I took a weird fall on a groomer the weekend before Chrsitmas and lost a month of my ski season. I couldn't walk for 3 weeks. But now I am feeling back in the swing.













I love beaver Mtn.

What's not to love?? That last shot is poster material. Glad you're back in action.

man thats sweet lookin skiing! was wondering where the reports from UT were the past month... if you don't mind me asking.. what did you injure? shoulder?

ive been battling low back soreness almost 2 months now myself. and its very depressing. ill go a week or 2 with no skiing and will start to feel much better, then go skiing and she flares up again! (finally gonna get an mri later this week tho) i shoulda just bit the bullet like you and stayed off the ski's for a while to enjoy the rest of the season alot more!

hope you have a epic rest of season tho!

Glad to see you're back in action Tim; nice photos!

crunchy, have you tried skiing with a weight lifting belt? Might sound odd, but I had back problems some years back, and one thing I found benefecial was to wear a weight lifting belt when I skied. It supported the lower back and kept me from making any potentially-damaging moves. It also encouraged good upper body form and emphasized flexure of the knees and legs to absorb shock (instead of the back). It really helped me ski through my back problems. I had one of the foam/neoprene/velcro belts that was light and fairly comfortable.

Knock on wood, my back has been OK for over 10 years now, give or take some yardwork-induced soreness now and then. But it was pretty lousy when it was bad, so I feel for you!

Stay healthy, I'm looking forward to skiing with you next month.

Crunchy, Hope you get that back issue solved. That sounds like a bad one.

As for me, I twisted my ankle while skiing. I have been told that ankle injuries are very rare during skiing, and there is a story behind this one...

I was skiing on a my big fat and floppy 191 P4s mounted with Look PX12s, which will play an important role later in this story. I was going down a groomer that connects to another area of the mountain. I was skiing lazily, but with some speed. Coming down a small slope I caught an edge. As far as I can tell my left (down hill) ski got caught under my right (uphill) ski. One of the edges of that left ski dug in to the soft groomer. This caused my whole body to get wrenched around very violently. If the slope had been steeper (say 30deg) I would have done a few tomahawks sure, but since it was may 10 deg that wasn't an issue. I felt my ankle pop and my leg felt numb and tingly. I thought that I broke my leg. After a moment I got up and found surprisingly that I was able to get up and move. and walk on it.

Once I gathered up all my crap, I realized that my binding toe piece was flipped over so that the bottoms of the wings were pointing up. I had to fix it on the slope by standing on the middle of the ski with my bad ankle pining it to the snow and then stomping on the toe piece until it flipped back over.

After thinking about it for a couple of minutes I decided to try to ski down the groomer to a lift, which I did very slowly in a huge wedge. Once I got down there lift ops kindly gave me a sled ride back to the main base area. Ski patrol checked my ankle but it wasn't broken and wasn't even really all that swollen. So that's how I came to be limping around for 3 weeks.

After reading on Epic I realized that the type of fall I had was typical of a fall that results in a tib/fib break. I was lucky that my binding released. Another difference seems to be that I was on really long turning long length skis. The people I was reading about with tib fib breaks were mostly on short SL radius skis. I am also fairly certain that a different binding model wouldn't have released.

Your in SLC for the gathering right? See you in 2 weeks!

Hard to believe it's sooner than that. I've done nothing the last 10 days or so because of a nasty cold, so I'll be the geezer of the group.

Tim, I agree that the last pix in the series is a great shot and nice form!

Tim,

Great pics. I'm glad you're back skiing.

Very cool pics!

Yes, Epic Gathering and John, I'm afraid that I'll be the geezer. I've logged one day at 7S before Christmas but I'm sure my dedicated workout routine of fridge sprints and watching Penquin hockey for aerobics will pay off.

So how'd the Pens do agaaainst the Caps in their last game?

Hey, I'm posting here on DCSki drinking a beer waiting to play a 9:40 hockey game. You must learn to combine at least a little business with your pleasure.

Hey, great game, good for 135 bmp for the whole game, one hour of pure aerobics! How many times have the Caps won in Pittsburgh recently? I guess the last one is the one that matters.