For more information about some of Ira’s other interests, look at Ira Riklis articles on awareness.

For more information about some of Ira’s other interests, look at Ira Riklis articles on awareness.

Let’s for a moment give this other skier the benefit of the doubt and suppose that he, quite mistakenly, thought that he had the right of way and that I had been in the wrong. Even then, the correct thing to do is to inquire as to how I’m doing? Am I injured? Do I need assistance? Should they call for the ski patrol and a toboggan?

None of this occurred to this person who yelled out his insult, flipped me the bird, and then skied off. I certainly wasn’t going to get an apology from this person for causing me to take a hard fall, but you would think that simple courtesy and concern for another person would dictate that he ascertain that I’m alright before he skis away.

So, in conclusion, it is important that all skiers and snowboarders know the rules of the road, exercise courtesy and caution, and that is still not enough to protect you from a wild, crazy and inconsiderate person. It is necessary to ski defensively as well. My usual approach to skiing obviates this problem because I’m usually on the slopes when they are empty and off the slopes when they are crowded.

As I’m in a short traverse within the funnel, I notice out of the corner of my eye a skier barreling at me at high speed from above and to my left. It is obvious that unless one or both of us makes a tight turn away, we are about to prove the first rule of physics, two solid bodies cannot occupy the same space at the same time; and there will be pain! As I am an expert skier, I am able to immediately turn hard to my right and avoid hitting this other skier. However, the turn was too tight, my speed too high, the terrain too steep and the conditions too hard packed for my skis to hold their carve.

I go down and hit hard against the hard packed snow. Thank God I was wearing a helmet because my head hit particularly hard. I skidded along the hard pack snow for some distance until I came to a stop. I lay there for a short while, I have no concept of how long, until my head cleared enough to think. I was clearly bruised, but was anything broken?

Once I took inventory to see if I had broken any body part, found that I was still intact, I finally lifted up my head to look around. Below me on the slope I could see that the other skier had come to a stop. When he saw my head come up, he called out to me. “Hey A*****E, watch where you’re skiing!”

When you consider the number of skiers and snowboarders on the slope at the same time, many traveling at high speed (myself included), it’s remarkable that people aren’t constantly crashing into one another. Especially if you consider the significant damage that can be inflicted on one skier by another, it becomes obvious that there needs to be both “rules of the road” and a high degree of courtesy and caution on the part of all involved. I have been crashed into several times by out of control skiers and each time I have suffered moderate injuries which necessitated taking days off from skiing. While this is a drag on my vacation time, it is much more so preferable to suffering serious injury.

One occurrence sticks out in my mind. I was in the back bowls of Vail on a beautiful sunny day coming into a funnel shaped section at the bottom of a large run. Funnels are particularly dangerous as skiers of all skill level and speed are forced into a small chute. Perhaps the most important rule of the road in skiing is that the downhill skier has the right of way. The reason for this should be obvious. While skiing, it is quite difficult to look behind you and therefore to see the uphill traffic coming your way. Conversely, the uphill skier easily surveys all the downhill traffic below and in front of them. Therefore it is the responsibility of the uphill skier to avoid the downhill skiers that he/she sees below. (To be continued…)

Once I got home, taken to NYU Medical, and placed comfortably in a bed with my leg elevated, I was told that my leg was not healing well and they would have to operate again. The next day I was taken again to surgery to have the cast removed, the leg effectively rebroken, and then reset.

I was told that it was good that they did so for two reasons. First, if left in the French cast my leg would have had a serious curvature (it does still have a slight curvature) and I would have been lame. Some people have told me that I’m lame anyway, but I don’t think they are referring to my right leg. Second, the cast was pressing down on my ankle and would have left a serious pressure sore. To this day you can still see a slight discoloration of the skin at the point where the sore had been.

It is scary to think that in a major ski area such as Courcheval or Megeve that the quality of medical care was so sketchy. I don’t know if it has improved, but the quality of medical care I received in forty years ago is a major reason why I have never wanted to ski in Europe again. Vail has a world renown medical facility and even people who do not ski come to Vail for treatment, in particular of sports related injuries.

Today, while I still revel in the thrill of speed while skiing, I am very careful. For one thing, I started wearing a helmet several years ago. I also rarely fall and I’m careful to stop skiing when I’m tired. It’s one thing to suffer a skiing injury when fifteen, completely another when nearing the end of fifty-five.

Getting home was quite a trick too.

My father made some wonderful arrangements, but it still managed to go awry. I was taken by ambulance (very comfortably) down to Geneva where we were met by a private jet owned by a friend of my father. I was stretched out on a couch with my leg elevated and traveled (very comfortably) to London.

Now comes the problem. The flight on TWA was fully booked, so I wouldn’t be able to position myself across two seats. Also, because of swelling, my leg had to be elevated. So I had the first row of First Class with no seat in front of me, where my father put a hard sided piece of luggage to support my leg in an elevated position.

If the flight had been smooth, this probably would have worked. However, in 1970, jets used to cruise at about 25,000 feet. At that altitude, if there is any weather disturbance, you are right in the middle of it. Modern jetliners cruise at much higher altitudes today, usually 45,000 to 50,000 feet, comfortably above the weather. And of course we flew straight into a storm.

My leg, which the bones had not yet knitted, was bouncing up and slamming back down on this hard piece of luggage constantly. I was in tremendous pain for many hours.

This is Courchevel at 1,550 meters

Another look at Courchevel. Photo courtesy Ira Riklis.