Aries 9, 2078, m249

If soaring down a 3 kilometre frozen shaft sounds a little extreme, it is because it is.

ISMO R&D releases footage of Jamie Mulensar, test skier, making  the harrowing high speed descent down a track that has been dubbed “The Abyss”.

Excavators have modified the previous mining vein into a combination downhill and ice track descending more than 5000 meters.

With slopes ranging from 35% to 65%, portions of the course feel like free fall.

Jamie, a drop ship pilot, knows the importance of precision control traversing between ports and orbital cargo transports.  He has been part of the subterranean ski project for more than 6 months.

“No aspect of this is for recreational activity,” he explained after his run, “I trained on the phase 1 track and phase 2 ‘mini-giant’ tracks for months before attempting Abyss. Now there are three of us that can make it down in one piece, so we have started getting serious about time trials.”

What Jamie fails to share is the 5 other testers that have quit the program due to injury.  According to trainers, there have been 2 life-threatening injuries on the mini-giant course.

“To be fair,” said Oslo Drummond, and ISMO engineer, “Only one injury was from the downhill skiing... the other was from a mishap on the sled.”

ISMO claims that skiing will become a recreational activity soon and that their work and research today will directly inform how public facilities will be designed for safety.

Jamie, like many of the other nouveau athletes makes light of the risk, “You’ve got to crack a few eggs to make a new sport.”