falling by summerfield

falling

this was where i fell or slipped down yesterday. the steps are covered with ice and snow and even with my heavy boots with threading like an eight-wheeler, they were of no use. good thing i decided to be near the railing - i like the assurance that whatever happens i have something to hold on to. maybe i should've just let myself slip but i really didn't know how packed the snow was and i didn't want to hurt my back. that tree is a very tall tree and is about 10 yards from the top of the steps and the car was parked right underneath it. so you can appreciate how steep this bastard is. i always had a hard time going down these steps during the summer but as i said i prefer the assurance the railing offers. you see that little horizontal line at the bottom, that's one of the bottom steps and the heel of my left boot actually got caught which almost made me lunge forward and had that happened i'd have landed on my face.

so i went to take photos, one of which was yesterday's post.

navigating it going back up was i thought a bit easier, but before i did, i took this photo. so now, holding my camera on my right hand, the extended tripod tucked under my right arm, my left arm wrapped around that railing, i started to climb up. i slid back down a few times, but halfway through i realized i could find a better purchase on the snow where the railing was instead of the steps. i wasn't letting go of that railing. at one point the tripod almost slipped off and i thought it would be a bitch if i had to go back down to retrieve it. fortunately it didn't fall. it was at this point when the young skier, just to the right (outside of frame) fell and held on to a dried bush and asked me to help her. i told her to let go of the bush so she will just slide right down. i was not letting go of that railing, i told you! and after a lot of slips and obscene swearing, i managed to get back to the top.

well, at least the photo yesterday landed on the popular page! thank you, kind folks!
Glad you are okay! Cool capture.
February 24th, 2015  
It doesn't even look like a staircase! I hope you are not hurting too much after your fall. I'm sure you will be rather pleased to see the spring arrive.
February 24th, 2015  
@salza - only the inside of my right upper arm is sore because of squeezing tightly on the tripod. but the old lady is still okay!! :-) thank you, sally.

@edie - thank you, edie.
February 24th, 2015  
So sorry about your fall. Now I understand what you meant by crisis in the other photo. Hope you feel better soon.
February 24th, 2015  
Holy moly! That could've been really ugly! Sorry your arm hurts. Glad you are okay! Geesh! What we do for art! Congrats on PP!
February 24th, 2015  
Thank the lord for something to grasp when the ground is unreliable.
February 24th, 2015  
Well it's no wonder you went flying on your keister! It looks better suited for a tow rope! Maybe a pick axe and some crampons for the next venture down the steps?
February 24th, 2015  
weird perspective moment: when I first looked at this I thought I was looking DOWN the stairs, which clearly had a cliff at the end (see the tree top poking up?). railings are good.
February 24th, 2015  
@anazad511 - no, that's not the crisis. crisis was a leak in the bathroom ceiling. :-( thank you, ana.

@voiceprintz - yup, this old bag's capable of some stupid things at this age. :-) thank you, jt.

@pandorasecho - grasping is good! thank you, my dear friend.

@stray_shooter - it's not mount everest, dude! hahaha! funny, but when i was a lot younger, i had ambitions of climbing mount everest to look for that mallory guy. good thing i didn't pursue. if i can't trek a 10-foot steps, i'd be as dead as mallory in no time! thank you, ron.

@francoise - heck, when i was going up, i myself had no idea if i was going up or down. it was like one step up, two steps down. it was not a winning situation for me until i thought of putting my feet off to the side. thank you, francoise.
February 24th, 2015  
This looks like quite a formidable climb! I'm glad you were not hurt seriously! You are braver than I would have been to try and climb!
February 24th, 2015  
I'm so glad you survived. I thought I heard you swearing!
February 25th, 2015  
@grammyn - it was actually kind of stupid of me to go down and back up again. but believe me, i surveyed the whole place and this was my best bet for going back up. that or crawl uphill which i was pretty sure wouldn't look pretty and would definitely be a major fail! steep inclines and i are not friends. :-) thank you, katy.

@bill_fe - you heard it, eh? hahahaha! i was pretty sure my mother was stirring in her grave for every obscene word that came out of my mouth! thank you, bill.
February 25th, 2015  
So, I'm reading these all jumbled up, so it's only half making sense- but I can understand about the falling! Just took a really bad tumble myself- but I can't blame it on snow or ice- it was all me. Glad to hear you survived your fall much better than I did mine. Good shot.
February 26th, 2015  
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