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Nighttime skier crashes into promenading elk

TT/The Local
TT/The Local - [email protected]
Nighttime skier crashes into promenading elk

A cross-country skier crashed into an elk on Tuesday evening while out exercising by torchlight on Billingen Hill near Skövde in western Sweden.

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Conny Jacobsson elected to follow a ten kilometre trail for his Tuesday skiing excursion. The trail was not lit and so Jacobsson equipped himself with a headlamp and set off into the woods on Billingen Hill.

As the skier approached the final stretch of his trail he caught sight of a large elk on the path right in front of him. The thought flashed through his mind that he should probably change track, but lacking the time to react he crashed straight into the majestic beast.

"Straight into the side, with my skis continuing under the elk. I ended up lying flat on my back on the ski tracks," Conny Jacobsson told Sveriges Radio Skaraborg.

The elk in turn was surprised at the impromptu interruption to its evening routines.

"I saw the elk's hooves which hopped delicately over me. He ran off with a glance back at me lying there," the skier said.

But the "king of woods" stopped a couple of metres away and refused to move any further, blocking Jacobsson's path. The skier tried to scare away the animal but was in the end forced to re-route, the elk all the time maintaining its curious glare.

"I got a real shift on later," Jacobsson admitted.

Conny Jacobsson said that in the future he would consider selecting one of the floodlit trails.

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