The Accident

I can tell whenever I get into trouble skiing.  There's a moment when I know it's not going to work out according to plan and it'll be better to fall as softly as possible.  Other times the trouble moment comes up quickly and fortunately my bindings release, which makes falling a lot faster but at least I'm able to fall.

My accident didn't fit either of those descriptions.  My moment of knowing came after I heard a pop.  At which point I realized that something wasn't right, and I was in more then just a little bit of trouble.  There's a number of reasons why I'm very fortunate to have had unique circumstances surround my accident.  The biggest one is that I was able to fall by laying down on my side after my leg broke.  The fall itself was the easiest thing about my accident.  I simply laid down on my side, my right side, and lifted my broken left leg as best I could while skidding to a stop.

It was the start of a beautiful day at Abasin.  I was skiing a little too fast, and my skis did feel like they were rebounding too quickly, but I was enjoying it.  I was working on moving my hips through the turn and initiating my turns with a pronounced hip movement down the fall line.  This is a powerful movement to jump onto a new turn edge.  It probably wasn't the best movements to practice for my first day.  Instead, I probably should have been working on some simple skid turns and weight progressions.  I was practicing hip movements while skiing around 40 mph.

As I initiated a new turn to the right, I moved my hips down the fall line laterally over my skis.  This enables me to jump on the new outside downhill ski quickly, edging the ski, and transferring weight progressively to the new outside ski.  While moving to the right, increasing the angles created from the hips, to the knees and finally the ankles.  This was my plan anyway.

My outside ski got hung up on a rail.  Almost as if the ski was on a track and headed on path much different then I was.  I was making a turn to the right and my left ski was going down the fall line.  My hips were already angled to the right and my knees were following, but my ski was moving further away.  That twist, along with the pressure of my full body weight, crushed my tibia plateau behind the knee cap.  Almost like a wine cork that gets twisted from the bottle.  The ski patrol kept asking what I felt, and the only explanation I could give was that it feels like there's junk in my knee cap that cracks and pops when it moves.

The ski patrol did an amazing job.  Those people deserve a big hug from every skier.  They're not paid much, or even paid anything but they listened and took me to safety.  They braced my leg, got my stuff together and called the ambulance.  Everyone who fixed me up - Thank YOU.  The ski patrol, ambulance drivers, nurses, doctors, and hospital staff - huge debt of gratitude, my whole hearted thank you!

X-rays of Will's leg

Plates and screws