Michaela went skiing with her family at Crystal Mountain. After a full day of skiing, she decided to go night skiing with her dad. While weaving through trees on a blue square slope, Michaela hit a bump and crashed into a tree, landing on her shoulder. She heard a crack and was in intense pain. Three teenagers eventually stopped to help and got ski patrol. At the emergency room, it was determined that Michaela had a broken collarbone and needed a sling. The injury cut her family's ski trip short since the pain was too intense.

1. “My Shoulder Hurts!!”
By: Michaela Bowman
My family and I went to Crystal Mountain on our annual ski trip in
February. We ski, ski, skied! We were all done at about 5:00pm. We went
back to the condo we were renting. We took off all our extra clothes. I had to
take off my skis, ski boots, my two winter coats, a coat liner, four sweat
shirts, two long sleeves, tee shirt, tank top, one pair of sweat pants, two pairs
of jeans, and one pairs of leggings. Whoa! I was wearing a lot!!
Then at about 7:00pm my dad asked if I wanted to go night skiing I, of
course, said yes. The ski lights were still on but the light was dim. We set off
after telling my mom where we were going. When we got there the wind
was blowing my hair that wasn’t under my hood, hat, and goggles. Icy snow
hit my cheeks and it burned, but I loved skiing so much I didn’t care. My
dad decided we would go on the hardest skiing area, the black diamond. I
went down in a breeze. On the other hand, Dad fell down three times! I
giggled while watching him fall, because I knew he was okay.
Then we decided to go on the medium level ski slope, the blue square. My
dad was in front of me so I decided to weave through the trees, because that
was my favorite way to catch up. But what I didn’t know is what lies in store
for me. I started to weave, but I didn’t see the humps until it was too late. I
soared into the air, one ski still in the snow. I hit my head on a tree branch,
landed on my shoulder, and heard a crack. Tears came to my eyes and I
shrieked in pain. Tears fell and drenched the snow.
I tried to stand up but couldn’t. So I lie on my back. My shoulder hurt
horribly. One by one, person by person passed me, paying no attention to the
girl crying and shrieking in pain. Finally three teenagers stopped. Two girls,
one guy. The boy looked about fourteen, and the girls looked about sixteen.
They offered to get my dad and I said he was easy to find, he was the only
man wearing lime green hat, dark green coat, and pink laces on his ski boots.
When he got there he told the boy to go get ski patrol.
Then I had to be taken down the slope in a toboggan. I kind of felt
embarrassed to be riding down the slope. The ski patrol said to go to the ER.
So we did and it turns out I had a broken clavicle or collar bone. I also

2. needed a sling. All this happened on the first day skiing and we were
supposed to spend three nights. We ended up leaving the second day,
because I kept screaming, “MY Shoulder Hurts!!”