I got to Mad River at around 11. There were about 10 people ahead of me in line for lift tickets which was surprising. More surprising, there were kids with them, not little kids that would be too young for school, but teens, tweens and pre-teens. That should have been my first clue that this wasn't going to be a good day. I got my lift ticket for the morning session with the plan to stay until about 3:30. That would give me 2 hours to get home in time to pick up Bubbles after theater practice. Plenty of time to play and plenty of time to drive back. On the first lift ride, I shared the chair with another goofy footed snowboarder and a skier. The skier was chatty and I learned that both of them lived nearby - the skier living within walking distance of the hill. The snowboarder went to school at UT and they both arrived at 10am. The next ride up and many more after that, I shared with the same snowboarder. He was pretty cool and he was familiar with Redsky from when he lived in Toledo. That made him alright in my book.

On my second ride down the hill, I took my favorite line and when I approached my final hip-jump, a skier stopped short appearing to give me the right-of-way. As I left the ground, I realized that he had stopped there to warn me that another skier was coming behind him. We nearly collided. The skier did a 180 and stopped as he slid backward down the hill avoiding me. It was a nice move on his part. I apologized and complimented him on his maneuver. When the three of us got back over to the lift, he apologized to me saying that he thought his buddy was stopping for some other reason and he now understood that his buddy was stopped to warn him that I was coming up the side. Whatever... It was all good. Nobody crashed. Nobody got hurt.

Later, I saw that same skier doing some jumping without anyone in his way. He was really good. Then, about 30 minutes before I called it a day, I saw him jumping again. This time, he was overtaking a snowboarder and he damn near ran the kid over. The kid was about 11 years old judging from his size. The skier berated the young snowboarder for not following correct mountain etiquette telling him that he needed to look back up the mountain to see if there was anyone coming behind him before he tried a jump that he wasn't sure he could land. I'm pretty sure that is B.S. I think it's the person who's higher on the hill who is responsible for avoiding those who are lower on the hill regardless of skill or terrain. I cut across their path taking my usual line and hitting the big hip at the bottom of the terrain-park (where the same skier and I almost collided earlier). After I came off that hip, I had to cross back across the area where the skier and snowboarder were coming down.

I was absolutely shocked at what I saw. This poor kid was laying on his back with a 6'5" tall adult standing over him screaming at him about how he was not following proper etiquette. He was pointing and screaming at this kid who was obviously terrified.

I waited at the line to the lift for the skier to get to the bottom. When he did, I said, "Is that your kid?"
Mishearing me, he replied, "No, I'm OK. I'm just pissed at these damn kids that don't know proper etiquette!"
"Is that your kid?" I repeated.
He just looked at me and shook his head.
"If you EVER laid into my kid like that, I'd knock you the fuck out. You have absolutely no right to yell at anyone like that, never mind a pre-teen that's half your size. I don't care what he did. You had no right to speak to him like that."
He stuttered as he got onto the chair two chairs in front of mine, "He was.. He.. Your kid probably knows etiquette." Then, he turned around as we were about 1/4 of the way up the hill and repeated the same thing, "Your kid probably knows etiquette!"
I ignored his comment. As I rode up, I contemplated what I would say to him when we got off the lift. I was going to be calm and reasoned. I was going to take the high road. I already let him know that I was upset with him. I would simply say, "Look, I know you're upset. You had a good line on the jump and you were going to do whatever it is that you were going to do and this little kid ruined it. He got in your way. Big effing deal. You're the adult here. Please act like it. If you see that kid again, I would appreciate it if you would apologize to him for the way you yelled at him. And, if something like that happens again, I think you should point out the improper behavior to a lift operator or ski-patrol." That's what I'd say to him.

That's what I would have said to him if I'd have had the chance. Unfortunately, or maybe it was fortunate, when he and his buddy got off the lift, they took off like a bat out of hell not pausing for even a moment. They didn't hit any jumps on the way down. They just went straight down. I assume they got on the lift right away so as to avoid me if I did the same. I'll never know. I just told myself that if I got the opportunity to talk to that kid, I would let him know that the asshole that had yelled at him had no right and that even if he did something wrong, there was no way in hell that he should have been treated like that. Then, I'd tell him that I stood up for him and told the guy he was wrong. That's what I would have told the kid, if I saw him again. I didn't. I hope that memory isn't one of those things that sticks with him for a long time.

I left at 1:45 instead of staying until 3 because it was just too busy and I wasn't able to hit the jumps the way I way I wanted to without getting in the way of a bunch of other people.