Last Ski picture this winter I'm afraid

[Jim Dockery]

I was skiing one of my favorite back-country areas near Stevens Pass WA yesterday. There was 10 inches of pretty good new snow on top of a supportive rain crust, but very little avalanche danger. The morning started off well (see picture) then I made a mistake dropping into a steep slot where I tried cutting into a rib of snow on the side of the chute to slow myself down. If it would have been powder it would have worked well, but instead I hit the rain crust and drove one of my ski tips deep into it stopping that leg while my other ski continued. A hard twisting fall and exit from the ski followed, and I wrenched my knee pretty hard. I managed to self-rescue with help from my three partners breaking trail for me on the 1,000 ft. climb back up onto the ridge we had skied off of, then I walked back down our up track on the crust that supported me nicely. Doctor who looked me over today thinks it is just a bad sprain, but that is the end of my winter season Now I'm just hoping I will recover enough for some good hikes in UT/AZ next month.

 

[Darcy Grizzle]

WOW nice pic, fantastic actually! And glad you are okay, coulda been so much worse!

 

[MonikaC]

I was skiing one of my favorite back-country areas near Stevens Pass WA yesterday. There was 10 inches of pretty good new snow on top of a supportive rain crust, but very little avalanche danger. The morning started off well (see picture) then I made a mistake dropping into a steep slot where I tried cutting into a rib of snow on the side of the chute to slow myself down. If it would have been powder it would have worked well, but instead I hit the rain crust and drove one of my ski tips deep into it stopping that leg while my other ski continued. A hard twisting fall and exit from the ski followed, and I wrenched my knee pretty hard. I managed to self-rescue with help from my three partners breaking trail for me on the 1,000 ft. climb back up onto the ridge we had skied off of, then I walked back down our up track on the crust that supported me nicely. Doctor who looked me over today thinks it is just a bad sprain, but that is the end of my winter season Now I'm just hoping I will recover enough for some good hikes in UT/AZ next month.

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Sorry to hear about that, Jim, but I'm glad the doc doesn't think anything is torn. I'm sure you'll get some good desert hikes in this Spring!

 

[Ben Egbert]

Nice picture, but I am really sorry for the injury and hope its a fast recovery.

 

[Jim Dockery]

Thanks for all the kind words. I'm feeling pretty good about my recovery and very relieved I didn't really tear things up like I thought I might have.

 

[AlanLichty]

I hope the initial assessment is on the money. Be kind to that knee if you want to be out hiking in the spring.....

 

[JimFox]

Hey Jim,

That's a great photo! Too bad about the fall, it can happen. Thankfully it's just a sprain, even though that's a pain, so much better then tearing a ligament. I feel up in the Rockies last week just as I was done shooting the ice on a lake. Ended up needing 3 stitches in my elbow, my side fell on my 70-300 that was in a pouch. Fortunately besides having sore ribs where the lens placed itself I seem to be okay there and the lens seems to still be fine.

 

[Kyle Jones]

Great pic though. Heal fast!

 

[Mike Mancil]

Best of luck with the sprain. An excellent last photo though.

 

[Jim Dockery]

I'm afraid I got a call from my Doc last night after he carefully examined the X-rays. He found a hairline fracture in the top of my tibia. No weight bearing for 6 weeks My wife and I are now rescheduling our spring trip to the desert by a couple weeks. Ah well, could have been a lot worse if I hadn't been able to get out on my own: weather would have precluded a helicopter rescue this week, we were in an area that can't be accessed by snowmobile, and the steep terrain climbing out would have made for a very difficult toboggan rescue involving lots of man power.

 

[AlanLichty]

I'm afraid I got a call from my Doc last night after he carefully examined the X-rays. He found a hairline fracture in the top of my tibia. No weight bearing for 6 weeks My wife and I are now rescheduling our spring trip to the desert by a couple weeks. Ah well, could have been a lot worse if I hadn't been able to get out on my own: weather would have precluded a helicopter rescue this week, we were in an area that can't be accessed by snowmobile, and the steep terrain climbing out would have made for a very difficult toboggan rescue involving lots of man power.

Ouch.

 

[Mike Mancil]

Time to catch up with your reading. Just don’t watch daytime TV or it’ll rot your brain!

 

[Zeph]

Best of luck with your recovery.
My mantra is "It could have been worse"