January worst month for ski injuries?

**Endlessseason** · 11-11-2006, 08:51 PM

I've never heard that one before. Here's the quote from MSN today:

JANUARY: Worst month for ski injuries, according to physical therapist Carl Petersen, author of "Fit to Ski" and director of high performance training at City Sports & Physiotherapy Clinics in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; http://www.citysportsphysio.com. Collisions on crowded slopes at Christmastime, icy conditions, falls and lack of conditioning all contribute. Knee injuries are the most common. "Keeping your knees healthy and a pre-ski workout can help," says Petersen. "Warm up to ski, don't ski to warm-up."

Thinking back, my serious ski injuries have been in random months, from September to May. There has been no pattern for me.

Is there a worst month on this forum for injuries? Just wondering...

**skiing-in-jackson** · 11-11-2006, 08:57 PM

In my purely anecdotal observations, I have found that many friends & aquaintences get hurt in the late season. Either you're in shape and go big or you think you're in shape and go big...

Either way, heavy snow has busted more than a few friends' knees in the last few weeks of the season.

**altagirl** · 11-11-2006, 08:58 PM

Originally Posted by Endlessseason

I've never heard that one before. Here's the quote from MSN today:

Thinking back, my serious ski injuries have been in random months, from September to May. There has been no pattern for me.

Is there a worst month on this forum for injuries? Just wondering...

Mine have been October, April and March.

**fez** · 11-11-2006, 08:58 PM

tore my acl and labrum left shoulder 1/20/2006
my first season ending injury in 35 yrs of skiing.

**Deep Days** · 11-11-2006, 09:11 PM

December 17, 2005. Very end of first semester of college. Wonder if that contributed, or if it was mostly just being a dumb ass...

That said, I was in poor shape. Every ski trip I took in high school involved intense training for many weeks before I left, and I sat on the couch for training last season.

**Shepherd Wong** · 11-11-2006, 09:50 PM

December.
April(x2)
November.

For hospital, >1 month off skis/board

**BigDumbRedhead** · 11-11-2006, 09:58 PM

I guess my only major injury was in Jan. Not really a fitness thing. Just a random binding pre-release to a roll off of a cliff. It would have been a good time no matter what the month.

G · 11-12-2006, 12:50 AM

My experience gained while working at a hospital and on ski patrol: December.

Definitely dependant on snow conditions. When the snow is hard, there are many, many more injuries. as soon as there's a bit of fresh snow, injuries drop off dramatically. Around here, early season has the iciest conditions. December 26 to 31 is always a madhouse, with hordes of unconditioned gapers crashing and sliding on the ice into each other.

**DarkStar** · 11-12-2006, 01:32 AM

Tore MCL in left knee Feb. 7th 2005. Only true ski injury to date :knocks on wood:

**StormRider** · 11-12-2006, 01:56 AM

My worst ski injury did happen in January, a torn ACL.

My second worst happened in March: a broken Tibia and Fibular.

I’ve probably also given myself a concussion due to a skiing accident in almost every month from November to April, for what it’s worth.

**swiftskier** · 11-12-2006, 08:06 AM

This will be my first post here so I'll add my personal experience. However, statistics will serve the discussion better. In my 45 years of skiing, I've had two serious injuries, both in January. Back in the late 80's I sprained my ankle seriously in Austria. This put my competitive sport's career to an abrupt end. The only injury I had suffered before that was a concussion while playing American football as a teen. Basically, I was using a Hanson rear-entry boot against the advice of younger and prabably better informed ski professionals. I was trying the boot because I have an enlarged navicular bone in my ankle which was due to the pressure points experienced with a traditional 4 buckle boot and lace ice skate. The rear entry boots were introduced as an alternative that relieved this kind of pressure. Unfortunately the boot did not give me the kind of support necessary for serious bump skiing. January bumps can be large and hard, icy and dangerous. However, the Austrian snow was softer, although the bumps were were old. I also had new skiis in a longer lenth than I had previously been using. New equipment can also attribute to accidents. Many intermediate skiers and snowboarders optain new equipment for X-mass. Last January a reckless, under-age snowboarder hit me from behind at Killington. The conditions were icy and slick. He couldn't stop in one of the slow skiing areas when trails merge. This group of teens to which he belonged should have been in school, but had stayed an extra day and were skiing without adult supervision. His board hit the calf of the leg that had suffered the serious sprain. He went backwards into the snow, but I stayed erect, coming out of my binding. My boots were not as tight as I would have liked. The old ankle injury was aggravated. I would have done better to stay on the expert slopes, especially Superstar. However, since many of them were closed due to lack of snow, I had been skiing the Intermediate slopes. Futhermore, I would have been better off quiting early. The accident happened in the afternoon when there are more skiers on the slopes. I will think that you will also find that more accidents occur in the afternoon.