Last Stop on the Idaho Express

The Wyoming sky stretched over us in true bigsky style. Sometimes you look at a blue sky and know that its a warm blue sky, sometimes you know it's a cold blue sky. This one was cold, cold and empty like I imagine space would be for an astronaut. It wasn't particularly cold, for being 13000 feet above see level, but still nippy. We had just summited the Grand Teton in Wyoming. The ice in the Stetnar Collier was cold and hard and had made for a very direct and uneventful climb. Now coming down by a different route, my climbing buddies and I lazily picked our way through the rocks scree, the most difficult part or our day behind us.
To my right, was a wall of granite where the peak plunged toward heaven, to my left was a glacier, affectionately called the Idaho express, because if one fell on this glacier, ones body would be found in the neighboring state of Idaho.
I put my ice axe away to free my hands for easier climbing down. Now and again the route required a short scramble down a 6 or 8 foot cliff, followed by more boulders and scree. The sun had been shinning now for several hours and the snow was getting softer. I found that I could save my weary body by jumping off the small cliffs onto the now soft snow for a jarring, but bellowed landing. Lazy daydreams of burgers in town began to creep in.
The Idaho express now squeezed it's way into our path of decent and I admired the view into the flat potato country thousands of feet below. I took another jump onto soft snow, then another. I hadn't yet noticed the danger about to engulf me. Above, the peak blocked the sun, and cast a shadow over the glacier. I jumped again, but this time, the snow was not soft and I felt my ankles bend painfully under the weight of my pack. Solid ice, and steep. The shadow of the peak over this particular part of the glacier made it so it nearly ever melted. My feet went out from under my like they were greased and gravity pulled my instantly down the Idaho express. My axe, the only thing capable of stopping such a fall, was tucked neatly in my pack. Gaining speed my toes dug into what they could. I actually could see through the blurry froth of powdered ice my friends disappearing above. I dug in my finger tips with all my force and felt one or two finger nails separate from the tips. The noise of my bodies attempts to slow the fall deafened my ears, like stone grating against ice. I let out something half scream and half groan. At the same moment when I realized that I was doomed, suddenly something slammed jarringly nto my legs. I felt pain rush up through my shins, making me dizzy. I tuned to see what had saved me. I had by some luck or some intervention, managed to slam into the only outcropping of rocks on the glacier. Last stop on the Idaho express. Wet cold blood covered my knees and legs and I could feel it soaking my socks, and although I was very sore, and my fingertips mangled, I was alive with no broken bones.