Things not to do while snowboarding
One of the things that happened in Oregon the day before we flew out to New York was that the boys (Ken, Thom and I) went up to Mt Ashland to go skiing. I'd hired tele boots in Ashland the previous day and we were all psyched up to get in a few nice turns, hoping that the rain that had been fairly constant in Medford would convert into snow up at the higher altitude.
The drive up to the hill was up a twisting road that basically switchbacked up the side of Mt Ashland and the rain was heavy and constant even up until 6 miles to go. After that it started slushing a bit, then switched to sloppy snow and before we knew it, there were big fat flakes falling down everywhere we looked. It was a bit like a Subaru commercial actually, twisty mountain road, the expertly driven AWD Subaru rounds a corner and comes across two inferior front-wheel drive cars slipping and sliding up the hill, wheels spinning madly. The Subaru gently changes lane and overtakes both cars without losing any traction or momentum and continues on its way up the hill as the other two are left struggling in the rear view mirror. The three men in the Subaru grin at each other knowing that they are going to get fresher tracks now.
It turned out that the rental boots were not a pleasant thing to strap into, with knife edge hard seams, strange pinch points and worst of all an action that actively encouraged you not to bend your foot at all - the antithesis of telemarking really. With the heavy snowfall and the heavy wet snow that was on the ground it made the going really tough - especially for me as I'm not that experienced yet and it was still early in the season. Eventually the fun had evaporated and skiing was becoming painful and irritating so I switched over to a snowboard. Instant gratification again and an immediate brightening of outlook and opportunities. Mt Ashland is actually quite a good ski hill and because of the wetter snow that they get there they had some crazy trees where the tips drooped over like those in Dr Seuss books because of the weight of the snow.
Inspiration for Dr Seuss perhaps?
It was harder to traverse to the good stuff on a snowboard (one of the lifts servicing the left side of the hill wasn't working) but worth it in the end. We got some hooting good runs through fresh powder that left very big grins on our faces and quivering muscles at the end. Of course it gets tiring traversing a lot and after the morning struggling with the tele boots I decided to take the last run on my own a bit closer to base and left Ken and Thom to do the better runs over on the left. I was switching over from one run to another and hit a pothole or a root or something and all of a sudden the end of the board stopped going forward while the rest of my body remained in motion. This is not a recommended activity for the health of your joints and I immediately knew I'd done something pretty serious to my left knee. After schlepping down the rest of the slope in a very slow sideslip holding my legs together and trying to support my knee, I managed to get to the bottom of the lifts to find Ken and Thom waiting there for me. I wasn't able to make it onto the chairlift so I got a ride on the snowmobile (fun!) from one of the nice Ski Patrol guys who also offered to treat my knee. Being in an unfamiliar country and having heard horror stories about the cost of medical care in the US I decided not to do that as I was still able to walk, albeit slowly, and we set off back home to Medford with me stretched out across the back seat of the car. It's always the last run of the day when you're tired that this sort of thing happens. Unfortunately that's a truism that's hard to avoid, because it always is the last run - you can't go on afterwards even if you wanted to.
It turns out that I partially tore my Medial Collateral Ligament (MCL) which is a fairly common injury and one that doesn't require active surgical intervention in order for your knee to continue functioning. In fact there's not much you can do for it except let it heal at its own pace and avoid the kind of motion that caused the injury in the first place. This includes all snowboarding, skiing, yoga, etc... all the fun stuff for this season. And it even sometimes makes getting in and out of the car awkward. Bugger. So folks, even though there may be crazy Dr Seuss trees on a hill, you should always listen to your body and pack it in before it decides to do it for you.
The drive up to the hill was up a twisting road that basically switchbacked up the side of Mt Ashland and the rain was heavy and constant even up until 6 miles to go. After that it started slushing a bit, then switched to sloppy snow and before we knew it, there were big fat flakes falling down everywhere we looked. It was a bit like a Subaru commercial actually, twisty mountain road, the expertly driven AWD Subaru rounds a corner and comes across two inferior front-wheel drive cars slipping and sliding up the hill, wheels spinning madly. The Subaru gently changes lane and overtakes both cars without losing any traction or momentum and continues on its way up the hill as the other two are left struggling in the rear view mirror. The three men in the Subaru grin at each other knowing that they are going to get fresher tracks now.
It turned out that the rental boots were not a pleasant thing to strap into, with knife edge hard seams, strange pinch points and worst of all an action that actively encouraged you not to bend your foot at all - the antithesis of telemarking really. With the heavy snowfall and the heavy wet snow that was on the ground it made the going really tough - especially for me as I'm not that experienced yet and it was still early in the season. Eventually the fun had evaporated and skiing was becoming painful and irritating so I switched over to a snowboard. Instant gratification again and an immediate brightening of outlook and opportunities. Mt Ashland is actually quite a good ski hill and because of the wetter snow that they get there they had some crazy trees where the tips drooped over like those in Dr Seuss books because of the weight of the snow.
Inspiration for Dr Seuss perhaps?
It was harder to traverse to the good stuff on a snowboard (one of the lifts servicing the left side of the hill wasn't working) but worth it in the end. We got some hooting good runs through fresh powder that left very big grins on our faces and quivering muscles at the end. Of course it gets tiring traversing a lot and after the morning struggling with the tele boots I decided to take the last run on my own a bit closer to base and left Ken and Thom to do the better runs over on the left. I was switching over from one run to another and hit a pothole or a root or something and all of a sudden the end of the board stopped going forward while the rest of my body remained in motion. This is not a recommended activity for the health of your joints and I immediately knew I'd done something pretty serious to my left knee. After schlepping down the rest of the slope in a very slow sideslip holding my legs together and trying to support my knee, I managed to get to the bottom of the lifts to find Ken and Thom waiting there for me. I wasn't able to make it onto the chairlift so I got a ride on the snowmobile (fun!) from one of the nice Ski Patrol guys who also offered to treat my knee. Being in an unfamiliar country and having heard horror stories about the cost of medical care in the US I decided not to do that as I was still able to walk, albeit slowly, and we set off back home to Medford with me stretched out across the back seat of the car. It's always the last run of the day when you're tired that this sort of thing happens. Unfortunately that's a truism that's hard to avoid, because it always is the last run - you can't go on afterwards even if you wanted to.
It turns out that I partially tore my Medial Collateral Ligament (MCL) which is a fairly common injury and one that doesn't require active surgical intervention in order for your knee to continue functioning. In fact there's not much you can do for it except let it heal at its own pace and avoid the kind of motion that caused the injury in the first place. This includes all snowboarding, skiing, yoga, etc... all the fun stuff for this season. And it even sometimes makes getting in and out of the car awkward. Bugger. So folks, even though there may be crazy Dr Seuss trees on a hill, you should always listen to your body and pack it in before it decides to do it for you.
Tearing your MCL the day before flying to New York to do lots of touristy stuff is number 1 on my list of things not to do while snowboarding.
