Fitness post-injury

[wetslide]

So as some of you know I broke my leg glissading off of Chair Peak after soloing the North Face. I've been recovering well, weaning myself off of ibuprofen. I've also been experimenting walking with and without the walking cast they gave me. That has been mostly successful.

To get to the point- Anyone have any information about recovering from fibular fractures? How long did you wait to climb/ski (I was told one month).

I feel that I could maybe ski earlier- but what are the ramifications of this?

[yasso1am]

Wait the month. I had a buddy kick a soccer ball in a "pass" after three weeks and it re-broke.

 

I broke my tibia+fibula and had a recover time of 6 months, but that's a bit different.

[John Frieh]

I see two possible scenarios:

 

1) Ignore the doctor and start skiing early. Get lucky and gain maybe a week or so of skiing in this "AWESOME" ski season we are having so far.

 

2) Ignore doctor and reinjure leg... only this time it will likely be a full break as the facture has most definitely not fully mended. A full break will only mean even more time off which means further muscle atriphony followed by additional P/T trying to fix the muscle imbalance you are already facing.

 

So ask yourself: is an extra week or two at most of skiing during one of the worst seasons we've had in a long time worth an additional two months of P/T and a lifetime of trying to correct muscle and movement imbalances? Your call kid. Good luck

[wetslide]

John- You make some good points thanks man. Think I'm going to listen to your advice.

[Tyson.g]

I second what John is saying he is spot on.

 

I must ask though.... what is up with all the pictures in this post?......also what is causing the heavy vignetting in some of the photos?

 

[DPS]

Are you a second child by any chance?

[wetslide]

Ya. Good guess.

[DPS]

Takes one to know one I suppose.

[wetslide]

Tyson-

Not sure what your saying about the photos although there is some vignetting involved. Those photos were taken on my unfortunate trip.

[DPS]

Us second children are widely regarded as risk taking and attention seeking lads.

[John Frieh]

No problem dude. I totally know how bad it sucks to wait it out but reinjury sucks that much worse.

 

If it's any consolation prize this winter to date is closely following the 2004/2005 winter which most people will tell you had a great late winter/early spring season so no reason why you wont ski pow this season. Still... do everything you can including following the PT's orders exactly.

[Tyson.g]

I was just curious as the post was about post injury healing questions and then had all the photos like a TR.

I was confused.....now it makes sense.

As far as the vignetting, I was curious if you are doing that in editing or if it was a result of long telephoto or.......?

Curious from a photographers stand point.

[Tyson.g]

John - I think I just puked in my mouth from that pic.......f'n eh dude WTF!

Anyone want this roast beef sandwich I cannot eat now?

[Water]

wasn't going to say anything but the vignetting on the pictures is extreme. if intentional so be it, if just out of camera maybe get that lens looked at or some lens correction going on pp. but maybe you added it since there is a dark halo around this trip due to injury.

 

there is a reason the catchphrase 'doctor's orders' exists in the first place. You're the patient, be patient. heal well.

[wetslide]

It was indeed from editing. Just experimenting and I appreciate the feedback on the photos.

Cheers

[genepires]

No problem dude. I totally know how bad it sucks to

 

uh.....there has got to be a story behind that. please do tell John.

[John Frieh]

No problem dude. I totally know how bad it sucks to

 

uh.....there has got to be a story behind that. please do tell John.

 

Burkett Needle + 30 hours before I could see a doctor = meatloaf.

[wfinley]

I badly sprained my ankle & fractured my tibia / talus on sept. 11th. I was in a soft cast for 7 weeks and since then have diligently followed my PT's advice. He has told me I can XC ski, swim, ride a bike and go on short (less than 45 minutes) walks. Until I reach full mobility I'm stuck with low impact activities.

 

In short... don't push it. You've got a life time of climbing and skiing ahead of you. It's not worth it.

[climbingcoastie]

Sorry to hear about the ankle/leg Bill. I read about it on your site, nice job getting out of there. It must have been hell. Hope your getting healed up.

 

I took a fall at work a month back and am now missing the best ice season in the Sierra's in years. Go figure, my first year down here. My cast should come off mid Jan and then the PT begins. Hope I can sneak on some ice this spring.

[wetslide]

Back to climbing 5.11 (in the gym ) 22 days post-injury. Only Top rope to keep the bone safe. Walked 2 miles today as well. All is well that ends (hopefully) well. Thanks for the good vibes.

[JasonG]

So was it a glissading while wearing crampons mishap?

[sobo]

was wondering the exact same thing...

[Bronco]

So was it a glissading while wearing crampons mishap?

 

yes, see story here: http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1046163/TR_Chair_Peak_North_Face_12_3_#Post1046163

[sobo]

 

To save everyone the hassle of having to go find it, and possibly introducing further hijacking of/shitting upon Cornfed's TR...

 

So I solo the N face. It was thin. Stand on the summit for a few minutes. Then I downclimb to the normal rap station. From here I decide to play it by ear and downclimb as much as possible. The climbing was easy so I just kept going. At the point where the rap usually stops I decided to glissade. I know you aren't supposed to do so with crampons on but I was being lazy or complacent I guess. So I would glissade until I got going too fast and would self-arrest and dig my feet in (the snow was soft mostly). Then I hit a patch of icy snow and caught my crampon, pulling my leg back and right (it's my right leg so it pulled away from my body). I knew something was wrong. I felt pain in my ankle all the way up to my right outside calf. I sat for a few minutes composing myself. Then I took off my crampons. I tried to walk and that worked a little bit. Then I tried crawling. That worked a little bit. It wasn't steep enough to glissade really ( I was most the way down to my skis at this point). After a big effort I made it to my skis. I took my skins off and secured my tools and crampons to my bag. Then I prepared for pain. I started off skiing and quickly realized that going right was good, and going left was no good. This is because going left puts more pressure on my right leg. Now, I've skied my whole life practically but this was a lot of work. I found a steep gully that I had to get down. At this point I just took off the skis and walked down it. From here I slid down sideways for a while until I made it to the gully that goes up to flow reversal (I believe). Here I realized that I could ride fakie and thereby traverse the slope back and forth. This actually worked really well but still took a really long time. Part of the problem was that any undulation in the slope bumped my ski which then caused pain. But riding backwards hurt a lot less. At this point it was started to get pretty damn dark. But I made it to Source Lake. At this point I pulled out my headlamp only to find that the batteries were dead. I hadn't eaten since breakfast (fairly typical of my as of late in the mountains- don't know how I do it, and as a triathlete, marathoner, ect, I know it isn't ideal). I had food just wasn't hungry. I set off down the icy trail back. At first it is quite difficult, involving many little ascents. Then, it opens up and I'm able to maintain speed. All the while I'm listening to some economic guru blabber on about becoming a millionaire from my iphone. Finally I hit the cat track and blast out of there. I was so happy to see the car. The time from the injury to getting to the car was approximately 2-3 hours. I did the normal post-climb routine (eating, drinking a beer, taking tylenol) and drove home. After getting home I realized I was in quite a bit of pain so I had someone take me to the ED. There, after taking a few x-rays, they discovered I had fractured my Fibula.

Colin, I know you don't need me to tell you that you've now obviously learned a valuable lesson. Fully half of the missions that I go on at Mt. Adams are the result of someone glissing in crampons. The other half are people that are just lost and/or overdue.

 

DO NOT GLISSADE WHILE WEARING CRAMPONS! Even for "just a little bit." As Colin has demonstrated, the time "saved" by not removing and stowing your 'pons before a gliss can never be greater than the time spent sitting at home in a cast watching TV and eating BonBons.

 

Hope you heal up soon and properly - don't rush into getting back out. Carry on.

[JasonG]

Thanks! It is always good to get the details on a climbing accident, so as not to make the same mistakes. Though this is a lesson I've already learned (though not the hard way), you never know....