Alta 2/27/2008

[andyzee]

Conditions: Groomed trails and chopped up powder

Weather: Bluebird Skies and temps in the 40s

This is not my season for skiing. First V gets hurt which meant less skiing for me and then this past Monday I had a minor injury. Took Tuesday off and went to Alta on Wednesday with my friend Jeff and Roark. My leg felt better but still wasn't 100% and I did have concerns since I didn't want two gimps in the house. As a result, I took it easy that day.
One thing that pushed me towards Alta that day is the fact that I had planned to meet up with two West Coast AZers, tirolerpeter and SkiDog. We lost SkiDog after a lil bit, he decided to take off for Snowbird with some buds and we didn't have the Alta/Bird pass so we stayed behind. I'll say one thing about SkiDog, he's the real thing, boy could rip it up. Tirolerpeter stayed with us to show us around,
I kept up with the old man as long as I could, but anything other then groomers was hurting my leg and Peter was pushing for trees and chutes, I think he wanted to kill me cause of a crack or two that I may have made about his age and looks. After awhile, I didn't want to hold this crew up so I left them and just stuck to the groomers, Kind of a shame to say this being at Alta and all, but the groomers weren't bad. Nice and smooth and steep, just took my time, took in the scenery and stopped to take photos here and there.
At 12:30 met up with the crew at Alf Lodge for some lunch, chatted a bit and then took off for the lodge to discard some layers, it was getting warm. Planned on taking some groomers to do this. Ofcourse, tirolerpeter, wouldn't allow this. He had to take us over some choppy pow. Although, it wasn't bad or difficult, it was enough to do the old legs in. As a result I called it a day about 2PM. All in all, it was nice to just be out on this great day. Really good to meet tiroerpeter and SkiDog and looking forward to getting up here next year when I'm in better shape. Peter, thanks for being such a gracious guide.


Jeff, Roark, and tirolerpeter:




Skiers on top of Baldy chutes. Actually looks like SkiDog and friends:

[kingslug]

Gotta be in shape to hang with these guys. They damn near killed me. It's why I spend the whole off season in the gym.
What happened to the leg???

[andyzee]

Originally Posted by kingslug

Gotta be in shape to hang with these guys. They damn near killed me. It's why I spend the whole off season in the gym.
What happened to the leg???

Fell skiing at Solitude this past Monday, binding didn't release and I felt a really bad pain shoot through my leg. Going down I was thinking that I fractured my ankle same as V. Wasn't the ankle, was the fibula and really don't think there's any fracture, just seems to have been too much pressure on the bone. I feel a little pain now but not too bad. When I put any pressure on it such as skiing bumps and chopped up powder, the pain just seems to accumulate. And yes, this off season will be spent getting in shape for me as well

[dmc]

Have it checked... It could be a microfracture...
the clinic at Snowbird is supposed to be really good... Cute girls working there...

Alta looks great...

[andyzee]

Originally Posted by dmc

Have it checked... It could be a microfracture...
the clinic at Snowbird is supposed to be really good... Cute girls working there...

Alta looks great...

Hehe, almost tempted to go just for the girls. I think it'll be OK tough. I thought it may be a hairline fracture and figured there's not much that can be done for that anyway, just needs to heal on it's own. Guess I could be wrong?

[dmc]

Originally Posted by andyzee

Hehe, almost tempted to go just for the girls. I think it'll be OK tough. I thought it may be a hairline fracture and figured there's not much that can be done for that anyway, just needs to heal on it's own. Guess I could be wrong?

But your probably right!

People break those things all the time...


A friend of mine blew his knee out the 2nd day at the Bird.. So he was in the clinic.. He kept trying to think of reasons to go back...

[RISkier]

Originally Posted by andyzee

Hehe, almost tempted to go just for the girls. I think it'll be OK tough. I thought it may be a hairline fracture and figured there's not much that can be done for that anyway, just needs to heal on it's own. Guess I could be wrong?

My second year of skiing I thought I "tweaked" my knee. Went to my primary care physician who did X-Rays and some stability tests. He thought I just sprained it a little. Told me do the RICE thing till it felt better. It seemed to improve pretty quickly and I tried skiing. Went right down, just wouldn't hold me through even one turn. Went to an ortho who took another X-Ray and said he wasn't surprised it wouldn't hold me -- there was a tiny fracture. I work with Docs and had one of them look at the original X-Ray, he couldn't really see the fracture either and he knew I'd been diagnosed with a fracture -- there was one little area he thought "might" look funny. Basic treatment was just rest and no twisting movements. You might want to get an X-Ray cause if it is a tiny fracture you probably should be taking it pretty easy on it.

[MichaelJ]

There's no shame in the groomers at Alta - they're beautiful runs in a gorgeous area! Where were you - Supreme, Sugarloaf, or Wildcat?

Hope it feels better soon for you!

[kingslug]

At least you can still ski. Would have sucked big time if you had to sit out the whole thing. I crashed so hard on my first run at Panorama...I though I was dead. Lots of Aleve and some Bourbon did the trick.
It's one reason I have slowed down a bit...

[dmc]

More information/PIX in this TGR thread...
http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/s...d.php?t=114683

Also featuring an awesome and classic Skidog meltdown...