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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#129: Ski Season

For some of us in the Northern hemisphere, the cold wintery months of January and February come with the promise of the ski season — a light at the end of the tunnel of short, dark days. Whether you’re gallivanting around the Alps, or just taking a sledge to your local snowy hillside, there’s definitely adventure to be found at this time of year. 


Whether you find the chill bracing, biting, or something else entirely, let’s thaw any ice that formed over your creative spirit this winter with the help of this week’s prompts!

This week's prompts

Begin your story with a character crashing into something (or someone) while skiing.

Adventure – 30 stories

Write about a skier who accidentally strays off-piste.

Adventure – 30 stories

Set your story in a snowed-in chalet.

Winter – 56 stories

Write your story from the point of view of someone learning or teaching an extreme hobby.

Narrative – 19 stories

Your character runs an inn for resting mountaineers. It’s a calm life, until they encounter a twist of fate.

Winter – 47 stories

Stories

“In Coincidental Care” by Susan Whitlock

Submitted to Contest #129

Isaac and Jesse Elder watched proudly as a group of shaggy men approached the guest desk at the newest family adventure, The Coincidental Inn, Mt. Rainier. The youngest of ten children born and raised on a Missouri farm in a small town called Laughlin, they had copied their parents original Coincidental Inn as closely as possible in two other locations. The first had been near Aspen CO, with the help of Sharon and Doug Brewster, who lived there and had been special guests at the Missouri inn the first year it opened. This third family inn ...

3 comments 3
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“The Hatch” by Kara Beth Baker

Submitted to Contest #129

    “Isn’t this the best thing ever?” said Annie to her husband, “It’s gotta be the best hot chocolate I’ve ever had..like ever. But Rhett didn’t hear her. He was transfixed with the wintry view outside.  He had  been so lost in his head with the wedding plans and wedding itself-the last few weeks in themselves had been such a blur. He was just enjoying the peace and the calmness of not having to do anything at that exact moment. The River Bend B&B was just what he needed.     The newlywe...

1 comment 1
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“The Dragon Hunter’s Keeper” by Alexis W.

Submitted to Contest #129

The Ice Wyrms moved up-mountain during every summer season, retreating into caves left frozen for centuries while the spring frost in the lowlands melted. The Stalkers followed, tracking the scaled flocks to the northernmost points of treacherous mountains. But the Stalkers were only human - albeit slightly magic - so they were forced to take breaks on their treks. As the Ice Wyrms continued to hike upwards, following the instinctual embedded paths in the snow, the Stalkers found shelter at my inn. Devenna Darkm...

2 comments 2
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“A Quick Escape” by James Grasham

Submitted to Contest #129

Alf picked at the spot on his bar with his fingernail, unsure if it was something long since spilled or a tiny knot in the wood. Sighing, he gave up and ran his cloth quickly over it, leaving it for another day. His inn, The Traveller’s Hearth, was always quiet at this time of year. Not many people made the journey along the mountain road during the winter moons. Still, he desperately hoped when the sun went down, he’d have more custom than just the old man nearly asleep in the corner and the hooded youth staring into the fire. His daught...

5 comments 5
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“Winter Dreams” (A 'Christmas Dreams' sequel)” by Katharine Johns

Submitted to Contest #129

Jessie crashed into a metal post trail-marker while skiing.This predicament all started in her first days of high school. Fifteen-year-old Jessie, lover of Christmas, found a new infatuation: fellow classmate, Greg Hammond. She first saw him about eight lockers down from hers in the first days of school. He wasn’t anyone she went to school with before. He walked right by her one day as he focused on his class schedule and school map, trying to figure out where to go. She should’ve said something but forgot her manners in her wonder over him....

1 comment 1
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“From bubbles to burst and boost!” by Ibiyinka Olubunmi Elushade

Submitted to Contest #129

Buoyed by the principles plus precepts learnt from watching a few YouTube videos on skiing well and without fear as a novice, I set off down the snowy slope with a significant sense of déjà vu! This euphoric feeling was as indescribable as it was enjoyable. This wind at my back turned to temporal dysphoria as I crashed into someone while seeking to employ a wedge stop technique practiced a few times after watching the how-tos. A more experienced skier auspiciously came to the rescue of my "victim" as I steadily moved to a safe spot. Bask...

0 comments 0
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“The Ski Slope” by Irene Ivy

Submitted to Contest #129

[This story alludes to child neglect.] “I can’t stop!” she yelled. “Turn to the side!” he yelled behind him, but it was too late; Miley crashed right into the back of him, taking them both down, hands and faces smacked in the snow. Snow was shoved into their faces, up their noses and into their mouths, cold and wet. Jason sat right up but if Miley thought he was worried about her, she was wrong. “Miley! Ugh! Why didn’t you turn? I told you to turn!” he snapped. Miley sat up, more slowly than her older brother, and wiped away...

3 comments 3
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“Off-Piste” by Noelle C. Lee

Submitted to Contest #129

Sensitivity Warning-Mention of actual events that involve the taking of lives.It all got a bit too hard. I had to retreat to heal. She was killed by snipers in 2002 while driving in her car in the D.C. area. Just a simple outing hoping to find a special gift for our anniversary. The same route taken daily to go to work. Nothing extraordinary about the day other then the fact that she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Two snipers, a man and his pseudo son took to shooting random victims as a ploy to cover a murder scheme. My wife...

2 comments 2
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“Audience of One” by Douglas J. Veverka

Submitted to Contest #129

A couple settled in across from each other at a table next to a window with the perfect view of the hillside, empty of anything but the blanket of mother nature's winter splendor. The full moon shed its light on the snowflake’s gracious dance through the night sky to the earth below collecting their contemporaries as it accumulated. Lodgers roamed about the room, heads tilted back, admiring its vaulted ceilings with massive trunks of wood crisscrossing the span. Others delighted at the staircase with its spindles of hand-carved angels, ...

0 comments 0
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“The Whip” by Quinn Cain

Submitted to Contest #129

The moment I moved to Utah I wanted to rock climb. Growing up I was always a timid, shy kid. The thought of going downhill too fast on my bike, climbing a tree, or buying a pair of Heelies would make my knees weak. I don’t like this part of me. Driving into Utah for the first time as a teenager, I saw something. The mountains. Yes, I’ve seen the mountains before, but I’ve never seen them. The moment I entered the shadow of these pillow-topped giants, I was speechless, overwhelmed by a feeling of insignificance. The intimidation, the delicat...

8 comments 8
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“Mark of Adventure” by Annalisa D.

Submitted to Contest #129

CW graphic injury       As we wait in line, anxiety digs its sharp claws into my rapidly beating heart, my breathing feels a little unsteady, and my legs are itching to run in the other direction. The rubber handlebar grips are slippery with all the sweat soaking my palms, but I clutch them tightly. The bike is so heavy. What if I can’t lift it? The lift moves slow enough, but I cringe imagining myself struggling to get the bike onto it. I think of people laughing or shaking their heads at how weak I am. Then, w...

15 comments 15
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“The Predicament” by Davie McGuinn

Submitted to Contest #129

The headlight from the giant locomotive illuminated ominously through the foggy abyss as dusk settled into darkness. The steam billowing out of the valves and the black smoke huffing out of the smokestack only contributed to its abstract, melancholy appearance. The shrill of the airbrakes synchronized with the low-pitch whine of the whistle. The clanging of the bell was the only optimistic percussion that this mechanical beast seemed to produce. The locomotive was grimy and exhausted from its long climb up the mountain, winding through too m...

4 comments 4
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“White” by Rich Hosek

Submitted to Contest #129

The snow came down in large white clumps, so quickly that my my footprints were erased as fast as I made them trudging back to the cabin from the woodpile with an armload of logs. The satellite dish perched on my roof was buried in the winter’s snowfall and completely useless, but I didn’t need some fancy TV weatherman to tell me it was going to be a hell of a storm.The solar panels were likewise ineffective this time of year, so the television was nothing but a blank frame anyway. I had plenty of kerosene for my lamps, and the wood kept me ...

0 comments 0
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“The Last Night before Spring” by Georgia Papp

Submitted to Contest #129

This day arrives each year, and, even though I am aware of how time works, each recursion knocks me off my feet. Sometimes it rains, occasionally it’s sunny (rarely), but most years it either snows heavily or deep frost swallows the world. It is late winter, after all; and, in the mountains, late winter is still hard winter. This year it’s snowing, and there is some mercy in that. My mind catches on each thick flake as it rushes to the ground, vying to outrun its brethren. Then another, and another, there’s no space between snowflakes for t...

0 comments 0
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“Mystery at Mount Snowpoke Inn” by Zach Martz

Submitted to Contest #129

Joe Westfield arrived at the inn at seven o’clock on the dot, as per his usual routine. He liked to make sure that his guests would have their coffee and their continental breakfast hot and ready by the time they got up that morning. The small kitchen, which consisted of little more than a fridge, a microwave and a stove, had already been stocked the night before, so all he had to do was carry the trays of pastries to the dining room, fetch the cups of butter and fruit jams from the fridge, and start up a vat of coffee and hot water for tea....

3 comments 3
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$250

Prize money

182

Contest entries

92

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Jan 21, 2022 EST

Won by Erica Vogel 🏆

Title: At the Whitemare

Submissions must be between 1,000 - 3,000 words and will be approved and published on Reedsy Prompts within 7 days of the contest closing.

Read the full terms & conditions or check out the FAQ if you have any questions!

Prompts | Big Blue Hand | 2024-11

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