Scared to Death

We were sliding down the mountainside, the edge getting nearer and nearer.  “Aaaaahhh!” West and I screamed loudly.  The sharp wind cut through our snow jackets, and whipped past our faces. We both had brown hair flying behind us. My hazel eyes were wide with terror.  We’re going to die, I thought. We’re going to slide into the lake and die!  I don’t want to die!  Not like this!

Back then I was ten years old.  In the Summer of 2011, me, my mom, dad, and brother, West, who was eight years old at the time, were camping in the Marble Mountain Wilderness, a bunch of mountains in Northern California.  We had set up our tent close to a lake, and the mountain Castle Rock was on the opposite side of the lake.  We had decided to climb up the steep mountain (and managed), and then wanted to get back down, so we were going to slide down on our butts part of the way and stay close together by holding onto a rope.  The only problem was that the lake, with really cold water in it, was right below the mountain, and that’s right where we were needing to slide down.  It seemed as if we were certain to slide into the lake if we slid down the mountain.

“Sierra, you slide down in front,” my mom, with her curly brown hair,  had said to me, carefully balancing and  standing on the ice in her snow pants and snow jacket, trying not to slip.  Actually, we were all wearing snow pants and snow jackets. We looked very funny.  “No way!” I replied. “We’re all going to slide right into the lake!”  “Don’t worry honey, we’ll turn to the right before we slide to the edge of the mountain,” my short-haired and tall dad reassured me. “No, Sierra’s gonna fall into the lake, but we’ll be fine,” West remarked even though I knew he was scared too.  I didn’t listen to what he had said, but was still afraid.

       I was not looking forward to getting even more wet and freezing then I already was from sinking into the snow and slipping so many times before, not even stating the possibility that we could drown if we were to fall in!  The lake would be like a giant monster who swallowed it’s prey alive in one big gulp, which would not be fun.  Also, I had to ride in front, meaning that I would hit the water first. Ouch!  But, we all got situated, and started sliding down.  Our hair was flying behind us because of the wind.  That was when me and West started screaming “Aaaaaahhh!”

Lean to the right,” my dad suddenly ordered, in a bold voice. We all did as we were told.  I was leaning so far I was about to fall over.  “Now, slow us down a little, Sierra, I need you to push your feet into the snow!” my mom yelled.  I did that as best I could, and  gradually, we were losing speed.  Suddenly, we were almost to the edge.  But then we were turning right!  We weren’t falling into the lake!   We slowed down, stopped sliding, and hiked the rest of the way down Castle Rock on foot.  I was so glad that I wanted to dance, but I knew if I did that I would probably slip and then fall into the lake after all of what had just happened!