Hemlock: Binge Skiing and Toddler’s Fracture #2
On the sandwich week between spring break and Easter we headed to Hemlock for a week of skiing. We rented a small Airbnb apartment on the mountain and were quite excited as we hadn’t really left the city since October… We tried to escape before the Friday afternoon rush hour but of course we got stuck right in it. Then a diaper emergency required us to make a break in the middle of the trip. Although Hemlock is technically not that far from Vancouver the trip seemed to take forever. Finally we were on the infamous road leading up the mountain and soon enough we were in a different universe. High snow banks on the two sides of the road as the road became a dirt road and quite narrow. We picked up our keys, got sorted with our passes for the week and finally we headed to our cozy place.
The next day it was time to start skiing, and for me it was the first downhill day of the season. With COVID and Kai still being quite young I didn’t get a pass to Cypress this season, so there I was at the end of March facing my first downhill day with only lame excuses. Now I had to binge ski for a week, will I survive, I wondered? The day was gray and kind of wet, but a good time was had by all, and I still remembered how to ski, sort of. For Kai it was only his second day of skiing ever, and he practiced really well on the magic carpet area. He was full of smiles and very proud of himself and we were proud of him too.
Unfortunately, the day after didn’t turn out so well… We woke up to a strange late spring blizzard that brought in lots of snow and almost no visibility. Gili and Kai tried the magic carpet a few times but because of the heavy snow the magic carpet got stuck often and eventually Gili decided to take Kai to the yellow chairlift, the beginners ones. I was quite reluctant, Kai looked so small on that chairlift, barely managing to keep his feet up. However he skied really well, already linked a few turns together and was the “let’s do it again” machine. With the low visibility and heavy snow, I tried to get the crew to take a break, but everyone was keen to keep going except me.
Then the unbelievable happened – Kai fell at the end of a run, in a really mellow (almost flat) area. Gili was close to him and immediately picked up that something was wrong. I was a bit farther down with Neil and didn’t really think something was up until I saw the look on Gili’s face. It was a look that said “I’ve been there before”. Kai was crying and we couldn’t calm him. He could also not stand on his leg. These signs were not good news. We hurried to the first aid clinic and a nice paramedic took care of Kai and even cut his pants off. He suspected he might have broken his leg, but there wasn’t much he could do about it there. Since we already knew all the signs of a toddler’s fracture from Neil’s injury a few years ago we suspected it too. Since we knew there wasn’t much they would do for him at the hospital we weren’t in a rush to get him there in a snow blizzard. Luckily, we had packed children’s Tylenol. In our small apartment Kai finally calmed down and fell asleep for a short nap. Unfortunately, after his nap he still couldn’t stand on his leg and that’s when we were almost certain that history had just repeated itself.
The next morning the blizzard was gone and we woke up to a clear bluebird sky day, with lots of fresh powder on the slopes. Unfortunately, not all of us could enjoy it. Gili and Kai drove down to the hospital in Chilliwack to confirm our fears, while Neil and I skied. It was on that day that I realized that my six year old had outdone me, I just couldn’t keep up with him. I felt like such an old geezer. At some point Neil even went into the forest and I tried to follow him and didn’t catch up. Luckily he came back out to the open slope and waited for me.
Then the text came from Gili that indeed Kai had a toddler’s fracture, just like Neil had… They drove back up the hill with a big stuffed dog named Chance that Kai was given at the hospital, some Ben and Jerry’s ice cream to help cheer us up, and more children’s Tylenol. That was about all we could do now, except to wait for three weeks till his recovery.
Over the next few days we took turns skiing with Neil, which meant that Neil got to do a lot of skiing… The weather was just perfect and the snow was fluffy and soft. There were no lineups because there was almost no one else on the mountain. In the afternoons when I skied with Neil, Gili took Kai out in the sled around the ski area and on short hikes, got him to eat icicles, and then meet up with us by the Sasquatch when the ski hill closed for the day. We spent most evenings watching movies and playing board games in the apartment.
On Good Friday we spent half a day skiing before starting to drive home. Since it was a holiday the hill filled up a bit more, but we still can’t say it was crowded.
The next few weeks at home were a bit challenging with Kai not being able to walk, ride or run. Since we already had an experience with that, we weren’t so fearful. He still managed to crawl around, climb up structures if he really wanted to, go down slides as long as we held his hand and go on walks and bus rides in the stroller, something we haven’t done in ages.
We also spent A LOT of time in the pool, since in the water everything was normal for Kai. After three weeks and two days since Kai took that tumble at Hemlock, he stood up and started walking again. We were at Family Place and suddenly I saw him leaving the play house and walking towards me. It was so exciting! Later that day he had a follow up x-ray at Children’s Hospital. The x-ray showed that the fracture had almost healed and everything was progressing well. He was still limping for a few more weeks, but now no one really believes us that he ever broke his leg.
