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Ouch. And I thought pulling an ahkio while on skis was bad...
Two stories about this:
First: We had an ensign as second in command of the supply group I trained with. He told us about their winter training when they were coming down a south facing slope on skis.
They all felt that the snow was slightly warmer at the bottom of the slope. Warmer snow = less glide so they all felt a retardation. The last guy down was the one pulling the akhio (Finnish spelling). He slowed down in that warmer section, the akhio didn't. It pushed him forwards so he fell flat on his face but the akhio didn't stop. It was heavily loaded so it ran him over. He had two tracks up the back of his snow cover (loose white jacket and trousers worn over the uniform).
Second: During my "winter training" we went skiing with an akhio (spelled ackja in Swedish), two or maybe three miles. An akhio can be pulled by two soldiers, one attached with the harness/bows, the other is pulling with a rope, actually two ropes hooked together like two U's. Anyhow, the guy pulling with ropes was starting to get an "upset" stomach (the runs basically, probably from getting cold or something). Going down a slope the ski track turned a corner followed by a straight section where they gathered some more speed and then across a ditch (small dip in the track). When going downhill the two akhio pullers get close and the rear man holds onto the front guy. In that dip the akhio somehow got stuck and pulled the rear guy onto his butt, the front guy continued with full speed for another 6 feet until the rope attached to his belt suddenly yanked him backwards. This was no godd at all for his upset stomach. I was the patrol leader for that half mile and had found a spot off the track for a break and some food. Suddenly I hear this distressed yell about TP and one guy comes skking towards like like greased lightning asking for TP and saying that he NEEDs an urgent break. I tell him "Fifty yards in that direction!" and off he goes to take care of business. When the others comes moseying around I tell them that it is time for a break and where we are going, then I hear "Holy effin-hell! What the heck! are you doing" when they find poor sod and the place where he has soiled the snow ... He was OK by evening after warming up and feasting on blueberry soup and lots of visits the the "mens room" ...
