To cut the long story short, I was enjoying a day in snow, and made a little pause, where I losened my hardboot buckles just a bit. I usually wear them very very tight, often they stop my circulation if I’m not moving (like on the lift) but I’ve always liked it that way. When I’m riding, it’s all right, when I’m resting they can stop my circulation a bit, so on half-hour brake I losened up buckles a bit.
And I forgot to retighten.
I then picked up some speed near the end of a run, put my weight on my front foot to start the toe-side turn, and I overdid it. Put too much weight on front. Nose dived in deep, stopped suddenly, and I was thrown in the air, landed on my head some 3 meters down the slope.
1st thing to learn - helmet. A must-have.
2nd thing, as my speed was suddenly stopped, and my 100kg came all on my front leg, and my boots were a little less tight, it was enough for the bone to break.
Mind you, I was able to finish the run and to do another 2 runs after that, thinking I just had a very hard bump but nothing more. Took off my boots, drove my car home, and when I got out of the car to walk from parking to my home, I could barely do anything with that leg.
Rested for the rest of the day and the next day, as I could limp arount without too much trouble, but then I had to go to doctor because I needed paperwork for my job since I didn’t wanna go like that and I wanted to rest. I was confident doctor would tell me it’s stressed ligaments, to rest my leg for a week etc, but after xray they said talus was broken, and suspected a piece of bone also dislocated, but they wasn’t sure. So I have to come in for another look in 10 days, and then we’ll see what happens next.
I’m just glad it happened towards the end of season and not at the beginning. I am, however, pissed off at how stupid I am - I’m on skis or snowboard since I was 2 years old, I have my instructor’s licence and tought many many kids and adults how to ski and snowboard, always stressing how important it is to have boots, soft or hard, tight.
And then I go and do the stupid thing myself. I wanted to shoot myself in the head just from frustration.
Let this be a warning to all of you fellow riders, especially on hardboots, that shit indeed does happen and to keep your equipment properly tight, checked and secured.
This hurts like a bitch, I will lose my muscle in the 6 weeks of cast, and I will lose 1-2 months of snow this year. All because I forgot to tighten up two buckles. Just two. A job that takes what - 5 seconds? 10 at most?
Be careful, people. Don’t be stupid as I was.
...and carve on
Thank you for sharing!
