Late in the ski day, of course, upper lifts already shut down, but no, I gotta get in one more run. Headed down one of those feeder slopes towards a lift, out of late day shadow onto west facing snow, now skied off to ice. Crossed my tips on the chatter while at the inflection point of the turn and fell downhill instead of laying into the fall uphill. As I twisted, the basket of the pole caught the ground. I landed on the pole first but its impact was distributed by the cassette player in my jacket against my ribs. I don't know for sure if any ribs were cracked, never saw a doctor, just iced and wrapped, and tried not to laugh for a couple of weeks.

Since then I've learned to quit before I'm tired, or take advantage of the cheaper half-day rates. While I am an aggressive skier, I stay off the big bumps and out of the trees. When I was younger, that's all I wanted to ski.

(where did you teach skiing?)