It was mid-December on a snowy afternoon in Windham, New Hampshire. Young high school student, Troy was suited up in his special head-to-toe snow gear for a couple of hours ride on his dad’s 1998 Formula Z snowmobile. The ground had a few inches of fresh powder on top of the previous ice layer from the night before. So, after his parents headed out to do errands, Troy revved his sled across the road to ride the trails through the woods. The snow was still falling, disrupting visibility slightly. However, that didn’t stop Troy. He rode through the familiar trails at full speed, not paying full mind to the dangers of the ice hiding below the snow. “I had the mentality of nothing was going to happen because I’ve ridden those trails basically since I got it [the snowmobile],” Troy reflects on the experience. That way of thinking might have been part of the reason for his downfall. After a bit of riding, Troy hit a patch of slippery ice and the sled began sliding to the side. Because of the speed he was traveling, Troy didn’t have time to correct the error before he caught on something and rolled the sled into a tree. Luckily, with all his safety gear and falling into the fresh snow, Troy walked away from this with no injuries. The sled had minimal damage as well. Once Troy was back on his feet, he flipped the snowmobile back up onto the trail and nervously called his father. He chose this parent to call because he anticipated a calmer reaction from him, however, there was still some scolding. Troy’s father immediately came home to make sure his son was ok and warned him to be smarter next time. Troy notes that he definitely learned to be more careful next time he jumped on a sled.
