Since I started skiing three years ago, it has become the highlight of my year. My childhood friend Daniel, who has been skiing since before he could walk, is equally in love with the sport.  
It was our first trip of the year. Everything had been going well. It was mid-January, and the snow was perfect. We were having the times of our lives flying through the forests even though we almost crashed multiple times, especially my friend Daniel who had a few close calls with the trees and even ripped the hood of his jacket on one of them. However, we kept skiing and trying to find new routes with untouched snow.  
  The third day of our trip after having exhausted all the ski routes at our old resort, we decided to go to the new ski resort. Daniel got very quickly tired of the marked slopes and by midday had already mapped out the entire mountain in his head. He was flying all around the resort and meanwhile I was staying within the boundaries because the weather was getting progressively worse every hour.   
  After an hour I finally found him skiing within the marked area. 
“Daniel!” I shouted.  
“What’s up?” he said slowing down.  
  “Where have you been all day?” I asked concerned.  
  “I've been exploring the slopes,” he said coolly completely ignoring the weather conditions. 
“Are you insane the weather is horrible. You can't see anything and the ski runs are covered in ice,” I said. 
“Calm down, it's not that bad. The conditions are fine if you’re a good skier,” he said in a sly voice. 
“Oh, then I assume since you’re such a great skier you haven't crashed yet,” I said   
“Of course, I I haven't,” he replied.  
  “Then why are you covered in snow?” I said implying that I knew what happened.  
  “I don’t know what you’re talking about. It’s been snowing all day, of course I'm going to be covered in snow,” he replied not wanting to admit that he had crashed.  
  “Sure, then why can I see bomb marks behind this jump?” I said.  
  Daniel, stood there covered head to toe in snow almost resembling a snowman, realized that I had figured out what happened, but he kept trying to play it off as if nothing happened, not wanting to admit that he had been the first to crash.  
  “Those aren't mine,” he said making a last attempt to escape the mockery that was waiting him. “Sure. Go back to the ski lounge and wait for me,” I said.  
After the encounter with Daniel I decided to keep skiing for about an hour and a half alone Eventually I got bored of skiing inside the boundaries and swerving around much slower skiers, so I decided to try my luck by going off-piste.  
Instead of going down the usual black slope I turned right into untouched snow. It was perfect. I was all alone gliding through 20-centimeter-thick powder, swerving through trees and skiing at whatever speed I wanted without fear of crashing into anyone. I was landing every trick and every jump.  It was like I had the whole mountain to myself and as if I was free to do anything I wanted. The storm continued raging around me, but I kept skiing.   
In an hour I had to go back to the hotel, so I decided to start calmly heading to the restaurant which was our meeting point. As I kept trying to follow my old tracks, they slowly started to disappear in front of me. Soon I couldn’t see my tracks anymore and I realized that I had gotten completely lost. I looked around hoping I would see someone. Nothing was there. I was surrounded by an endless, barren, white land. There were no trees, no people, nothing. It was empty. I was lost.   
I tried to control my thoughts and think of a way out but the more I thought the more I got into my own head and panicked even more. After finally managing to calm myself, I felt my phone in my pocket. When I took off my glove to use my phone and the freezing air hit my hand immediately. I struggled to pull my phone out of my pocket. It was finally in my hand. I pressed the power button, but nothing happened. I pressed it desperately, praying that there was still battery left. Nothing happened.   I laid down on the snow exhausted and hopeless. The snow falling on my face was starting to become painful. It felt as if I was being poked by hundreds of needles. At this point my right hand was numb from the snow that had gotten into my glove and I could barely move it. Having laid in the snow for a long time, hypothermia was setting in and I started shaking uncontrollably.   
After waiting for what felt like and hour in the cacophony of the storm I decided that my only choice was to climb all the way back to the ski lift in heavy skiing gear. I couldn’t walk, the snow was too deep, so I crawled. Every few meters of crawling, I stopped, pulled my skies, and placed them ahead of me. This grueling process was repeated for what seemed like days. Every step I took the boots got heavier and heavier, every time I would pull my skies ahead of me they seemed longer.   
After what I can only estimate, an hour of crawling, I finally saw a marked slope. I had finally found my way out. My knees gave up making me fall to the ground. After catching my breath, I skied calmly down to the lodge and immediately rushed to the heaters to warm myself. At that point It felt like I had lost almost all motor function in my hand but slowly my hand was getting warmer and I was gaining back my ability to move it.  
When I met up with Daniel he started questioning me about why I was late. By the time I came to the restaurant the weather had reached the most dangerous point of the day.  Daniel had finally noticed that the conditions had become dangerous and was extremely worried. He looked me up and down to make sure that nothing had gone wrong, and I had crashed. I assured him that I was fine, not wanting to ruin the rest of the ski trip with an early return home. After I calmed down and the adrenaline left my body, we packed our gear, returned to the hotel, and got ready to ski again the next day.