First off, let me state that I was _not_ playing football on skis. I was wearing a helmet, which saved me a head injury when I bounced off of a tree during a bad fall on my last day. I'm scheduled to see an orthopedist on Tuesday to see what damage was done to my left shoulder (the same one I dislocated last spring playing softball). The left side of my ribs are still very sore (hematoma) but the x-rays don't show any fractures. The radiologist in Taos left a message on my answering machine saying he found a crack in one of my shoulder bones (didn't say which one) that the attending ER physician missed.
This was a fairly rough trip for me and a couple of other guys in our group. Bob Wray fell on the 2nd or 3rd day and broke a bone in his shoulder. He spent the rest of the week with his arm in a sling. Lewis Altenburg was taking a race clinic on the 4th day (12/31). He hit a rut the wrong way at the end of the course and ended up with a diagonal fracture of the right femur close to the hip. He had surgery that night to put everything back in place with a plate and a few screws. He was scheduled to fly back to Houston on Monday.
On my first day skiing on Sunday I hit a rock on Lorilei and ended up landing hard on my left shoulder. It hurt when I tried to lift it but I was still able to ski. As far as I could tell it wasn't dislocated. I didn't have another major fall until my last day. The snow was in decent shape except it wasn't deep enough to cover all the rocks and tree stumps. Lots of exposed rocks on the black runs and more than a few hidden just below the surface.
On the last day (1/1) I was skiing with a local after hiking up the West Basin Ridge a ways. We dropped into Spitfire (a double diamond chute) and he went down the run first. I was turning to my right a few feet from the tree line when my right ski hit a tree root or stump beneath the snow. It caused me to slip and I went down on my side. That was all it took to start my ride down on the express elevator. I tried three times to get my skis downhill so I could stop but each time the tails of my skis caught on the snow and spun me around headfirst. As soon as I saw I was about to hit the trees I curled up and bounced off a pine tree with my shoulders and the top and side of my helmet taking most of the impact. My right ski then came off and I kept fighting to stop for another couple hundred feet. I have no idea when I hurt my ribs but assume it happened when I was bouncing down the slope after hitting the tree. Picture Homer Simpson bouncing down the cliff (D'oh!) from the episode where Bart tries to jump the canyon on his skateboard. Another skier saw my fall and brought down my ski. He and the guy I was skiing with both waited around until I was sure I didn't need the ski patrol. I then skied down to the mid- mountain restaurant and sat down for 20 minutes to let the adrenaline wear off so I could see if anything else was hurt. I went and hung out at the ski patrol shack for another 20-30 minutes. I figured it would be good to have some EMTs around in case my ribs were busted. I was extremely lucky to be able to walk/ski away from this fall. The possibility of death or serious injury was pretty high. I am now a firm believer in helmets and will never ski without one. I didn't notice any ill effects from hitting my head on the tree, although the helmet has several scratches. Money well spent. I spent the rest of the afternoon hanging around the deck at the base until my roommate got through skiing so he could drive me back to town and to the hospital for some x-rays.
For the week, I was able to ski most everything that was open expect for a few runs on the front face that were too rocky. With a foot or three more snow Taos would be pretty awesome, although still unforgiving. Driving up to the mountain from town and back down at the end of the day got old. It helped that my roommate and I both had cars and didn't have to rely on the shuttle bus.
My next trip isn't until March so I'll have to see what kind of rehab I have in store. If I need surgery I may have to cancel one or both of my remaining trips. As it is, I'll probably forget about snowboarding this year since it puts my shoulders at more risk than skiing.
P.S. I've already learned to avoid carbonated beverages; hiccups hurt!