Sliding off the edge of the earth : D u f u s

Such a great concept, arranging to meet an old mate at the top of the mountain. It's usually; see you in the park, see you in the pub, meet you by the library, see you at mine- for example. But today, after a bit of fuddled half-skiing-half-arranging rendez-vous, I found amazing Dave- and he was easy to find; with his halo of dreadlocks + warm smile expanding to the size of the horizon. He was here for one day only, before adventuring off way out into the Alps on a ski tour trekking between wooden huts. We only had a few hours so we saved exchanging stories for the chair lifts, drowned in February light and took to embarking on some tumbling tandem treats. He skied exactly like I'd imagined him to- like a speeding maniac and even as I dipped down the gradients at double the speed my new sensible head would allow me, he was still a surging mass of hair in the far distance plummeting with shear style towards the next lift that would allow us great continuations of these adrenalin fuelled slides.. I must've been so excited to ski with Dave because I found myself saying g'on then, lead me into some off piste? Something which, in my condition, I haven't allowed myself the pleasure of adventuring- but caught up in the moment, in the altitude, in the sun drenched hot afternoon hanging out with an old crustie, it certainly felt like a worthwhile risk. This photo was taken at the summit of our adventure, and all of a sudden we had managed to lose the frantic ½ termers stampeding the mountain creating a constant rush hour of runs- it was just the burning sky, the luminous snow and an unknown journey down to the bottom that surrounded us. Bumping + bumbling our way down, pootling through trees, churning up chunks of icy powder + negotiating monstrosities of moguls where at times demanded some impressive somersaults [or more accurately, stampeding snowball effect acrobatics] in order to negotiate our way round them. It was just a shame that my knee disjointed itself after we'd re-joined civilisation in a foolish clumsy calamity- but the delayed trauma at least didn't make itself known until after we'd hooked up with the others for an almighty wonderful finale, culminating in hot wine to accompany the overpowering magenta sunset that swept across the exhausted mountains- underlining another monumental stretch of skiing feats and falls in this fine valley.