Two weeks have passed and quite a few things have happened. A recap: We spent time with Andrzej's sister Agnes' family in Ridgway; We went back to Denver for Easter with Andrzej's brother, Adam and his family; We went to Big Sky, Montana for a recently planned rendezvous with our friend's from back east (which is also where I broke my leg); Not discouraged by this unfortunate event, we continued onward to Yellowstone National Park where we saw lots of wildlife as well as the Mammoth Hot Springs; We made it back to Denver to figure out what is going on with my leg; Now we are back in Winter Park, where Anj is riding with our friends who also happen to be some of his Portland co-workers, and I am camping out at our friends' flat catching up on our blog.
Chapter 6:
For several days got to experience how life in Ridgeway feels and see our niece and nephew grow before our very eyes. Ridgway is very much a laid back western community with lots of outdoor activities such as ice climbing, mountain biking, skiing, hot springs, etc... It is also growing fast. I saw a lot of “modern western” styled houses where there hadn't hadn't been anything 5 years ago. We went back to Denver for Easter where we attended a full evening Polish Mass just to go and get our food blessed. 2.5 hours !!! (in Polish) Need I say more?
In Judaism, we sell "pre-blessed" food in the grocery store!
There was an easter egg hunt that Adam, Tanya and their girls participated in while we watched. We had lots of fun eating candy and playing in the park afterward.
Chapter 7:
We then continued our adventure with a trip up to Big Sky, Montana. We stopped for a night on the way in West Yellowstone. It is a cute little western town on the, you guessed it, west side of Yellowstone National Park. Our lodging was at quite an interesting place. It was completely full of taxidermy. They said they had animals in there that were over 50 years old. The animals were huge - which gave me some trepidation about wandering around Yellowstone Park on ski trails. It was still cool nonetheless to see these animals up close.
The Stage Coach Inn, West Yellowstone, MT
Following our evening at the Stage Coach Inn we headed on up to Big Sky.
Oh Big Sky....you were amazing!
Let's just say it has some of the most incredible ski terrain I have ever seen and been able to access. It is HUGE! We had a great time skiing with our friends for the weekend and watching the Sam Adams Freestyle ski event.
UNTIL... I fractured my leg, on the last day, on the "last run" (yes, I stupidly called it) after everyone had already left.
Chapter 7: Yellowstone
We did not yet want to be discouraged after the revelation that my leg was fractured. We decided to still check out Yellowstone National Park since we were so close and I knew it would be handicap accessible to some degree. Only the northern section of the Park was open, which was just fine with us. We visited the Mammoth Hot Springs, a series of hot springs with lots of colors from the deposited calcium carbonate. They had an extensive boardwalk system in and around the hot springs with both stairs and accessible ramps. We also drove into the park a ways, where we saw a lot of wildlife from the car window, Bison, Elk, a Brown Bear, and even some wolves in the distance! It was totally worth my sore armpits after "hobbling" around on my crutches trying to see everything. I am thankful we were still able to see the Park.
Chapter 8: Recovery and back to Winter Park Ski Resort
Today Andrzej is riding at Winter Park with our friends from back home in Portland, while I am catching up and resting my leg comfortably in the home of our very kind friends, DJ and Kayla. It is where we started this trip. I will try to catch you up on the leg now. I have been trying to ignore how it affects our trip since it happened, nearly 5 days ago. I fractured the upper part of my Tibia just under the knee on Monday afternoon. I was excited to ski the lower half of the mountain in a section of woods I had been looking at since the beginning of our trip. The woods were off below a catwalk we used after skiing down the Lenin and Marx runs from the tram. It was our 5th run of the day after riding the tram twice and hiking twice. We did the Snowfields first thing that morning, which require taking 2 chairlift rides and the tram to get to. From the Tram you start down this bowl that can only be described as BIG MOUNTAIN SKIING!!! It had snowed about 4-6 inches overnight, there were about 6 tracks that had skied in before us, and it was magnificent. The only trick was that at the bottom of the first section you had to make sure you got left before you reached the cliffs. From there you had a long leg burning section of open bowl that was literally breathtaking. Our hearts pumping and full of admiration from that amazing descent, we continued our aggressive attack on the mountain. It was, after-all, our last day at Big Sky and we wanted to leave early so that we could get to Yellowstone Park before dark. We continued with two hikes from the Headwaters lift up along the ridge. We did one chute called Firehole on the right side of the ridge and then rode up again and did Upper Pinnacles on the left side. The hike can be treacherous, especially with high winds. It reminded me of a slightly shallower version of the hike at the top of Tuckerman's Ravine. After Upper Pinnacles we rode down to get back onto the tram. We took the trail named "Marx" down to the catwalk I described earlier. Andrzej then led us down further past the catwalk onto a completely untracked wide open trail where we spread our arms out wide and just enjoyed being there doing what we were doing. After that heavenly run, came the fatal run. The run we should have known better to avoid. We split up shortly after entering the trees. Usually, we are able to rendezvous a few times in the woods while we ride our own lines through the trees. I wasn't going too fast, but I noticed the snow texture had changed and was "grabbier", so I took the warning to slow down and be more careful. Not a second later I went down a dip and saw a tree right in front of me and tried to turn right to avoid it. My left leg wasn’t able to make the turn in time with the added pull of the snow and my left knee smacked into the trunk of that tree. From there Anj had to find me and then helped me out of the woods and partially down the trail we had come across. After some time, I became so tired and my leg hurt so much that Anj called for a sled from the dispatch number on the map. They came shortly after and took me to ski patrol. They recommended X-rays and an evaluation at their facility, but gave us other options. We opted for the urgent care clinic in Bozeman, an hour drive away, because we thought it might be less expensive. We no longer have our health insurance through Andrzej's work. Instead, we have World Nomads Explorer health insurance. This insurance basically covers up to $100,000 in reimbursable expenses for medical claims, and it includes all sorts of traveling insurance reimbursements such as luggage or trip cancellation coverage. We do have to pay for everything out-of-pocket first however. I have learned that paying out-of-pocket does provide some benefits such as 40% off medical bills at some locations and discounts on MRIs and other imaging services. Long story short, I fractured my Proximal Tibia and am waiting to schedule an MRI to see if there was any tissue or ligament damage or even for other fractures they couldn't see in the X-rays. I am hoping to get the MRI next week. For now, my prognosis is 4-6 weeks on crutches and continued RICE, which stands for: rest, ice, compress, and elevate.
Before
So happy to be skiing such an incredible mountain...
