My season came to an abrupt end yesterday around 4 PM. Second run of the day yesterday, on Diamond Jim at Massanutten. Skiing on skier's left, hit a slick spot, fell, and crashed shin-first into a tree. Ended up at the bottom of the steep embankment off the trail, so no one on the trail could actually see me. Took about 15-20 minutes of shouting before someone from the lift saw me through the trees and alerted patrol. Took three guys to drag me up the embankment.

Anyway bottom line is that there is a fracture in the tibia, fibia, and the patella. Potential surgery needed - I'm supposed to see the orthopedic surgeon today to know for sure.

That sounds pretty wicked, I hope you have a speedy recovery and are back at it next year! If there is any silver lining at least so far this hasn't been much of a ski season.

Sorry to hear that, on the up side you probably not missing much skiing.

Pos vibes and heal up.

And I thought the guy I meet skiing yesterday had a bad day because his brand new Line skis delaminated on his first run.

Best wishes for a full recovery. Your work begins with PT. Don't skimp here, work on it as though your quality of life depends on it. Good Luck and work towards next season.

Sorry to hear about your crash. I hope you have a speedy recovery and can start working towards getting your leg in shape for next year.

Wow...that is terrible. I have been skiing for 37 years and have not injured myself...yet.
However, November 2010 I was run over by a car and my left arm was broken into 7 pieces. I needed surgery to re-assemble my elbow bones and 11 screws/pins and a 7" plate later, my arm was put back together. That was November 22, 2010. The surgeon told me I would not be skiing until next season. Of course being completely obsessed with skiing and being extremely depressed that my season pass would go to waste, I could not wait that long. On December 24, 2010, I told my wife I was going to try a couple of runs and she said, "you are absolutely crazy". Well, I thought with the protective splint, I would most likely not reinjure the arm even if I did fall. So off I went and I had a plan just to ski a couple of easy runs then call it quits. Well one easy run led to "hey let's try something a little more difficult" and the next thing you know I'm skiing the blue runs. To make a long story short, I skied the entire winter with that splint on my arm and had no problems. I am supposed to have a second surgery to return movement to my elbow (most people have 160 degrees of motion, I have 60 degrees), however, I put that off until April so my ski season was unaffected.
I guess what I am trying to say is, don't get discouraged. The time will pass quickly and before you know it this will all be an unpleasant memory.
I wish you a speedy recovery.

Damn! Sorry to hear. Like the others, I hope for a speedy recovery. Tib/fib and the patella? Ouch. All the best in your therapy and recovery. Truly.

As a patroller myself, your story is a stark reminder of one of our primary roles at closing (at night) - peering down the embankment, both sides, on each and every trail. Very glad you got someone's attention.

I've never advised anyone of this, but it's not a bad idea to tuck a whistle in one's parka. A quick spill like this can happen suddenly. Definitely if you're going off trail (by design!). Cell phone coverage, as we know, can be spotty, if not existent, on most hills.

Get better soon. We'll be eager to read about your return next December!

So sorry to hear the lousy news, wgo. A friend and I almost went to the Nut yesterday but got up early and headed for T-line instead. Hope your session with the orthopedic surgeon points to effective remedies and a full recovery.

All the best,
Woody

Sorry to hear it. Good luck with rehab. There is much to be thankful for. It was not your head and not internal injuries. They can fix everything else.

+++++ vibes your way.

Get well soon

Yikes. I am so sorry to hear about your fall. It makes me feel lucky. I took a strange fall myself at the end of the day on Sunday last weekend, but fortunately the outcome was different.

I was going slow on grabby snow just above Silver Queen at Timberline, and made a left side hockey stop. Long story short: the snow grabbed one of my skis (left I think) as I was executing the stop and I fell shoulder first onto the slope. My right knee and left shoulder got banged but other aches and pains also resulted due to the body's tendency to tighten up in a fall. Stunt men train to relax their muscles in a fall but somehow I can't seem to master that technique. ;-)

I decided not to ski the rest of the day. Feeling much better the next morning, I went to the gym later that day to try and self-rehab a bit. I spoke to a very good trainer and got some advice on light exercises and stretches to work through. She also watched me a bit to make sure I was not seriously injured.

Interestingly enough, I discoverd that my knee and shoulder were ok (thank heavens), but that I had pulled my left tricept a bit. Strange how ski accidents affect the body. What you think is damaged may be ok, and what you think is ok may be hurt.

Sorry to hear about your incident. Best of luck for a speedy and complete recovery. Hope that you at least got in a few days before it happened.

I nearly had a season ending fall on November 30. I did a face plant that drew blood. I face plant at least once a year. Haven't ever had one that drew blood before. The face plant isn't what made the fall interesting. The skis kept carving after the face plant. So, I went from laying face first downhill to virtually sitting facing uphill with both legs under me. Luckily I wear knee braces on both knees. If the knees hadn't been braced, I firmly believe that I would have blown out both knees.

I actually did 10 more runs after the fall - including run 9 when I raced a patroller to the base of a lift because I knew he was going to close it for the day and I wanted one more run. My goggles and helmet did a pretty good job of hiding my badly scraped and bloody face. Did I say that I'm just a bit obsessed with skiing?

5 weeks later and both MCL's are still recovering and I'm still stiff

I still don't understand how a face plant can possibly turn in to not one, but two, blown knees. Mechanically I understand what happened, but I still don't see how it could have happened.

Bill,

Very sorry to hear about your injury. I'll echo what others have said and spend a lot of time and energy on the rehab. Also, getting an opinion from an ortho surgeon who deals with a lot of athletic patients is a good idea.

If it's any consolation, my ski season has sucked so far - at best I'll be on skis for the first time MLK weekend, but even that is not guaranteed. I'm rehabbing from a car accident in early December (actually I was a pedestrian and the car was an SUV, so you know who won that battle.) No broken bones, but a concussion and staples in the elbow and head. Still suffering from post concussion syndrome (occasional headaches and dizziness), but the symptoms are getting better. For the past four weeks, strenuous physical activity for me has consisted of driving and sitting at a desk.

Hopefully we'll hook up for some tree pow turns in 2013 when both of us are healed up. In the words of PJ, cheers.

JohnL - same thing happened to me last year. I also was struck by an SUV. Nothing like flying through the air at 20 MPH. When I landed (on my right hand, left elbow and my 2 knees) all I could think about was "get up" because I was afraid the guy was going to run me over. I was in extreme pain but still mananged to claw my way up to my feet. If you read my previous post you know the results. Beyond the severely broken arm my entire body ached for weeks. I had stones under my skin in my right hand and my knees were black and blue.
Good luck on your recovery. I have a lawyer (who is also an avid skier) who understands.

Thanks for the kind wishes everyone. I hope that everyone else who is banged up is able to get back to the slopes ASAP. I saw the orthopedic surgeon today and I am scheduled for surgery next Friday - they wanted to wait a week for the swelling to go down. They'll need to attach a metal plate to fix the break. Looks like i'll be on crutches for 2 months. With PT I should be nearly back to full strength in half a year.

See you all on the slopes next season!

Sorry to hear about your injury. Just coming back from skiing-induced surgery myself. Good PT is critical. Hang in there and recover quickly!

Feel better soon. If I can ski with a broken hip and Parkinsons, you can do even better. I am inspired by the wounded warriors and adaptive skiers. Yours, Connie Lawn

Thought I would post a quick update on my injury status. It actually took a full 2 weeks before I was able to get the surgery - after a week the swelling had not gone down enough, plus I developed a skin infection on the leg that needed to be cleared up before they could cut me open. I finally had the surgery on Jan. 20. It went well - my last doc appt was last Thursday and so far everything looks to be healing up properly (knock on wood).

In contrast to my original post, I actually did not break my patella - that was something I misunderstood in the pain and confusion of the first night. The main injury was to the tibia, where there was a long fracture starting from the tibia plateau (just below the knee). So I now have a metal plate in my leg, plus some additional screws. The fibula was also fractured but that will heal on its own.

10 days after surgery and I am getting around pretty well on crutches. I did not get a cast after surgery, just a removable brace that runs from just above the knee to the ankle. I have not really needed to wear this the last few days. Physical therapy starts in earnest this week. I am still supposed to avoid putting any weight on the leg until the 3rd week of March or so (although I may be able to start driving by the end of February).