Achievement

I was on top of the world. As I pushed away, I could feel the speed growing, my heart rate building. The adrenaline cascaded through my bloodstream, as though a dam had burst, washing away all else and leaving just that pure, animal thrill. The jaws of the valley beneath were rushing up to meet me eagerly. I could almost see them grinning but they didn’t faze me. I was the god of the mountain, an eagle soaring freely. Suddenly everything changed. I started to fall, no longer soaring free but plummeting through the white clouds towards the ground…and stopped.

I picked myself up and looked around, the sun glaring off the pristine snow, dazzling me momentarily. I wiped the snow out of my face and looked back up the piste. My instructor gracefully slid down the fifteen metres I’d managed and looked at me disapprovingly. It was obvious he had expected a little better. “Come. Get up. We go again.” he said in his distinct French accent and patchy English. I was already up though and raring to go. My first fall was an embarrassment to him, but as far as I was concerned, I was still king of the mountain. My own mountain.