The icy tracks of professional skis showed clearly on the messy surface of the afternoon snow. There colorful flags from the competition earlier were still standing in place. The sky was blue and cold, showing the first signs of tiredness, gently turning off the sun and putting on a blanket of puffy grey clouds.
When I woke up this morning I remembered how scared I was as a child of these icy patches showing through the white immaculate snow of the slope. These would make a horrible scratching noise under my skis when I slid above them. It was a terrible warning noise, but you cannot hesitate in such moments, you must get on with the movement, flex your knees and prepare for the next turn, otherwise you would loose control and drift to the side, maybe risking to hit a tree, or even more dangerously when higher in the mountain, to fall towards the semi bottomless valley.