January Blues
I sit here typing my first proper entry feeling upset, emotional, frustrated, angry and well, feeling a little sorry for myself!
I'm propped up on a Canadian hotel bed in my underwear with an ice pack under my left knee and one on my right ankle!
How did I get here? We need to go back in time a little.
I'm a skier or at least, I like to think so. I've been skiing for most of my 50+ years. I've always done the traditional 1 week or, if I'm lucky, two weeks of skiing a season and have a achieved a pretty good standard or all mountain ability but with a life time of bad habits firmly sat on my shoulders.
My ex.wife, my daughter and so it seems, most of my friends all did some sort of gap year or season in the mountains. My daughter is a Level 3 ski instructor training for her level 4 in Val d'Isere in France.
Last year, life threw me a massive curve ball that hit me square on. Big changes in relationship, career and the too-young loss of a friend made me step back and take a look at my life and what I was doing. I realised that I was coasting through and not "Living" life to the full. I was frustrated, unfulfilled and wondering what was the purpose of it all?
Bad events and change, do however, present opportunity so I took full advantage!
New work and career and new challenges. I started my kayak Coach and Advanced Water Leadership training, completed a 300nautical mile solo seakayak trip around the French and English Channel coasts and now, am on an intensive 6 week off-piste and ski touring course in Fernie, British Columbia.
A real opportunity at the age of 56 to do "My" Gap Year, "My" season in the mountains.
I booked the course on the recommendation of cycling trip room mate who had done it 4 years ago. It was a lot of money but good value when compared to renting an apartment or staying in the French Alps in my camper van for a season.
I booked in early December and on the 29th I flew to Calgary and met the Nonstop Snow transfer bus to Fernie BC.
I have been very impressed with Canadians, the company, the town of Fernie, the Red Tree Lodge hotel and the ski hill itself. The Fernie Brewing Company also brews a really nice range of ales including two very good IPAs!
In 5 days, I have skied 4, attended a technical equipment and clothing talk, a ski tuning lesson, two days of ski lessons with our instructor Ryan and a fun New Year's Eve party at one of the local night clubs. The other guests are a really nice, like-minded mix of ages and nationalities and there is a great camaraderie and supportive bond forming between us all.
In the first two days of lessons , our personal technique has been picked apart and we have been taken right back to the basics of stance and posture to build the strong platform we need for the steep and deeps to come. That said, we have already been practicing and applying our new skills on the steepest pistes and in varied, steep off-piste conditions. Exactly what we all came for! It's sometimes been frustrating but in only two days everyone in our fast group has been demonstrating improvements in technique and control.
All was good until the last run yesterday afternoon! I had just finished a pitch of steep, deep snow off-piste when I came to a stop with my skis pointing slightly up the hill. The normal 1m reverse slide and square up saw me trip with my upper body falling out of the hill, my boots and skis coming over my head but not before the left tail dug in the snow, the binding not releasing and my left knee being over extended in a bad way. The feeling of something tearing and very nearly popping in the back of my left knee told me it wasn't going to be good! I then rotated heels over head again and tumbled further down the steep slope until I came to a stop 60m below.
Ouch! No stability in my left knee. Cannot straighten it and it hurt like f%@k!
I wasn't going to come off the mountain in a blood wagon so managed to ski off the hill accompanied by my instructor. On the plus side, I could at least weight bear on the leg.
I felt pretty emotional and didn't manage to hold back the tears getting on the bus back to town and home - day 4 of a 6 week course and it looked like I might be finished already! Definite muscle and tendon damage with possible ligament damage as well - I could barely walk and needed help getting my ski boot off in the hotel. It wasn't looking great!
So, here I am - the morning after. Sat typing on the bed; knee up on an ice pack, last night's consolation drink hangover receding, waiting to get a physio appointment.
My own diagnosis 20 hours after the event is a torn upper calf muscle and stretched tendon that attaches it to the back of the knee. My quads on the top of the knee are also tight and the whole knee, upper calf and lower thigh are swollen, significantly larger than my right leg. I can walk or rather hobble with a major limp and skiing is not happening today and, in all honesty, not tomorrow either.
I don't however, think I have sustained any ligament damge with is a major relief (but with no professional assessment, that is not 100%). I'm using RICE to help it improve and speed up recuperation.
On Saturday, we have the Day1 of our Avalanche Skills Traiimg course - a classroom session and Sunday is a day on the mountain putting our new skills to test in rescue scenarios, snow analysis and avalanche terrain identification etc. I hope I will be able to attend that and test my knee on skis and get back to lessons on Moday.
I'm keeping everything crossed!
I'm propped up on a Canadian hotel bed in my underwear with an ice pack under my left knee and one on my right ankle!
How did I get here? We need to go back in time a little.
I'm a skier or at least, I like to think so. I've been skiing for most of my 50+ years. I've always done the traditional 1 week or, if I'm lucky, two weeks of skiing a season and have a achieved a pretty good standard or all mountain ability but with a life time of bad habits firmly sat on my shoulders.
My ex.wife, my daughter and so it seems, most of my friends all did some sort of gap year or season in the mountains. My daughter is a Level 3 ski instructor training for her level 4 in Val d'Isere in France.
Last year, life threw me a massive curve ball that hit me square on. Big changes in relationship, career and the too-young loss of a friend made me step back and take a look at my life and what I was doing. I realised that I was coasting through and not "Living" life to the full. I was frustrated, unfulfilled and wondering what was the purpose of it all?
Bad events and change, do however, present opportunity so I took full advantage!
New work and career and new challenges. I started my kayak Coach and Advanced Water Leadership training, completed a 300nautical mile solo seakayak trip around the French and English Channel coasts and now, am on an intensive 6 week off-piste and ski touring course in Fernie, British Columbia.
A real opportunity at the age of 56 to do "My" Gap Year, "My" season in the mountains.
I booked the course on the recommendation of cycling trip room mate who had done it 4 years ago. It was a lot of money but good value when compared to renting an apartment or staying in the French Alps in my camper van for a season.
I booked in early December and on the 29th I flew to Calgary and met the Nonstop Snow transfer bus to Fernie BC.
I have been very impressed with Canadians, the company, the town of Fernie, the Red Tree Lodge hotel and the ski hill itself. The Fernie Brewing Company also brews a really nice range of ales including two very good IPAs!
In 5 days, I have skied 4, attended a technical equipment and clothing talk, a ski tuning lesson, two days of ski lessons with our instructor Ryan and a fun New Year's Eve party at one of the local night clubs. The other guests are a really nice, like-minded mix of ages and nationalities and there is a great camaraderie and supportive bond forming between us all.
In the first two days of lessons , our personal technique has been picked apart and we have been taken right back to the basics of stance and posture to build the strong platform we need for the steep and deeps to come. That said, we have already been practicing and applying our new skills on the steepest pistes and in varied, steep off-piste conditions. Exactly what we all came for! It's sometimes been frustrating but in only two days everyone in our fast group has been demonstrating improvements in technique and control.
All was good until the last run yesterday afternoon! I had just finished a pitch of steep, deep snow off-piste when I came to a stop with my skis pointing slightly up the hill. The normal 1m reverse slide and square up saw me trip with my upper body falling out of the hill, my boots and skis coming over my head but not before the left tail dug in the snow, the binding not releasing and my left knee being over extended in a bad way. The feeling of something tearing and very nearly popping in the back of my left knee told me it wasn't going to be good! I then rotated heels over head again and tumbled further down the steep slope until I came to a stop 60m below.
Ouch! No stability in my left knee. Cannot straighten it and it hurt like f%@k!
I wasn't going to come off the mountain in a blood wagon so managed to ski off the hill accompanied by my instructor. On the plus side, I could at least weight bear on the leg.
I felt pretty emotional and didn't manage to hold back the tears getting on the bus back to town and home - day 4 of a 6 week course and it looked like I might be finished already! Definite muscle and tendon damage with possible ligament damage as well - I could barely walk and needed help getting my ski boot off in the hotel. It wasn't looking great!
So, here I am - the morning after. Sat typing on the bed; knee up on an ice pack, last night's consolation drink hangover receding, waiting to get a physio appointment.
My own diagnosis 20 hours after the event is a torn upper calf muscle and stretched tendon that attaches it to the back of the knee. My quads on the top of the knee are also tight and the whole knee, upper calf and lower thigh are swollen, significantly larger than my right leg. I can walk or rather hobble with a major limp and skiing is not happening today and, in all honesty, not tomorrow either.
I don't however, think I have sustained any ligament damge with is a major relief (but with no professional assessment, that is not 100%). I'm using RICE to help it improve and speed up recuperation.
On Saturday, we have the Day1 of our Avalanche Skills Traiimg course - a classroom session and Sunday is a day on the mountain putting our new skills to test in rescue scenarios, snow analysis and avalanche terrain identification etc. I hope I will be able to attend that and test my knee on skis and get back to lessons on Moday.
I'm keeping everything crossed!
Comments
Post a Comment