Forty-five days ago I broke six ribs skiing in Vermont at Sugarbush Resort. Today, I finally returned to Whiteface Mountain, which is my home mountain, and put the skis back on. Over the last six weeks, I’ve spent a lot of time at home basically doing nothing. It’s only been in the last two weeks or so that I’ve started going for walks, going out to eat, etc., so it was great to be back on the mountain, out in the sun and doing something that I love.

A picture Wild Bill took of me today from the top of Paron’s Run at Whiteface. Photo credit: Wild Bill

I spent more than a month living in a recliner after I got injured and I really haven’t had much physical activity, aside from going on walks, since. I was a little unsure of how the day would go, but in the end I was able to ski everything just fine. I’ve got dull pain in my ribs, so I could feel that like normal, but there were no sharp pains or anything like that, except when I got off The Notch chairlift, specifically, which was interesting. The chair itself and the exit ramp just made for a difficult time for me.

It was a beautiful day on the mountain with temperatures in the upper 60s and plenty of sun. For my first day back, I was in no rush to ski, so I got there at 2 PM, which is an hour later than my normal start time after work. I started with a trip up the Falcon Flyer, a beginner lift, and down a beginner run in the Bear Den Learning Center. From there, I progressed to The Notch Lift, then The Face Lift, then the gondola and then the Summit Quad. By the end of the day, I’d skied a pretty good variety of terrain and I feel confident in saying that I’m back for good now, though I do intend to take it easy for the remainder of the season.

With the warm temperatures, the snow surface was very soft, lumpy and slow. The great news, is I love mashed potatoes, both on my plate and on the slopes, so it was good skiing. It’s been pretty warm over the last week or two, but I thought the mountain was in pretty nice shape. There are some pretty sizable bare spots on The Follies, Paron’s Run, Victoria and probably some other runs, but the runs are certainly skiable. They were not spinning the Lookout Mountain lift today, but it’s expected to spin this weekend. There’s a very large bare spot between the top of Lookout Below and the snow on the run. This may or may not be fixable. My gut says it’s not. There appears to still be quite a bit of snow on Hoyt’s High. The bottom runout is getting thin, but they should be able to move some snow around to fix any issues there.

Today was certainly an interesting day and it was one that I needed to get behind me. Getting back on the horse after an injury is never easy, but you must get back in the saddle. Another day I need to get behind me is returning to Sugarbush and skiing the run I was injured on. I don’t want carry that weight into next season.

Never quit skiing,

Lincoln

BACK IN THE SADDLE

EARNING MY BLUEY STICKER

IT’S BEEN SIX WEEKS SINCE I BROKE SIX RIBS SKIING