Winter Hiking Season over before it started.

[Frodo]

Sorry to hear about your injury. Heal quick! It was good to see you again at Pat and Audrey's 9 days ago.

 

[RollingRock]

Bummer PB! Wishing you a speedy recovery. For what it's worth, I've had major ankle surgery and I'm still hiking away!!!

 

[DayTrip]

Regarding the extra-heavy-duty bottoms and your inability to don them, this has always been my fear with regard to non-full-side-zip pants for insulation and shell layers. This is good information to have for those of us looking at purchasing those layers.

Someone made this point to me many years back on here and I took it to heart. My shell/rain pants and puffy pants are both full zip models. They're so much more convenient to get in and out of with boots and/or traction and I would imagine in an injury situation would be a huge plus. 100% agree with this point and well worth highlighting.

 

[jfb]

Sorry to hear about your injury, peakbagger. I hope it heals properly and you can get back to the trails before spring.

 

[sierra]

That stinks and sounds like you wont even make North Woods Law. Hope you heal quickly, I did something similar out west, quite painful.

 

[Jazzbo]

Very sorry to hear about your accident! Luckily help was just a cell phone call away! Hopefully you will heal quickly and this thread won't get too long!

 

[Andrew]

Really unfortunate, hope your healing goes well and life trouble-free as possible whilst physically limited. Having broke a leg bone myself on a trail, it really made me realize how no matter where you are (far or close), it's a humbling feeling to have your mobility gone and it's a lonely feeling realizing your 'it' at that moment.

Hope you take this the right way, but many of us regular hikers imagine our day would be the outcome of something high risk, super challenging, or of the roughest terrain with accompanying dramatic tale. Hope you aren't kicking yourself thinking of all places a grassy slope.

 

[NHClimber]

Yeah, that’s terrible to hear PB but could always have been worse. Hoping for a speedy recovery. Selfishly, this must mean even more reports for us as to the state of affairs in northern NE!

 

[peakbagger]

The annoying part is at best I may not get any surgery done until next week. I got a an appointment tomorrow with an ortho surgeon. Try as I may, my hiking usually really tapers off from about Thanksgiving to February with the exception of New Years hike so hiking wise the timing is not that bad. On the other hand running my indoor wood boiler and snowblowing the driveway will be a challenge (My plow guy retired and finding a replacement has proven to be futile). I grudgingly will burn some heating oil for the first time in 6 years. Luckily I bought some last summer when it was cheap. Between that and a minisplit heat pump and a big surplus from net metering my solar I have backups.

 

[NHClimber]

Must be someone nearby with a plow that can help you out? I’d help but I don’t have a plow and am 35 miles south!

 

[peakbagger]

I have a volunteer who does not know it yet. He is building a house in Milan on a ten year plan and learning how to clear a driveway is part of his needed learning That and a nearly new Honda track drive snowblower will make it somewhat easier

 

[NHClimber]

It's best when they don't know it's coming!

 

[Lucky Laura]

Really unfortunate, hope your healing goes well and life trouble-free as possible whilst physically limited. Having broke a leg bone myself on a trail, it really made me realize how no matter where you are (far or close), it's a humbling feeling to have your mobility gone and it's a lonely feeling realizing your 'it' at that moment.

Hope you take this the right way, but many of us regular hikers imagine our day would be the outcome of something high risk, super challenging, or of the roughest terrain with accompanying dramatic tale. Hope you aren't kicking yourself thinking of all places a grassy slope.

Peakbagger- like everyone else, I'm sorry to hear about your injury but glad it was not a worse accident than it was. I enjoy your posts. Like Andrew remarked above, many of our mishaps occur in places where we relax our guard since they seem so benign. When we're on the scary terrain or in scary conditions, our focus is often tensely riveted. Your sharing the story adds to the "book experience" many of us gather over the years, helping us all make better decisions. Thank you.

 

[JustJoe]

Slipped and broke my ankle coming down Chocorua several years ago, so I know the feeling of temporarily losing a passion. Heal fast.

 

[peakbagger]

Well I got back from the fill in Ortho Doc as local guy is on vacation. Unfortunately the ER Splint work caused some issues that were not helped by the delay in getting a Ortho Doc. So best case is surgery around Nov 30th (getting dangerously close to the point where they will need to rebreak). The fibula is definitely snapped off with a long diagonal break. Looks to me like it will need to be sandwiched between two plates with some hardware. The wear point

So now that I have split that is hopefully not doing any more damage, I am now in the leg elevated over the heart mode and on antibiotics until next week when they look at it again.

 

[ChrisB]

Would N Conway hospital offer quicker service?

And have you ever had a bone density scan? As we age calcium depletion can be an issue leading to brittle bones.

Don’t ask me how I know this.

 

[peakbagger]

Sadly the damage is done, (lot of pressure blisters from a too tight splint so the surgery has to wait until they heal.

No bone density scan yet. My ankle of late has been rolling on occasion on hikes. Short term painful with appropriate expletives but I am hiking 2 minutes later. I had shifted to mid height boot of late to see if it helped. Decades ago I used to use heavy tall boots and then Limmers, I would role my ankle on occasion but when I did it was a major issue. Once I switched to trail runners, if found about the same frequency of ankle roles and quick recovery. My guess is the new mid height boots contributed to the break where with my trail runners it would have been just a roll.

 

[ChrisB]

And then there’s this …

Asked my ortho what I could do to have less painful post-activity knees.

He smiled and said, “lose 20 pounds.” Funny guy.

 

[RollingRock]

And then there’s this …

Asked my ortho what I could do to have less painful post-activity knees.

He smiled and said, “lose 20 pounds.” Funny guy.

That is so true! I'm not sure why ortho docs don't say that more often. I've lost 15 pounds and my knees/ankles are thanking me for it. Would like to lose 5 more.

 

[CaptCaper]

Sadly the damage is done, (lot of pressure blisters from a too tight splint so the surgery has to wait until they heal.

No bone density scan yet. My ankle of late has been rolling on occasion on hikes. Short term painful with appropriate expletives but I am hiking 2 minutes later. I had shifted to mid height boot of late to see if it helped. Decades ago I used to use heavy tall boots and then Limmers, I would role my ankle on occasion but when I did it was a major issue. Once I switched to trail runners, if found about the same frequency of ankle roles and quick recovery. My guess is the new mid height boots contributed to the break where with my trail runners it would have been just a roll.

I had the exact opposite reactions. My ankle was twisted bad during highschool football. For years I would step on a pebble just so and over it would go giving much pain. Then I did the other ankle off a curb in a hurry. I was about 40 yrs old when I started wearing above the ankle boots day hikers all winter and above the ankle Asolo 520's hiking. I know the wearing of above the ankle boots most of the winter cured my first ankle issue. When I roll now hiking no issues at all with the Asolo's. When not hiking in sneakers or low cut hikers around town no issues. But come cooler weather back on go the above the ankle high tops like llbeans snow sneakers or day hikers.

On a side note I have Total knee replacements and a shoulder replacement. I worry if I fall one of those or more will become damaged. I have fallen but always lucked out with landing just right.