A few folks have been asking for some more details on my ski accident, what was my injury and what happened on the mountain, so for all of you here are a few more details.
Once I realized I was unable to ski out my co-worker/friend Jay Riglar contacted the Ski Patrol who skied down to me, checked me out, put my leg in a splint and put me on a snow gurney, those guys are great (see below them skiing away with me)
This was surprisingly comfortable until I realized I had no idea if there were still hanging onto me, because at times, I felt like we were going pretty fast down a steep sloop. However all was good, they brought me down to the bottom of the back of the mountain, but I still had to get to the bottom of the FRONT of the mountain, were the hospital was, so they strapped me onto a ski lift that brought me to the top of the mountain (see below)
When they got me to the top of the mountain, they unstrapped me from the ski lift.
At this point, everyone assumed that it was just a bad bruise, it was only when I went to the hospital and they gave me an xray did they discover the extent of the damage, a tibial plateau fracture to bone, that basically meant they had to rebuild that part of my knee so that it could support my femur and tibia, using donor bone, screws and a plate (see below)
All this is still pretty tender, so that’s why I can’t put pressure on my right leg, this whole structure needs time to regrow, so that’s what I’ll be doing for the next 10 weeks.
I had no idea that there would be pictures! This answers questions about the snow gurney and the big question about how they brought you up and down the mountain on the ski lift. And there’s the Xray showing the hardware as well. Fascinating.
I’m so impressed your work colleague thought to take photos! I understand the ski lift thing much more now seeing it.