow at people and this was starting to become a fun rutine.
Nature is scary as hell. It's a true wonder that we have managed to get out of the grind that almost every animal faces every moment of their life. There is the constant possibility of death. Of course we still die, but the risk has got to be so much lower than before modern medicine and other advances in technology. We don't have to constantly worry about getting eaten by an animal or contracting a disease that has the high possibility of killing us. For me, I was too comfortable in the snow. I was obvious to all of the risks that are present while being in snow multiple feet deep. As I was walking to leave the snow fight I fell into the snow to my hips. At first I laughed and my friends took some pictures of me, but then I tried to move my foot. The snow had compacted over my foot and there was no way for me to pull myself out of the snow. Soon, everyone realized that I wasn't joking I was actually stuck. They tried to pull me out, but I felt that my body was going to break. None of us had cell coverage because we were in the middle of onewhere, so calling for help was out of the question. It was up to my group to get me out.
I have never been able to act well in emergencies. I never know what to do, what questions to ask to asses the situation, or who to call besides Ghostbusters and even then I don't seem to have their number in my phone. Thank god that there seems to always to be a person in the vicinity who seem to have a clue of what to do and I can just hide behind them. Once we knew that things got real my group rushed over instantly and started working to get me out. We figured out that the only way to get me out was to use our hands to dig the snow away around my leg. I started digging with hands and had to stop almost instantly because my hands became so numb. The first person to help was Katherine. I don't think I have met anyone who can take charge of a situation as well as Katherine can. Whether it is packing our camping food away or saving my life, she is calm but assertive with her commands. She dove down onto the snow next to me and started digging me out with her bare hands and went much longer than I could. Eventually she had to give up and then Elly came in with her gloves and picked up where Katherine left off. It was so weird because I felt like a trapped animal and I was kicking my leg kind of like how some people tap their feet when they are sitting. Soon my butt got really cold. I knew that couldn't be good and was a little afraid of getting hypothermia. After a few minutes of pulling, digging, pulling some more and just a little bit more pulling they got me out. The first thing that I said once they got me out was "I'm a dumbass." And I really was one. I was silly for being so careless and taking my safety for granted.
The angels I was referring to are Katherine and Elly. It really touched me that they we so quick and determined to get me out. We drove around the area for about an hour and then I realized that my camera was not in the car. We stopped and searched the van completely, but could not find it. I had no recollection of where I might have set it down or where it may have fallen off and I was so upset with myself. My father had bought the camera for me right before coming on the trip and in wasted hundreds of his dollars. The thing that really bummed me out was that close to 1,000 shots that I had taken were gone forever. The pictures were more for my memory than for photography. Even after searching in the snow we couldn't find it. I had used to watch a show called Full Metal Alchemist that was about a pair of brothers who try to save their deceased mother with alchemy. In alchemy you must put in something of equal value for the spell to work but they did not and lost some of their body parts doing so. My mother doesn't really like this thought that I'm about to share but it's how I feel so I'll say it anyways. If I had been alone in the snow and had fallen in the same way, then I could have died. What if it's like achemy in that you have to give up something of value for something to happen. I guess that would make my life worth $600. I need to build up my net worth...
Later Skater
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