I thought that I should record this incident in detail.

We skied Sting. On the Distributor, that leads to Sting, I went first and fast down excellent grooming. In a good tuck, I passed two others skiers. I waited at the top of Sting for Helen and Scott. One of the skiers I had passed went through, then we waited for a party of about 6-8 who were there when I arrived to go down. When I could see them at the bottom, Helen began down. I waited 5 seconds then went myself. I presume Scott followed. It quickly became apparent that the tail-end (in a red jacket) of the party in front was slow and that we would catch him. He was taking a lot of the trial. Helen passed him close to the bottom. It was a very quick run down. I was counting turns and had got to 12 when I too passed the red jacket and was at the lip at the bottom of Sting. I needed one more turn to wash off my speed and chose to do that in the compression at the bottom of the lip. (I have done that many times before). Unfortunately, there was a “merge” flag right in the compression bowl and right where I needed to turn. I could not see that flag until I had gone over the lip – it was hidden from view from above and therefore in a dangerous place. However, I was committed. I remember avoiding the pole with my skis (I went up hill of it). Unfortunately, my shoulder hit the pole and pulled my upper body back. I hit the ground hard.

I did not lose consciousness, but it took me quite a while to get up. I needed several attempts to get to my feet. I could see Helen and Scott at the bottom (Scott had gone passed while I was down – I don’t remember that) with the rest of the party of 6-8. I was very wobbly. My poles were uphill of me (near the ‘merge’ sign where I fell) and were retrieved by the red-jacketed skier and another skier who had followed us down (that skier had been approaching the top when we began down). I remember saying ‘thanks mate’, to one of them. I made my way down to Helen and Scott. I was very confused. I knew I had come down Sting but did not know where we were – ie what run did Sting come out on. My goggles were round my neck from the force of my face plant. My vision was strange – a little tunnel visioned. Jill came up to us. She had been down OSV. I have no memory of the next few minutes. We must have agreed to go down 5 mile. I must have skied down 5 mile and headed for the poma. The next thing I remember is standing at the bottom of the poma. I was very confused. I did not know where I was or how I had got there. I did not know the time of day or what I had been doing. I knew we were at Sun Peaks. Why was I at the bottom of the poma? Where was I going? I had a head ache. Helen came up to me and I told her that I was confused. We went up the poma. I was extremely confused. Had I had a crash? Where? What had we been doing before that? I thought we were at Morrisey but there is no poma there! Where was I going on the poma? Why was I on the poma? What day was it? What time of day? I was getting rushes of anger. Helen was ahead of me and waited at the top. She says we spoke and she asked questions. I remember none of that. I don’t remember skiing down Gentle Giant. I vaguely remember skiing down the track to the condo and taking the turns. But why was I going to the condo? I had clearly been hurt, but how? Some people spoke to me as I turned into the condo car park. Helen caught up when I had got to the condo. I was still very confused and wobbly. She helped me to take me skis off get inside and take my ski clothes off.

I sat in the ski room at the condo for awhile. Memory gradually began to come back. We went upstairs and I sat in the corner on a couch. I was still confused and began to feel cold. My lower limbs kept moving in what I will call agitation. Helen put a blanket over me. I drank some warm sugar water and that helped a lot. Then some warm sugared tea. Then more sugar water. Confusion came and went all afternoon – in waves. Anger came and went all afternoon. The confusion and the anger gradually lessening as the afternoon progressed. I remember looking out the window at the trees and not being able to understand why they were on a slope (I was looking at the Morrisey slope). For at least an hour, I just sat there under my blanket. Doing anything else was too much effort. I was later able to read. At first, that was difficult as I could not hold the idea of the sentence in my head long enough for it to make sense. But, that got easier.

Scott and Jill came in for lunch. I found that speaking was difficult, I was slurring my words and had to slow down my speaking. I had cut my lip when my goggles were dragged down my face, and that would account for some but not much of the slurring. I feel slow.

As the afternoon progressed and my confusion came and went, my shoulder gradually began to hurt. I must have landed on my right shoulder. It is not the rotator cuff so my arms must have been down (all that training works). However, I can’t raise my arm much at all. Certainly not above my head.

I wrote the above the next day (3 Feb) at about 9 am. I had a fairly good night’s sleep. I feel woolly headed and slow. My shoulder hurts though not too much.

A medical website suggests that head injury without loss of consciousness but with Post Trauma Amnesia of less than 30 mins should take 1 week before return to the activity that caused the injury.

5 Feb – I waited a few days to see what else had happened. I have gradually felt less woolly-headed. By last night, my head was very clear after a sleep in the afternoon. My shoulder is still a problem with limited movement to the front and no ability to get my arm above my head. The anger that came in rushes immediately after the crash had disappeared completely by the next day (3 Feb) and has not reoccurred. I feel more calm than I have for many years.