Suddenly I realized that the trajectory, slope angle and rock face was far different than what my 20 minutes of scoping had told me. The cliff stuck out nearly 30 feet, the take-off was at least 45 degrees steep and the angle of the take off sent me right into a point of rocks sticking far out into my planned landing. The seconds before impact I realized I was going to land on rocks and time slowed down to a primordial pace. I landed feet first onto a tall pillar of rock spotted with a dusting of snow. Upon impact I crumpled, buckled and somehow shot outwards past the next set of rocks into soft snow. Fortunately not a single piece of my body hit the rocks in the milliseconds of impact. I tomahawked for a solid 50 feet after hitting the snow and when I stopped I immediately heard the panicked screams into the radio asking if I was alright. I struggled to find my radio, stood up and waved to everyone that I was indeed alright. I didn't feel a thing in fact. Then the adrenaline started to subside and I realized my left knee was in a world of pain. It didn't feel horrible, didn't feel shattered, felt somewhat stable but still hurt like hell. I hiked up, grabbed on of my two missing skis and skied down to our guide Yvan with one ski. The other ski has been sacrificed to the mountain gods. Immediately the fear of a devastating knee injury began to plague my brain. I flew directly to the hospital and as the heli ride lingered on I welled up fearing the worst, embarrassed by the accident and worried about the future.
(The ending line. If you look closely you can see my bomb hole and me down low. My bomb hole in the snow is directly below the rocks I landed on)
As the initial pain began to subside and the X-rays came in negative my spirits began to lift again. Now, a week later and after 34 hours of driving back home, aided by my beautiful and gracious fiancee who flew up to Vancouver to drive me the rest of the way home, I'm back in Tahoe and have a fresh set of MRI's.
Today I just got back from the reading with surprisingly positive news. Here's the tick list: Tibial plateau fracture, 2nd to 3rd degree MCL tear, strained LCL, a partially torn meniscus and some serious bone bruising. Considering the force of the impact, I am super lucky. It could have been a career ending injury, fuck it could have been even worse than that. So to be left with an injury that might not even need surgery, I can easily say I'm stoked.
Now, it's on to healing and coming back strong. It's a healthy dose of motivation and I can't wait to be in Physical Therapy, on the bike, in the gym and getting prepared for this coming Winter.
5 comments:
glad you made it out more-or-less OK. heal up and kill it again next winter!
I can relate to the sentiment, but definitely don't feel embarrassed. You're out there pushing your limits and doing a mighty fine job.
Glad you're not too seriously injured! Heal that knee and grow that 'stache. I look forward to seeing more from you next season.
The idea of you being embarrassed by the fall is beyond comprehension to me. Takes some serious stones to even attempt a line like that. I guess if you're going to get hurt, better in April than January, at least. Looking forward to MSP's next release.
Thanks for the comments and support guys. I truly appreciate it. In regards to being embarrassed, well the embarrassment comes from putting myself in that life-threatening of a situation. The gravity of the situation, flood of adrenaline and surge of pain puts you in a weird state and in this case I felt embarrassed for it. Looking back on it, I am definitely not embarrassed though. Now I just chalk it up as a learning experience and a bad fall.
Good to hear. I'm glad you're not going to let it hold you back. Are you going to be in Boulder for the MSP premier this fall? If so, let me know. I'd like to ask you a few questions about your experience so I can hopefully pass what you've learned along to the kids I coach.
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