How NOT to end your season early....

My season came to a bit of an undesired ending recently. Hopefully
yours continues on for quite some time yet.

I posted all the details on my blog including comments about
Tremblant. It's at:

http://www.pcserenity.com

Let me know what you think.

JQ, if you see this, it looks like this will be another year we don't
get to hook up at Mountain Creek. My plans for getting up there ended
with this adventure.

Aw man. What an awful injury! Here's to a speedy and full recovery for
ya.

Wow Rich, I can feel the pain. Ended my season at the end of January three
years ago at Stratton.
big surgery, lots of hardware and meds.
Back to skiing but a whole lot more conservatively now.
Spent a whole lot of time alone at home watching the tube. But, I did have
that great invasion of Iraq 24/7 to keep me occupied.
Good luck with your recovery.
Pos
"Rich Heimlich" wrote in message
...
My season came to a bit of an undesired ending recently. Hopefully
yours continues on for quite some time yet.

I posted all the details on my blog including comments about
Tremblant. It's at:

http://www.pcserenity.com

Let me know what you think.

JQ, if you see this, it looks like this will be another year we don't
get to hook up at Mountain Creek. My plans for getting up there ended
with this adventure.

Rich Heimlich wrote:
My season came to a bit of an undesired ending recently. Hopefully
yours continues on for quite some time yet.

I posted all the details on my blog including comments about
Tremblant. It's at:

http://www.pcserenity.com

That's quite a blog story. If there's a Pulitzer Prize for blog horror
stories you might be in the running. Maybe next time you can write about
something more pleasant - like beer, or powder skiing, or grrls.

BTW, I'd take a look at that binding before hopping back aboard next
season. Sounds like a premature release to me, maybe caused by excessive
camber/decamber vibration opening up the binding heel/toe distance.
Might want to look at the pre-load, which is intended to absorb some of
that sort of thing. I've had a binding just drop off also - scary as
hell, no fun at all.

On Sun, 05 Mar 2006 00:55:09 GMT, Mary Malmros
wrote:

Aw man. What an awful injury! Here's to a speedy and full recovery for
ya.

Thanks Mary. It's been quite an adventure.

On Sat, 4 Mar 2006 19:56:26 -0500, "Pops"
wrote:

Back to skiing but a whole lot more conservatively now.

That's the big question now for me. Will I go back like a lunatic or
will I take it all slowly? 20 years ago I'd have just jumped back in
like this never happened. Now I just don't know. It seems prudent to
slow down but.....

I wonder what will happen with I get back to Tremblant and face Flying
Mile. Unfortunately I'm going to have a long time to think about it.

On Sun, 05 Mar 2006 01:11:41 GMT, lal_truckee
wrote:

That's quite a blog story. If there's a Pulitzer Prize for blog horror
stories you might be in the running. Maybe next time you can write about
something more pleasant - like beer, or powder skiing, or grrls.

If you look a bit deeper on the blog, I write about pretty much
everything. I used to write a column and was an editor, columnist and
reviewer for many years. When I left my industry for a while, I
stopped all that and ended up missing it so I just figured I'd write
the blog as my own personal therapy. grin

BTW, I'd take a look at that binding before hopping back aboard next
season. Sounds like a premature release to me, maybe caused by excessive
camber/decamber vibration opening up the binding heel/toe distance.

I've been giving that a LOT of thought. I had my friend Dave check out
the binding at the hotel and then again at home and it looked just
fine (I haven't been able to bring myself to look at my skis yet) as
far as breaking goes. It certainly could have been premature. I'd
never experienced that before and I did JUST emerge from a really
steep grade on an angle. I keep thinking the extremes popped it off.

Might want to look at the pre-load, which is intended to absorb some of
that sort of thing. I've had a binding just drop off also - scary as
hell, no fun at all.

What the hell is Plan B when that happens? I had a TINY window of
opportunity to do something there and had no idea what the best plan
should be. Should I have just attempted to slide/fall down?
Ironically, the next day included exercises designed to help you learn
to essentially ski on either ski (not for the sake of skiing on one
ski but to understand full and equal workouts for both legs as most
people cheat with their weaker leg).

Rich Heimlich wrote:

On Sat, 4 Mar 2006 19:56:26 -0500, "Pops"
wrote:


Back to skiing but a whole lot more conservatively now.


That's the big question now for me. Will I go back like a lunatic or
will I take it all slowly? 20 years ago I'd have just jumped back in
like this never happened. Now I just don't know. It seems prudent to
slow down but.....

My thoughts, based on my own injury experience: you may be able to ski
just as hard in the future, but you'll have to do it differently. Your
body will have changed in some ways, so the wise move is to _not_ try to
come back "like this never happened". Take the time to figure out what
the differences are. That's the best way to help the odds that you will
be able to ski as hard as before.

I wonder what will happen with I get back to Tremblant and face Flying
Mile. Unfortunately I'm going to have a long time to think about it.

That "getting back on the horse" thing may happen other places as well,
not just on the run that done it. It's natural to get gripped after you
get your head handed to you; most folks (if they're being honest) are
edgy while driving for a while after they've had a car accident, even
just a fender-bender. And something where the pain is personal can stay
with you a lot more strongly. Don't feel that you _have_ to "face
Flying Mile". I've got a stretch of river that I'll never run again --
I never got my ass kicked there, but a close friend got killed there,
and I'm just not gonna do it again.

"Rich Heimlich" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 4 Mar 2006 19:56:26 -0500, "Pops"
wrote:

Back to skiing but a whole lot more conservatively now.

That's the big question now for me. Will I go back like a lunatic or
will I take it all slowly? 20 years ago I'd have just jumped back in
like this never happened. Now I just don't know. It seems prudent to
slow down but.....

I wonder what will happen with I get back to Tremblant and face Flying
Mile. Unfortunately I'm going to have a long time to think about it.

At this point in life I'm happy to just be out on the hill again.

I'm still freaked at times. Just yesterday I learned that I am not
comfortable with any hard landing. I'm not talking about taking hits and
such, just a slight compression landing and my leg feels it. I think I will
always have physical reminders to keep me in check.
First season back I took it real easy at Shawnee in Pa. Now, I've
"graduated" to MC in NJ. I go once a week or so. I listen to my body (legs)
and let them tell me when to go home. No more, one more run for me. That's
what got me into trouble in the first place.
Over time I've taken steeper runs, skied a bit faster in sports but mostly
learned to slow down, take more turns and in my mind in some ways become a
better skier.
I don't want to take another forced vacation in bed.
Pops

Rich Heimlich wrote:
On Sun, 05 Mar 2006 01:11:41 GMT, lal_truckee
wrote:

That's quite a blog story. If there's a Pulitzer Prize for blog horror
stories you might be in the running. Maybe next time you can write about
something more pleasant - like beer, or powder skiing, or grrls.

If you look a bit deeper on the blog, I write about pretty much
everything. I used to write a column and was an editor, columnist and
reviewer for many years. When I left my industry for a while, I
stopped all that and ended up missing it so I just figured I'd write
the blog as my own personal therapy. grin

BTW, I'd take a look at that binding before hopping back aboard next
season. Sounds like a premature release to me, maybe caused by excessive
camber/decamber vibration opening up the binding heel/toe distance.

I've been giving that a LOT of thought. I had my friend Dave check out
the binding at the hotel and then again at home and it looked just
fine (I haven't been able to bring myself to look at my skis yet) as
far as breaking goes. It certainly could have been premature. I'd
never experienced that before and I did JUST emerge from a really
steep grade on an angle. I keep thinking the extremes popped it off.

Might want to look at the pre-load, which is intended to absorb some of
that sort of thing. I've had a binding just drop off also - scary as
hell, no fun at all.

What the hell is Plan B when that happens? I had a TINY window of
opportunity to do something there and had no idea what the best plan
should be. Should I have just attempted to slide/fall down?

Hockey stop on remaining ski.

Ironically, the next day included exercises designed to help you learn
to essentially ski on either ski (not for the sake of skiing on one
ski but to understand full and equal workouts for both legs as most
people cheat with their weaker leg).