I sprained my knee in a bad way three days ago on our last ski run of the day. Over the course of three days, we had been occasionally dropping/jumping off this eight foot or so drop off from the Giant Boulder trail at Seven Springs Mountain Resort in PA.
We have a group trip there every year that is good skiing and great companionship. Last year we started doing a race that is comprised of the four Black Diamond trails on the north side of the resort. The race went well this year though we had only four participants. Two of them took the wrong lift up after the first run and ended up winning the race. More on that later.
We had figured for a more leisurely run down one of the Blacks to wind up the day when Dan Elbon suggested we hit the drop off one more time. We were all game for it but both Dan and I ran into problems. According to friends and family on the lift that had a great view of the action, Dan didn’t stick well and rolled down the whole drop zone.
I got a good stick but lost it shortly after that. Dan was okay but with skis and poles akimbo. I somehow managed to keep everything close. My downhill (right) ski bindings finally popped, albeit too late for my knee, and one of my poles broke loose. I got one good roll in that smacked my, thankfully helmeted, head into the ground. I think perhaps I should have just taken the fall. I may have tried too hard to stick to my line which torqued my knee. What can I say? Can’t look back, eh?
So why “Getting a Leg Up After Skinny Skiing?” I am keeping the knee elevated per the doctors orders…I guess to keep the swelling down. What to I know? And I broke my streak of not falling. Then last night I watched Caddyshack on TV. Chevy Chase is talking to Judge Smails niece who says she likes “skinny skiing.”
I haven’t fallen in four or five years. It was my mantra. Then I kept bringing it up so I had to have jinxed myself…truly. I skied in Vermont for five days in a row two weeks ago and stayed erect the whole time!
As regards the knee…it did not feel good on the mountain. I could not put weight on it in a way that I felt like I could get down the rest of the run. As I mentioned, a few people I know saw me take the spill and there was a ski patrol shift supervisor going up the lift right about the time I realized that I needed help. We talked, he came right down after he got to the top. After a quick evaluation, he called for a sled, they splinted my leg, loaded me on a sled, and took me down to the First Aid shack
…that was scarier than getting out of control on a speed run…I was strapped into the sled upside down with my head on the down slope…perhaps the ski patrol dude was pissed off at me…he did not waste anytime getting down the hill…
where they loaded me up in a Suburban to take me to ski patrol central. There they did another evaluation and someone like “Stuttering John” took my personal and accidental information for the records. My sister Julie had tracked me down and had her hubby bring my hiking boots down for me so I could get out of my ski boots.
As I reflect back on the questions they asked about the whole incident, I wonder why they didn’t ask what the hell I though I was doing running off the drop off. I have only seen a few people do it and they mostly just drop off from a dead stop where as we were keeping up speed going off the thing. Oddly, the ski patrol guys that I was talking to as they loaded me up in the sled agreed with me that it was a good drop off. I guess they figured if I had the balls to go off the thing, I was probably okay. They said it was awesome earlier in the week when there was some fluff and the snow in the drop zone was softer.
Even considering the spill and risk I took, the ski patrol did not give me any grief. I am sure that they had seen me on mountain. My Budweiser pants are hard to miss. We had actually almost got shut down after the first run of our race. Could have been anyone of us that got called for it because we came into the lift area hard but Lee and I passed through to the next, and correct, lift while Matt and Dan stopped. I think it was Matt who was chastised for coming into the lift line too fast.
So I am sitting here with a leg, actually both, up the sofa. It has been three days but I can put weight on the right leg and walk without support, though having my walking stick helps. I got some crutches when stopped at my doctor’s on the way home yesterday but they suck.
Many thanks to Julie and Ed…Julie took Ryan back to school at WVU and Ed drove me and my car home. And thanks to them for taking care of me including moving all my baggage around and such.
I was able to put my socks and shoes on by myself Monday which was good. Today my knee feels much better. I think the swelling is going down. I am mobile. I can feel the soreness in my right leg muscles which I gather are compensating for/protecting the ligaments or is a result of the overall strain on my leg. Flexibility is increasing and swelling decreasing daily.
Wiping out was a sorry way to wind up the trip but at least there seems to be no permanent damage and it was the last run of the day on what probably would have been the last day I skied on the trip. At least I got three good days in.