It started well - "Yes sir, let's take those skis off you, and give you this pair of 'very short skis'. Poles, you won't be needing those."

The first couple of runs were good, then as the visíbility on the top of the hill (I refuse to call 500m a mountain) dropped so you could read the run a good 3m ahead of you I set off...

Now, doing this particular run (7,3 to its friends) earlier in the week was pretty straightforward, but I'd seen a poor chap ski too far left and end up in a snowdrift, so with visibility low I aimed right. Just, erm, too far, and ran up a hill, then fell down, on my right knee. Then I sat down for a bit and cursed for a minute or two.

It really quite hurt. And now I have "dimple" on my knee rougly the size of half an apple. Actually, that probably overstates the damage but I'll get sympathy where I can.

Anyway, I did the run later again with no problems (I had to stop myself being scared of it) and tomorrow is high speed snowmobiling. If I run one of those up a hill I expect more than a bruised knee...