After New Year, not every day on the mountain, was a good one. Three days after Sylvester, the forecast was not predicting anything special. Steffi, a friend of mine, who joined us for New Year by interrupting her student exchange in Sweden, stayed a little longer for a nice day in the pow. The forecast was predicting okay weather for the morning with an increasing overcast in the afternoon. We were supposed to meet up with a few friends of ours at Stubai and find some nice lines.
The Daunjoch with the our nice lines
on the left two days before the incident.
A few days earlier, we had been there on a beautiful Bluebird day. Clarissa and I scouted some new stuff under the Daunjoch, where a new chairlift had been built. We found a nice steep couloir that with a south-eastern exposition saved good snow, and with a Rocky entry, kept it well hidden from most riders. The steepness probably helped to.
It was a good hike.
As we were ascending the mountain, we got word that our friends would be arriving late, so we decided to do a little run through the couloir before meeting up. When we got up, the snow tracks had been completely buried in the powder was looking exceptionally swell. It took us quite some time to get all the way up to reach the Daunjoch, between the peaks of Hinterer Daunkopf and Windacher Daunkogel. We did a little more exploring of the area and ultimately decided to descent because the cloud cover was starting to get thicker.
Nice and steep
That’s when it happened. I rode down in the middle of the Daunjoch towards the couloir I had done few days earlier. At the beginning the snow was really good, I packed a few nice turns and transitioned into a narrow ridge before the Rocky entrance into the couloir. I turned around and waited for Steffi. I saw her approaching and then she slipt. It didn`t look bad at first, looked like she kind of like sat down. Suddenly I heard a scream. Took off my skis and ran towards her. Something was badly wrong…
It started covering up soon.
After a minute we knew something was wrong with your left elbow. It was broken or shattered. Now we had to act soberly. I fashioned a sling, from the strap on my ABS backpack, that I was bitching about as being to climber-oriented. So dear designers thanks for putting it there. Steffi took one of my poles and we were off marching slowly towards the mountain station of the chairlift. After around 30 min when we arrived there, evacuation went on, and Steffi was already operated on the same day. I cant imagine the pain Steffi was going through. I remember when I broke my collar bone the first time I didn’t feel anything at all. She’s a real trooper 🙂
You have to admire, the Austrian medical system. When we were at the hospital, not only did they take a lot of effort in diagnosing the exact amount of damage to her elbow, they also gave us the lowdown briefing of everything and anything that can happen during the procedure. ECT ,x-rays, EKG all included and instantly. Just to make sure, they were right. I remember how my briefing and home looked like. First time I had plates fashioned to my collar bone, I didn’t even know I had one until after the operation and they botched up my rays in Ljubljana…
Posing for the camera at the Joch. Everything was still good !
Well it’s been a little more then a week since the accident, and Steffi is already back in Sweden continuing her exchange. True, she will not be snowboarding until next season, but the doctors said that the operation went well, and if everything goes according to plan, she should be ready for next year, so to you, my dear readers, I say, be careful, because you never know when something can happen on the mountain oh and put a sling in the backpack !
Transported off with the Pistenbully 🙁
And Steffi I say don’t worry, we’ll get back to the Daunjoch when you’re up on your feet again, and I’ll show you the supersweet couloir for sure 🙂
