Chapter 13: Going Downhill Fast

Things aren’t looking good. Most of the canyon is now covered with space ice, and you are intensely cold. Suddenly you hear Melvin shout “Over here! I found something!” With intense effort, you fight against the freezing cold to stagger towards the south wall of the canyon. “This spot, right here!” says Melvin excitedly. “I think this spot is just ice, no rock. Melt it and see!”

You raise your heavy, frozen arm, and with incredible difficulty, pull the trigger of the heat ray. The wall starts to melt. You look up and see that there are only one or two spots left that aren’t covered by the ice ceiling, and those have packages drifting down towards them. The wall keeps melting, though, and you start to see a small opening, which is gradually growing larger.

“There’s no time!” shouts Melvin. “Kick it open!” There is only one open spot in the ceiling now. You kick at the small hole, and crack open a large enough hole to squeeze through. You immediately find yourself rolling down the mountain face, and catch yourself, just before you tumble over a cliff. You look up, and see that the intense cold has already refrozen the hole you came through. No more packages are coming from the spaceship, but now it has a spotlight and is casting it around. “They’re looking for us!” shouts Melvin. The sun has just started to come up, and as you look down the cliff face below you, you see a familiar sight in the orange light of sunrise. “Our flags!” shouts Melvin. “This is where we climbed up the first time!” You notice that fortunately there seem to be no deadly animals or Abominable Snowmen in sight this time. The spaceship’s spotlight is headed your way. You start looking for handholds to climb down. “We’ll never make it if you climb,” says Melvin. “Put on the skis! It’s the only way!” You realize that he’s probably right, and unfold them and strap them on your feet. Skiing down such a steep mountain seems insane, but that spaceship doesn’t seem friendly, and its spotlight is just a few yards away.

“Geronimo!” you shout, and leap over the cliff edge, hoping you can ski to the bottom before the spaceship can find you.

Put the Skiing cartridge into your Atari 2600. Choose game select 3, and set the difficulty switches to b. Play until you can ski down the mountain, through all 30 gates, in less than 28.2 seconds. Post a link to a video in the comments section of yourself completing the challenge.