Backcountry Adaptive Skiing on Ball Butte

June 3rd, 2012

Skiers: Erik Schmidt and Lindsey Clark

Erik three-tracking out of the wilderness

Due to a sick and twisted turn of events, both Erik and I had our ski seasons come to a screeching halt due to ankle injuries this year... the SAME ANKLE.

Me: Fell mid-switchback on an icy ridge on New Year's Day. Suffered significant damage to ligaments, tendons, cartilage, and the talus bone.

Erik: Fell while ripping out of a couloir and onto an apron (perhaps an encounter with the bergschrund?) in April. Broke his medial malleolus and fibula.

I dealt with the fact that I wasn't going to ski for a while, picked up some fun illustration projects to fill my free time, and made a couple pilgrimages out to the desert on crutches.

Erik, however, was NOT OK with ending his 2.5-ish year streak of skiing every month. So he connected with Oregon Adaptive Sports and got himself a set of outrigger ski poles.

After taking some short runs on Mt. Bachelor to get the hang of them, Erik talked me into going with him into the backcountry for some real fun.

Hey! All my weight is on my bad ankle!

We skinned up Ball Butte fairly slowly: Erik making a single track in the snow next to my two. Skinning with outrigger poles actually works pretty well! And my ankle wasn't giving me much trouble. 

Single track / Double track

Things were going pretty well, so we decided to stop at a flat spot on the ridge we were climbing and make some turns back down to the snowmobiles. I went first:

Hands out in front... Shoulders facing downhill...

...and my fears of excruciating pain were unfounded! My turns were fun, easy, and felt great.

Erik followed me down the mountain making fast, confident turns. Very nice!!!

I think he's done this before...

Once back at the sleds, we did some requisite high-fives... we had both just skied in the backcountry with legitimate injuries! Take that, stupid ankles!

Classic look of satisfaction

It was a great, confidence-building day out in the mountains, and got us both psyched for more adventures in the mountains throughout our respective recoveries.

Goodbye for now, Ball Butte!