No Pain

How did it happened you ask- February 4th I was skiing at Arapahoe Basin, and had a full day exploring the east wall. It was later in the day as we traversed all the way across the east wall base and over to the tree chutes, only to find the hike up was closed. No problem, just ski over to Pallavicini lift for some runs over there. Sent it down a big wide, and relatively flat powder field to try and keep our speed. There was an area where the run dipped down and then straight up and over a small hill. Well little did I know this small hill was hiding a few exposed rocks at the crest. The others went a little more left and I for some reason was more right of the run, right in line with the rocks. I really wish Abasin had a pole or something up to warn skiers, but it was early season conditions, and rocks just come with that.

So I hit the rocks, my upper body kept going forward as my skis took a hard twist to the right. My left ski did come off... so ok... that is definitely enough force to pop your ACL! I remember the fall didn't hurt at all, although as I got up I wasn't sure what happened, as I was just skiing along and then now I had a face full of snow. As I put my skis back on, my left knee joint felt super loose. I thought perhaps I had just 'stretched out' the surrounding ligaments and such. Mainly because I had no pain. 0, zip, none. Nothing hurt. Craziness. I skied back down to the base, only able to turn left (since my left knee would 'dislocate' to the inside on my right turns). Some of the turns back down I just took with my right ski, ha!

Since there was no pain, I didn't go in and have it checked right away. I just slapped a small brace on it and kept skiing away. I actually went back to Abasin a few weeks laters and skied the east wall again with it torn (unknowingly). However, I did take a pretty hefty tumble down one of the couloirs there (due to a combination of factors, I think- my lack of confidence in not trusting my knee, soft deep snow, and my knee giving way on a turn). As I was falling I grabbed my left knee and held it close to my body, which I like to think helped save any further damage. Yikes 😳  That was the moment I realized ok. Something is up because I definitely was not skiing at my normal level. But did anything hurt the whole time? Nope! Odd. But makes sense knowing what I know about the ACL now.