So, there I was, waiting anxiously to get signed out of 7th period early. Knowing that I would be leaving soon to head to Salt Lake City, Utah. I kept watching the clock and not doing my work. I was wondering what it would be like there, and how fun it could be. Then the announcement came on “Mrs. Sclicter, Tyler West is getting signed out.’’

The Art teacher said “Thank you.’’

Right away I packed up my stuff and put the supplies up and hurried out the door. I took a right and a left into the office. I finally wrote my name down, which means I signed out and walked fast to my car. I put my light backpack in the back seat and jumped in the front.

My mom smiled at me and asked “How was your day?’’

“Fine’’ like I always say.

I still had my mind on what I would be doing in Utah, snowboarding for the first time. Since my school was only five minutes away from my house, we quickly got home. I changed clothes and grabbed my suitcase and headed to the car. At that time, my dad got home. He did the same as me and hopped in the car to the airport.
Later that day, I was on the plane that was headed to Utah. I was so excited that we were almost there. Like I always do for the time to go by fast, I went to sleep.

I was soundly  asleep when my dad started tapping and me and saying “ Tyler, we are here!’’
At that moment, I looked outside the window and saw the beautiful white capped Mountains in the distance. There was also lakes that had steam rising from them because it was so chilly outside. 

As soon as I knew it, we were already landing at Utah’s airport. The pilot reported over the intercom “We are now in Salt City, Utah’’

As soon as we departed the plane and got in the building, there was to many people to walk through. We hurried and got a minivan as our rental car because family friends came with us. I was surprised by what car we got and spoke “How long will it take to get to the resort.

Mr. Jim who was the dad of the other family that came with us said “About 45 minutes.’’

As we hopped into the van with 7 of us in the car, it was a tight squeeze. It was about 6 Pm when we finally got to the resort. Since this was my second time going there, I knew the place and surroundings very well. Since it was so late in the afternoon, we all went a Mexican place to eat. After we ate, all of us headed back to the resort to rest after a long Friday.

The next morning, we all were up relaxing and watching T.V. in the living room. We were all ready to go snowboarding and skiing so we got dressed and headed out. As I put on my snowboard, I asked “Is everyone ready’’?

Everyone responded, “Yeah’’!!
So, we hopped on the Payday lift. When we got to the top, it was hard at first riding off with one foot, since that is what snowboarders must do.
Jackson, my friend asked “If we wanted to do a black run.”
My dad replied, “sure.’’

We got to the Pioneer lift that runs right at the start of the black run we were about to do. So, when we were halfway up the lift to the top of the slope. All of a sudden my bindings and base plate detached from my board so the snowboard fell onto the mountain! I watched it go down the mountain and screamed “NOOOOOOO’’!
Then after sliding half way down the moguls, the board finally flipped over and stopped thankfully. So I asked “How do I get off this lift without slipping.’’

Mr. Jim told me “You will have to run to the side.”

Then right away we were at the top and I knew it was going to be hard to run in ski clothes down a mountain! So, I ran as hard as I could while slipping and getting stuck in the snow. I ended up not falling and getting of successfully. There was still a problem “How do I get my board’’?

Since my family or friends are not allowed to carry my snowboard while riding down the mountain, I had to go get it.
This was a scary moment for me because I could easily slip and fall off the mountain. So as I was about to walk down my mom was very concerned and said, “Be safe.”
I responded, “I’ll try.”
I felt better going down with my family and friends close behind to help. As I was walking, another man who was a snowboarder asked me “What is wrong’’?

I told him the story and he told me to, “Slide on my bottom the way down because it would be faster down to my board.’’

It was a bumpy ride down because I had to manage to move around moguls. It was getting really tiring and my pants were soaking wet with ice on them. Then as I was halfway down to where my board was, a mogul did not have another curve where I would go down, so I was heading straight off the mountain.

I was screaming for “help’’ as my mom and dad were witnessing what was happening and trying to get out of their boards.

There I was 2 feet away from the cliff and I was pushing my feet as hard as I could with ice slicing off my shoes onto me. I finally was able to stop as one of feet were hanging off. Then right away my Dad was out of his bindings and pulled me back in the middle of the slope.

My Dad asked, “Are you was okay’’?

Out of breath but happy I said, “Good.”

Right as I was able to stand up, I saw by snowboard only a hundred feet out and I really under estimated how far it slid down. As I was able to walk over to it, Jim came right behind to fix my board. I asked him “How this could have even happened’’?

Surprised by the board he told me “The ring on the board that was holding your right baseplate became untightened so it came off.
I asked “Are you able to fix it’’?
He said happily “Yes’’!

It took him about 5 minutes to fix it after he pulled the tools out of his jacket pocket. I told him “Thank you.”
He said “These kinds of things happen when snowboarding.’’

When he was done fixing my board we all rode down the slope Homerun back to the resort. It was kind of hard riding down because Jim cold not tighten it at its max. When we got to the resort, I walked to the shop where I got my board from. They took 30 minutes fixing it so that meant it was too late to go back out there on the slopes.

After this event, I had no more problems with my board and had a ton of fun for the rest of the trip. That was the craziest vacation I ever had.