Injured on vacation in Alaska

[Captain Furious]

My family and I are vacationing in Alaska at the Alyeska resort. Wonderful town (Girdwood) and absolutely epic scenery. The skiing is pretty good as well. As luck would have it, I went heli skiing with my 13yo son this past Sunday. I consider myself a high level skier, like a level 8. 2 days prior, my son and I were skiing the North Face next to Christmas Chute (which is closed) as well as lots of fun drop ins off of High Traverse, without any issues. However, when I got dropped off with the group, I suddenly felt intimidated by the vast openness and wildness of the terrain. I realized that we were in the wilderness and it hit me that this was serious back country skiing for which I had no experience. I was intimidated and started skiing extremely tentatively and timidly. I was on my heels, I was leaning uphill, I was skiing terribly!!! And then I crashed...

First run of the day and I was injured. Not sure whether it is a calf tear or a calf pull. I went to see a massage therapist and she said it feels like there are some tears in the calf. So, other than RICE, is there anything else I can do to treat this issue? The bummer part is we're here until Friday and I can't ski right now. I came here to ski, not sit on my ass. I'm most disappointed for my son b/c he loves skiing with me and it's not as much fun skiing by himself.

Any advice, anecdotal or otherwise, would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Bill

 

[Dwight]

Compression?

 

[fatbob]

Snowboarding? I've done it for the rest of a trip when I tore a calf muscle (admittedly could already snowboard)

 

[Captain Furious]

Already have it wrapped with an ace bandage. I want to heal the current injury, not suffer a new one by snow boarding.

 

[Captain Furious]

 

[karlo]

When I tore my gastroc muscle (calf) skiing, I went on a backcountry snowmobile tour instead of skiing. In Alaska, there should be some wildlife??

Also, a dog sled tour. Even packed for winter camping.

 

[Corgski]

The fact that you are not sure if it is a pull or a tear is a good sign, if it was major tear you would know very quickly. Some research shows that ice delays healing as does anti inflammatories. I found letting the calf rest with my foot forward would cause it to tighten up. Mountaineering boots were helpful here, stopped my calf from tightening and provided extra support while walking around. Hard to judge from afar, my tear took months to heal properly. On the other hand, I have had sprains that I was able to function with after a couple of days.

 

[Captain Furious]

Thanks, guys! I'll check out the mountaineering boots as an option.

Bill

 

[ADKmel]

if you can find some arnica iit is awesome homeopathic for deep tissue bruising. "the Rub" by Natra-bio is my favorite..
Hope you fell better..

 

[Captain Furious]

Well, it appears to be a tear. Not sure how long the healing process is going to take but I will be following up with some PT, hopefully this week. It sucked having a tear on vacation b/c I spent the next 6 days NOT skiing. On the bright side, I got a TON of really great photos that I never would have found the time to take if I'd been skiing. Keeping my fingers crossed that I can ski sometime in the next 3-4 weeks.

Bill

 

[at_nyc]

Post some of pictures please!

(I've been to Aleyska in the summer. Would love ot see the views in winter)

 

[SnowbirdDevotee]

I have pulled my calf repeatedly running.. I would palpate it and find the sore spot and rub it good, but not too hard or too much. Wrapping it in an ace bandage might be enough to get you skiing in a couple days. I pulled my calf hard on the 1st day of a trip with an 18" overnight snowfall. When I landed I knew I was done for the trip.

 

[Captain Furious]

I got an ultrasound on my calf by the ortho doc and he confirmed it's a grade 2 tear. I started PT and it's going well. If all goes well, I expect to be skiing by April 13th. Theoretically, I could be skiing earlier except I have a big trial coming up (I'm a criminal defense attorney) and will be in trial on 4/9 so that entire weekend before I'll be prepping. I guess the goal now should be to hit 35 days and if by some miracle we have enough snow, maybe 40. I injured myself on day 31.

Oh, by the way, we got 14" of snow last night and the forecast is calling for more on the way. OF COURSE it's snowing when I'm injured.

 

[TimothyD11]

Sorry to hear this. 2 years ago I tore my meniscus and sprained my MCL in some heavy churned up snow on the second morning of a 9 day trip and was done for the week.

I re-aggravated it slightly about 5 weeks ago running down stairs to try to catch a train. With pain well under a 1 on a 1 to 10 scale I stuck with plans to go forward with my annual 4 day Presidents Day weekend ski trip out to Targhee / Jackson Hole with my brother. I did great for 2 days but then at the end of the third day the knee swelled up and the pain got to about a 3 or 4.

Pain has ranged from a 1 to about a 3 since then and I keep the swelling down with regular icing. I don’t think I injured it as as bad as the original injury, I have a little pain when I’m walking but the support seems to be there. I’m leaning toward giving skiing a try on Saturday with my knee brace on to see how it goes. The only thing I want less than missing out on my annual one week trip out west is arranging and paying for my one week trip (airfare / rental / lodging) and finding out there that I am done for the season. Although if Bachelor has a forecast for snow storms maybe I’ll go there for the week and if I can’t ski at least I can try a lot of craft beer in Bend!