Dear Gentleman That I Tanked at 50mph

Last Friday I skiing in Wisconsin with my some of friends. Conditions were good, sun was shining, pretty warm. Park is still pretty minimal due to the low amount of snow here in the midwest. After spending most of the morning hitting the few rails in the park, we ventured out into the rest of the "expansive" Cascade Mountain. We were tearing up the sides of the runs in the delicious "midwest pow". At the end of the day we were riding up the lift with my friend's dad and he pulled out his phone and he had some app that told him his top speed. He said he got up to 46mph earlier in the day and he wanted to beat it. He challenged us to a race and we all agreed. In my head I was thinking that this would be my last run, but I made sure not to vocalize that, because we all know what happens. We headed over to the steepest run on the hill and turned our tips down and bombed. There was one dude ahead of us taking his time and getting some turns in on the left of the hill, but the right side was clear. I sat back on the back of my skis and barreled ahead of everyone else by at least 20ft. I saw the dude in front making a cut to the left and I figured I would blast by him with plenty of space. However, as soon as I thought that, he turned and headed over to the right side where I was bombing down. I veered right to give him space, but I didn't cut speed. The bottom of the hill splits into a "Y" with each side of the split heading towards a different chair lift. I was pretty sure he would stay on the left side of the split as he was headed that direction. But in an instant the dude decided to go to the right side and cut right in front of me. I still thought I had the space to get by and continued barreling forward, but at the last second he cut even harder. It all happened so fast and I didn't have time to even yell, let alone stop. My only choice was to attempt to squeeze through the narrowing gap or blast into the trees. I chose to try to make the gap, but just as I thought I would make it, he seemed to put on an extra burst of speed. We collided, as I blindsided him from behind. My skis hit the front of his and both of us ejected out of our bindings just as we impacted so our knees were safe. Luckily I was on the back of my skis so rather than completely body slamming the guy I merely slide tackled him at highway speed. I later learned from the app that my friend's dad was going 48 (breaking his record) and I was a good 20 ft in front which means I was at least going 50mph. Next thing I know he is on top of me unintentionally grinding my face into the snow with his torso as we slide down the hill for a good 20 feet. When we finally come to a stop, I jerk up and see the guy sitting beside me with a face of total shock and surprise. The guy was at least like late 50s maybe even 60s, and I immediately thought that I had probably just completely broken him. I started apologizing profusely. His look of shock twisted into a grin and he said, "wow, that was quite the ride!" and then started laughing. After apologizing a few million times more, and laughing it off, the guy told me that it was his fault for not checking before merging over. I of course admitted that it was totally my fault, but he denied it. Finally, he agreed it was 50/50. But I think it was at least 75% my fault for going so fast. He was a totally awesome dude. He said he was completely fine and asked if I was good. I said yes, and he put his skis back on and skied back down to the lift for another run. I was so surprised he was ok and I thanked God for that. I've been knocked unconscious for 5 minutes, torn my labrum in my shoulder, torn ligaments in my ankle all while skiing before, but this was the most scared I had ever been, cuz I thought I killed a man. Anyways, to the dude I almost killed, you are probably a little old for newschoolers, but if you see this, please once again know that I am soooooooooo sorry and sooooo glad you all good. Keep on skiing you grey bearded bad ass.

Also, I'm really pissed I didn't get any footy of this... I had my stuff with me, but I never got it out cuz the park was pretty lame. Def would've been sick to have headcam footage of this 50mph blindside slide tackle.