Broke my back

[Mike]

Was dropping some cliffs yesterday and landed on either a boulder or something really hard under the snow. Got crushed and knocked the crap out of me. Compression fractures in 7, 8, and 9. Out for 8 weeks. After a slow start to the season we have just now started getting caught up with snow bummed!

Oh well, you play you pay sometimes. Not the first time and probably won't be the last. I'll be back.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K29hT4hPeYQ]RE 2013-02-12 - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Mike]

Me before it hurt ha

Josh

Matt

 

[Randy V]

Holy schnikes!!!!!!! :stunned:

I hope you're going to be okay... I also hope you don't have to pay too dearly when you reach your senior years for all that fun!!!

 

[Mike]

Oh I'm going to be a hurtin unit when I get old lol. I will say at 47 I feel as good as I did when I was 20. Who knows I've definitely been bruised up a few times but don't feel any worse for wear.

 

[Mike Drew]

A friend in the UK managed to break his back while digging small holes with a shovel to plant petunias in his garden! He sank the shovel in the dirt, pulled up to extract a shovelful of dirt, and the shovel remained in place and his back snapped! :shocked:

At least you were doing something worthwhile, and earned your broken back, fair and square! :laugh:

 

[Mike]

That is a good point ha. Don't ever want to do it again though lol.

 

[Jack]

Oh I'm going to be a hurtin unit when I get old lol. I will say at 47 I feel as good as I did when I was 20. Who knows I've definitely been bruised up a few times but don't feel any worse for wear.

Wait until your 60+, for sure you'll pay for it then. No fun at all.
Broke mine (similar compression injuries) in 1966, re-injured in Singapore in
2005. Taking nothing more than Alieve for the constant pain. You do learn to live with it.

 

[Mark Clapp]

I guess I'll come out and drive your GT until you're better. I'd rather suffer with you than see dust fall on it. Take the time to heal it up right as you only have the one chance.

Mark C.

 

[Al Jones]

wait until your 60+, for sure you'll pay for it then. No fun at all.
Broke mine (similar compression injuries) in 1966, re-injured in singapore in
2005. Taking nothing more than alieve for the constant pain. You do learn to live with it.

+1 !!!!
Aj

 

[Mark]

respect 1000
sympathy 0

I do hope that you recover well and am mightily impressed by your escapades. However, not that I am totally risk-averse myself, seeing this sort of thing explains fairly completely and without the need for explanation, exactly why it is that our race is ultimately doomed, from a Darwinian perspective.

I hope your Mother gave you a good clip around the ear!

 

[Jayson]

Great pics mike, where were they taken?

 

[Mike]

respect 1000
sympathy 0

I do hope that you recover well and am mightily impressed by your escapades. However, not that I am totally risk-averse myself, seeing this sort of thing explains fairly completely and without the need for explanation, exactly why it is that our race is ultimately doomed, from a Darwinian perspective.

I hope your Mother gave you a good clip around the ear!

Ha hold up now. I am risk averse myself. I don't attempt anything on a sled that I don't think I have a 99% chance of pulling off without injury. I have dropped these cliffs more times than I can remember. This was just a fluke accident. I have been riding/racing for ~40 years. I've been hurt before but not very often. As Mike Drew stated, it's better to be hurt doing something you love than to break your back picking up a shovel

Pics were taken at Rabbit Ears Pass near Steamboat Springs.

 

[Kevin L]

Sorry to hear that.... Cannot be any fun at all. How long are you laid up?

 

[Mike]

Doc said 8 weeks. I was out this afternoon shooting and it's really not that bad. I don't plan on jumping up and down anytime soon but I've done lots of things that have hurt a lot worse. I don't recommend it and at the time it was excruciating but as soon as the doc gives me the green light I'm heading right back over there and going bigger. I'll pay more attention to making sure I don't land in someone else's bomb hole but I have no plans on living the mundane life. What about you guys running your cars around the track? The danger is real and yet you still do it? My guess is you have years of experience and what would be very dangerous for some to do, you are able to do quite safely? Sledding for me is no different. I rarely take risks.

 

[Pete McCluskey.]

Ha hold up now. I am risk averse myself. I don't attempt anything on a sled that I don't think I have a 99% chance of pulling off without injury. I have dropped these cliffs more times than I can remember. This was just a fluke accident. I have been riding/racing for ~40 years. I've been hurt before but not very often. As Mike Drew stated, it's better to be hurt doing something you love than to break your back picking up a shovel

Pics were taken at Rabbit Ears Pass near Steamboat Springs.

Thought I recognised it, a fantastic part of the world. Mike I hope you have no long term ill effects from the fracture. But as you say you have been doing this for forty years...As I know to my cost old bones break easier than young ones.
But don't let that stop you getting back on the horse.
Best.

 

[Mike]

Small world eh? You've visited Steamboat Springs and Colorado I take? Do you know where Nederland and the Peak to Peak Highway are? Estes Park? I am so lucky to live here. Somedays I have to remind myself but all I have to do is look out the front window at the Continental Divide each morning an think ah ha... Not bad...

One day I will get old... just not today

 

[Larry L.]

One day I will get old... just not today

I had to chuckle at that just a bit. Why? Because about 6 years ago (I was 35-yrs-old then) I said exactly the same thing...and yet somehow I'm now 68.

Your day is coming quicker than you think.

 

[Mike]

Even more reason to live for today

 

[Pete McCluskey.]

Small world eh? You've visited Steamboat Springs and Colorado I take? Do you know where Nederland and the Peak to Peak Highway are? Estes Park? I am so lucky to live here. Somedays I have to remind myself but all I have to do is look out the front window at the Continental Divide each morning an think ah ha... Not bad...

One day I will get old... just not today

Yes mate I know it well, we owned a Condo at Timber run in Steamboat
for just over ten years. Wish I had never sold it. You live in a great part over the world.

 

[Chris Kouba]

I feel for you Mike...

Moab, UT Nov 14, 2012:

Dec 17, 2012:

Foot slipped off pedal just prior to the drop + too close to safely eject = broken proximal end of 5th metacarpal

One surgery, three pins (all pulled after a month), lots of PT, and I am getting close to my original range of motion. I will likely have a souvenir to remind me of the event for the rest of my life, but I enjoy riding.

I can't wait to go back. Maybe won't do that drop for a while, but I can't wait to go back.

Same drop, a year earlier:

It was a ~15 mile classic Moab ride where my dad shuttled us up to into the La Sals to ride down into town. The upper ~10 miles are enjoyable but the fun factor really goes up just prior to my antics here. We were 1000' above and 4 miles from the end of the trail when I piled it in.

The most frequent question? How did I get out? I picked the bike up (it survived unscathed) and rode it out.

Chris