After an uneasy return the previous weekend, we were back, I was back at Edelweiss. The skiing was easier for me this weekend, hoping the weekend to be uneventful.
Saturday:
We got at the mountain way ahead of time for once. Kids we’re training GS on Zoomer. Conditions were nice, but snow got slicker as the day went by. The air temperature wasn’t that cold, but it felt cold. Maybe because it had been pretty warm the last few outings or was it the humidity?
The morning went like this:
Zoomer, Zoomer, inside, Zoomer, Zoomer, Strief, inside, Zoomer, Zoomer, lunch
Morgane at one point was out of synch with her coach and group, as she went in quickly to warm up, when she went back out the rest of her group was going in. I skied with her, gave her some advice and commented on her runs.
The Edelweiss Ski Club was having a few clinics from course and tuning clinics. I had Morgane sit-in for the tuning clinic. There was a club’s get-together at the end of training. I brought the pictures from the last K2 Slalom and GS races two weekend ago. I needed to sort them out for the slideshow; a task that I was going to do after lunch. Anyway, the best conditions are always early in the morning before the crowds show up. She got to see a video of herself at the last race. All good. A few people I spoke to commented on Morgane’s great skiing this season, yes, she’s skiing great. All that resulted in a 2:30 hour break. I went back out for 3 runs: Zoomer, Zoomer, Strief to total 10 runs for the day and headed in for the get-together.
Sunday:
Another cold start at -20c at 8:30am. Today was slalom on Strief. She was having another great training day and was improving in Slalom. As for the Descente Ski Club, they were training with a very open course similar to a Super G on Zoomer in preparation for the K2 Speedcamp starting at Mont Ste-Marie on Wednesday and culminating with a Super G and slalom for the Art Tommy race on the weekend (last year’s Art Tommy race at Calabogie).
After a few runs, I noticed that Tommy and Lefebvre were setting up a tent for a ski demo. As they were done, I stopped by to try a few pairs of skis. Started with some Nordica, Rossignol, Salomon skis. I have since forgotten what I tried Despite the cold feet, I tried one more pair before lunch. One ski I didn’t forget was the last pair, the lady gave me The Salomon BBR 8.9 to try. The ski has a revolutionary design and looked more like a Waterski with its weird and unconventional shape. I skied 2 runs each with the other, however skied 3 with these. One run on Zoomer and two on Strief, they were fun to carve. My daughter remembered that my friend at Dafran ski shop in Montreal rave about them. They were definitely the most interesting pair I’ve tried in recent years.
It was about noon, my feet were frozen and instead of trying one more pair of skis, I decide to go in. I wanted to eat before the kid would go in as I needed to adjust some skis for the speedcamp when the kids would come in. The kids were out for one last run, as I was eating, one coach walked in and informed me that Morgane hurt her knee, the same one as last March. Not good.
Zoom-her to the Hospital
I got my stuff together and raced out. I could see a whole group at the top of the pitch on Strief. It was my daughter. From what I gathered, she stratled the gate in a flush and spinned around. She didn’t fall, but her ski didn’t come off. She knew right away it was bad. It seemed like it took forever to get her down. 😕
Unlike the last time, she didn’t ski down on one leg. The Ski Patrol immobilized her leg and got her down the steep Strief pitch in the sleight, head down first. Her knee was really swollen. She was crying.
She was crying:
a) in pain.
b) feet were frozen.
c) in disappointment for missing 1) the upcoming speedcamp 2) Spring break 3) rest of her ski racing and ski season.
d) all of the above.
The Ski Patrol helped put her on the backseat, a parent would bring our skis back to Ottawa. We drove straight to CHEO in Ottawa (Children Hospital of Eastern Ontario). As we got to the Hospital, we finally removed the set-up that the patrol did and took her frozen ski boot. Her knee was the size of a grapefruit and the X-Ray showed a fracture at the top of the tibia.
Doctor mentioned that in kids, the bone is weaker than the ligament, in adults it would have been the ACL that would have torn, not the bone. He said it was ‘good news’. An appointment on Friday confirm that she was to have surgery in order to put a screw to connect the piece of bone that is detach on Wednesday. The doctor mentioned that injuries were part of competitive sports. He also talked about the surgery and said that they would use a hammer to bonk her in the head to make her sleep. That made her smile.
I still remember the conversation last Fall where Morgane wasn’t sure she wanted to return racing due to her injury last season. I told her it wouldn’t necessarily happen again. I feel terrible, second guessing myself. It was Morgane decision to return to racing. I remember a coach last year increasing her DIN setting before a race and me questioning it. Damn it!!! So many what if?
Despite all my mixed emotions about Morgane racing this season (I guess its never easy for a parent to see his kid in pain and hurting), Morgane mentioned, as she is a full leg cast, that she wanted to return next season, because of her friends and that ski racing is FUN. I’m not sure what how I feel about that?
So this was the last weekend of skiing for my daughter, the last weekend of the season. 😦
With my appointment on Tuesday and Morgane’s surgery on Wednesday, its going to be the 9th visit to the Hospital by my daughter and I in the last month.
Can someone Press reset on “2012” so we can start over?
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