The Double-Diamond Mistake Fredrick Hudgin   © Copyright 2026 by Fredrick Hudgin

Photo by Bao zi on Unsplash

Both my wife and I slowly improved in our skiing. We graduated from the bunny slopes to intermediate trails and watched in awe as more advanced skiers flew down the single- and double-diamond trails.

One weekend, we chose Heavenly Valley at the southern end of Lake Tahoe as our resort for the visit. Heavenly Valley had most of its slopes at the top of the mountain—perfect for intermediates like my wife and me. And the mountaintop had TWO bars! You could ski from one to the other, which we did for most of the afternoon.

Finally, the time to end our fun came. The reason Heavenly Valley had most of the slopes on the mountaintop was that the slopes going down to the bottom were so steep. They were clearly posted with double-diamond placards, encouraging non-expert skiers to take the chair lift down to the lodge, which was next to the parking area at the bottom.

Full of alcohol-infused bravado, I ignored the signs, thinking, “I’ll just ease down the slope and go from side-to-side instead of full-bore down the moguls (big bumps in the trail).”

I made it a couple of hundred yards down the slope before I realized how far over my head I really was. But there was no turning back now. I slowly progressed from one side of the trail to the other, back and forth, while the advanced skiers swooshed past the stupid guy who bit off way more than he could chew. Some even laughed as they went past, literally leaving me in the dust.

I came into sight of the lodge as I made a sloppy turn, lost my balance, and fell.

Now, usually, when you fall on the intermediate slopes, you slide a little on whatever body part you landed on, get up, and continue down the slope, chastising yourself on whatever stupid thing you did or didn’t do.

That isn’t what happened on the double-diamond. I lost both skis, both poles, did at least three end-over-ends, and slid several hundred yards down the rest of the slope.

Finally, I stopped. I lay there motionless for a moment, making sure nothing beyond my ego was seriously damaged. Then I got up, found my skis and poles, and walked to the lodge, which was pretty close by then.

Looking for a little something to ease my embarrassment of doing something so dumb as to attempt a double-diamond slope, I walked into the bar. And got a standing ovation! A guy walked up to me, handed me a beer, and said, “That was the best crash I’ve seen in years!”

I didn’t buy another drink that night. When my wife showed up (having taken the chairlift down), I told her what happened. We laughed for years at that. It became our favorite you-did-something-dumb phrase. One of us would say, “At least it wasn’t the double diamond!”