On an average bluebird day on the slopes, there are sights you expect to see. Chair lifts spinning their wheels, trees, maybe a wild animal or two. These would be normal things. An Israeli missile defense system intercepting an inbound rocket, not so much.
But, that’s just what happened on Sunday as skiers and snowboarders lapped a tiny ski resort on the slopes of Mount Hermon in the Israeli-controlled area of Golan Heights.
“On Sunday, Iranian Quds Forces operating in Syria launched a surface-to-surface rocket from Syria aimed at Israel’s Golan Heights,” explained Israel Defense Forces in a tweet. “The Iron Dome Aerial Defense System intercepted the rocket.”
Israeli forces hit a number of “Iranian Quds military sites” in response, IDF wrote in a follow-up tweet.
The scene, captured on video by snowboarder Elad Ben-Moshe, is absolutely terrifying and clearly enough to give Ben-Moshe pause. Still, other skiers and snowboarders continue down the run normally. Maybe they didn’t notice what happened, simply passing it off as a strange bend in the jetstream. Or, maybe they just wanted hot chocolate in the lodge.
While snowboarders and skiers of all stripes turn to the mountains for respite and reprieve from the stresses of daily life, it’s moments like these where the reality of the world smacks us all across the face.
