Dear friends,

I hope your weekend went well, and you had fun riding, or just hanging out.

My weekend went very well besides a few minor misshaps.

The SLOPESISTAIR event went off with a bang. Literally. The course was awesome! The riders were amazing, and the time was right. We all had a blast, and pushed each other to the core of our abillities. Which is exactly what we need to be doing.

We had almost completed a full day of practice, and I was working on dialing in my no-footed cans off the second jump. It all was going great when I pulled an extended no-footed can, and landed back on my pedals. The next thing I knew, my handle bars wrapped around my leg, and I was slammed to my head. I blacked out for a moment, and then jummped right back up. I guess the people at the bottom of the course heard my head hit the ground, but I didn’t know this till later in the day.

I continued to ride, but it wasn’t the same. I began to have dreams while I was riding. I would dream I just followed one of the girls down, and we jumped the very last obstacle which wasn’t even open that day. But I was not able to think right, so I didn’t know I needed to stop. I was only focused on not allowing the crash to affect me mentally.

Finally my good friend Darcy who had taken a hit earlier, finally took my helment and told me it was time to stop. On the way back to the car, I guess I repeated the fact I felt like I was dreaming like 15 times. That’s when they knew something was really wrong. We had our rider meeting, and by then I was catching on that I was repeating myself a lot. So I bit my hoody sleeve, and made sure I didn’t speak any more. I have had two friends who have done this injury, and I knew how annoying it can get by reapeating things too much. But Darcy took good care of me.

The next day I had to make one of the hardest decisions I have ever had to make. I would pull out of the SlopeSistair. It was a very hard thing to do, but it would have been pride and selfishness if I hadn’t. One more hit to the head, and I could have died. Not something to be messed with. I learned a lot of personal value from what happened, and it showed me a lot about myself, good and bad, but I will work on changing the bad, now that I recognize it. But I am glad I am here to tell you about how awesome the event went.

I am super proud of all the girls, and I give props out to them all. Please check out the event news which should be up on sites any time now. Special thanks goes out to Stephanie Nychka who pulled it all together, and the hard working crew who kept it clean for us, and to Hemlock resorts for letting us put it on up on the mountain.

I am off to Scotland tomorrow to support my boyfriend, Mick Hannah at the last world cup race of the year. So thanks for checking in, and I will talk to you as soon as I get back. Thanks for all your support!

RIDE’N ON AND ON!!!
HANNAH LEIGH STEFFENS