Snowboarding…More Like No Boarding

Well, we are on the road again! Saturday morning we loaded up our truck and left the snowy mountains of New Mexico, but our destination changed. The original plan was to hit a few more national parks- White Sands, Carlsbad Caverns, Guadalupe Mountains, and Big Bend- before heading to Austin, TX, but AC had an accident so we are now headed to meet an orthopedic surgeon. More on that to come.

Since last week was our final week in the mountains, we decided to make the most of it and try all the things on our winter bucket list. First up: I wanted to attempt to snowboard.

After observing a full day of AC teaching a coworker how to snowboard, I felt like I understood the concept and might actually be able to do it. AC agreed to teach me on a small hill at the neighbor’s house, this way we didn’t have to waste a lift ticket in case it was a disaster.

Sunday morning the high winds and snow were suppose to stop around 11am so that’s when we planned to start our training. We geared up with all our layers, boots, gloves and helmets and loaded into the car. AC’s mom was going to drive us over to the neighbor’s house. However, we only made it halfway down the road before getting stuck in a snow drift. Fast forward 30 minutes and AC, her dad, and the neighbor managed to dig the car out and back it down the road where it was out of snow. This meant AC and I would now have to walk the remainder of the way in the deep snow. We set off with sleds and a snowboard. By the time we walked down the road and up the driveway we were exhausted, but it was time for some fun. Our original plan was to sled down the hill a few times to flatten the snow in order to snowboard. The snow was much deeper than we expected and it made sledding quite difficult but entertaining. (Check out the sledding fail video on AC’s Instagram (@tillingourstory) for a good laugh!) After creating as much of a path as we could, it was time to snowboard. We practiced heel side sliding and staying upright. I did much better than anticipated and considered our training a success!

Monday morning we headed to the ski resort. The plan was for AC to snowboard and I would ski in the morning, and then, we would switch in the afternoon for snowboarding 102. After we ate lunch, we walked to the base of the bunny slope and AC gave me a quick 2 minute tutorial on how to get on and off the chair lift. I got on the lift with no problem, but immediately face-planted when getting off the lift. I popped up and skated over to the top of the hill. Instantly I realized how difficult it was to try to transition from sitting to standing, while clipped into a snowboard so I had to rollover to my belly in order to stand. After falling at least 7 times, I started questioning my brilliant idea to attempt snowboarding, but I was determined. I started down the hill, heading for a fence so tried to turn/stop but I took a bad spill. I went down backwards, but somehow ended up face down and immediately felt my neck ache from whiplash. That’s when I decided lessons were over and I walked the remainder of the way down the bunny slope. Snowboarding is waaaaay harder than it looks! AC went on to ski the remainder of the day with her dad and his cousin.

On Tuesday afternoon, AC’s parents took out their ski bike for everyone to try. We each took turns riding down their road which has a slight decline. It was super easy and fun. Of course AC tried to spice it up by trying to “pop a wheelie” and almost ended up face first in a snow bank.

AC was scheduled to work Wednesday and Friday so Thursday was going to be packing day. However, AC’s dad, mom, and cousin were going skiing so she decided to join them since it would be her last chance before we left town. Less than 3 hours after they left, I received a text from AC saying, “Bad news. Currently being brought down by ski patrol. F’d up my shoulder pretty bad. I’ll keep you posted when I get to ski patrol clinic.” When I first saw the message pop up on my phone, before I read it all, I thought she hit her head again! (Side note: About 9 years ago I got a similar text from AC letting me know that she hit her head while snowboarding and had a bad concussion.)

I was slightly relieved to hear it wasn’t her head, but anxiously waited to hear the results of her shoulder. About an hour later I received a text saying, “It’s bad and will need surgery but not today.” Turns out AC separated her shoulder by tearing the acromioclavicular (ac) ligament which connects your clavicle to your shoulder. There are 7 degrees of separation and anything above a 3 requires surgery; the doctor said AC had a 4-5 degree separation and needed to see an orthopedic surgeon within 3-5 days. Once she arrived home we immediately started calling orthopedic offices to schedule an appointment. The earliest appointment she could get was Monday afternoon in Austin, TX. So we made the decision to drive to Austin to meet with the surgeon.

AC’s injury was a freak accident. She’s been snowboarding on and off for nearly 20 years. She was going down a green (easiest) run and looked back over her shoulder at her dad who was coming down a different run and the front of the board caught an edge and she flipped forward hitting the top of her shoulder first and summersaulted about 3 times before coming to a stop. She immediately knew something was wrong and wouldn’t be able to board all the way down the mountain since they were currently on the backside, but she thought she could make it to the bottom of the run where the lift was located. She said she didn’t make it 100 yards before her vision was getting blurry so she sat down and her parents skied down to the lift to call ski patrol. Ski patrol loaded her into a sled that took her to a vehicle which took her down the mountain to the ski patrol medical center.

Our hope is that she will be able to have surgery this week. Stay tuned for updates and in the meantime send up some prayers and/or good vibes for a successful surgery and speedy recovery.

Until next time,
Charli

P.S. Our snowboarding days are over but we will be back on skis in the future!