With how covid has been over the last year, Gilson Snow decided to split their Team Rider trips up into a couple different groups this season. Gilson does these trips to get content of the next season’s snowboard and ski lineups, and also an event to get the Riders together.
(They sponsor me as a Team Rider, so I try to make it to their sessions).
I went on my first trip with them in March 2020 to Colorado and got to ride with everyone for a week before covid shut the ski areas down for the season. I had the time of my life on that trip.
This year after some scheduling changes and swindling, I was able to secure a spot for three days with Gilson's Big Sky trip this year here in Montana (my home state). They had most of the male Team Riders on board for this go-around and plan on having the girls on another Colorado trip end of February. I was not able to switch around my schedule with work to make it to the girl’s trip. I asked Gilson if I could just join in on the Big Sky fun since it’s a three hour max drive from my home. Thankfully they said I could join them! Even though it was a guy’s trip, I was so stoked that it worked out for me to do something/anything with Gilson this season, otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to at all. So I got off work and packed up my stuff and went to join the dudes at a nice rented house in Gallatin Canyon.
I spent a few days in the beginning of February 2021 there and boarded for some pics and footage.
What an adventure. A good one because I got to spend time with Gilson and some of their rad Riders again. A bad one because I ended up getting injured and put out for the rest of this season.
I showed up the night of February 1st in order to rest and get an earlier head start on the 2nd’s craziness. On the docket for the 2nd was some backcountry action. Gilson hired Seth Anderson Photography to guide us into Beehive and take some shots as well. There were four total on this trek…besides Seth, we had Gunnar (who is a skier on the Team), and us boarders (Brian Quattro and I).
I haven’t snowshoed before. I boot pack. I do plan on getting a split board in the future for my uphill travels even though I don’t like to hike a whole lot when chairlifts are available in winter. I want to board to board, not spend all my time getting to a place to board one run. I know it’s all ‘about the journey, not the destination’ but man oh man sometimes the hiking just blows. I will. I do. And I have quite a bit. But it just is simply not my most favorite thing about the process. The hike to Beehive wasn’t bad, it just wound up hurting both of my hip joints after about mile 2.5 out of 6. I am not use to snowshoeing. I bought a pair just before linking up with the Team and I’ve never set a foot in a snow shoe before it…so definitely not my slice of cake. I felt like a cowboy/penguin hybrid walking around. My steps are a lot closer together than the bars on the side of the shoes would allow me to be. I know it was a lot better than post holing every step, but geez it was annoying every step. But I endured the entire day, even if I was a little slower than I want to admit.
I haven’t used avalanche gear before either. Super fun walking around with a third boob all day, but safety first I suppose. I actually bought myself some very nice avy gear a couple seasons ago...and have never even had to put batteries in my beacon for a pathetic reason. I am always alone. I did it to myself though, thinking I was going to go do cool backcountry shit with people when that never happens regardless. There is no point in wearing avy gear when no one is there to even look for you in the end. But I finally got to use the stuff and it was pretty swell feeling like an actual backcountry person.
We hiked through the very sunny morning. I’m surprised I didn’t get a sunburn from the snow reflection. We got to the base of the slope we were going to cut fresh tracks down and took a nice break. The big canteen of coffee with Baileys that I lugged up there was finally worth the darn effort. Yummo! And of course peanut m&ms.
Seth and Gunnar skinned tracks up first, zig-zagging to the top. My snowshoes were bigger than Quattro’s so I took the lead up next to post hole less. It was deeeeepppp. I tried packing it for him, slipping out the entire time in the powder but he would still post hole even in his snowshoes, especially towards the top. We get up there and Gunnar had taken a line down skier’s left while Quattro and I took fresh lines down the other side of the small ridge separating skier’s left and right lines. We waited for Seth to set up and let him snag a few shots of us on the way down.
Felt so fresh and floaty. Wondrous! We all took a break again before heading back up. I even gave Seth one of my two Busch Lights because I’m so nice, but man that beer hit the spot there. But Seth deserved it, that hard-working man, him. As we sat there it was just getting more and more windy. Our last lines had already drifted in completely flat with its surrounding snow, and so did our tracks by the time we went back up. So it was like breaking trail all over again.
We don’t know where Seth and Gunnar went but apparently Gunnar was getting some drone shots, despite the wind. Later on watching his clip, he does a sick trick and then the drone slightly clips a tree limb and then flies back to the launch point at the top of the ridge. Luckily they were able to retrieve it even though it took a while. They’re crazy for flying it in that strong of a breeze.
Quattro and I made good use of our time while waiting for them by hiking a smaller section extra times just to get side footage of us slashing through the snow with the sun in the background. Not going to lie, the shots look sick and was worth the extra effort. Seth got back down to the bottom and set up again so we could get a few more pics before hiking our happy butts back out to the trailhead.
We only got to board a little less than half of the way out and had to use the snowshoes a lot still. Yay more hip pain. The skiers left us in the dust a little bit and I think Quattro and I were a bit more tuckered than them by the time we got back to the vehicles. Or at least I was. I was toasty toast. But I felt super accomplished and content that I had done the day with them. Luckily a few of us went to Bozeman Hot Springs and got some soaking in. Much needed.
On the 3rd we all went to Big Sky to do some riding for more footy. It had FINALLY snowed overnight which really helped out Montana’s desperate winter drought situation up to this point. It definitely softened things up for the most part and we had some freshies to play around in. We all had a tough time dodging rocks in a boulder field between the Highway run and St. Alphonse Trees run along the Challenger Lift. That part sucked but the rest of the mountains conditions were far more solid. We kept having to go through that dang rock field though run after run in order to make it to these cliff drops off of Magic Meadows leading into the Challenger Lift Line.
It was a really good spot to take photos. All the Team sent it, Justin even skied a backflip off the bigger cliff like a maniac. Pure craziness! Riders on the chairlift yelling at us and cheering us on (for the most part XD). The rest of the Team watching the others hit the cliffs and just being supportive of the stoke going on left and right.
Yeah! Choice spot and day for photos. Choice spot and day to blow out my knee. yeah….
So I hit the smaller cliff the first time with everyone. Not bad…small lip off into the air, maybe like a 15ft drop to the angled slope below, and a bit of a hard impact despite the snowfall the night before. I didn’t land it, but I also didn’t die. So we went back. I did it again. My second go around is when I sent it a little harder than I did the first time. With it being more tracked out from more people hitting it, the landing was even less soft.
I didn’t psych myself out either. The first hit I was nervous about jumping since that is not my forte at all, and also about the entire lift line watching everyone do this. The second time, I didn’t care. I just freed myself of those concerns and wanted to have some fun and possibly be impressive. Fun I did not have. Impression is not what I exuded. I jumped and I think landed it for a split second, weight more on my right back leg before my left front knee gave completely out. I still honestly don’t know what went wrong or what form I screwed up so horribly.
I felt my knee pop, and heard it. Instant pain. I didn’t yell or cry. Just clenched my jaw shut, and slid down in my cloud of snow until I slid to a stop down the hill some, sitting up the entire time. I knew it moment it happened that I had done f***ed something up. I didn’t want to move as soon as I slid to my stop. It didn’t throb or ache or feel broken necessarily, but the pain was so intense and spread out that it took a solid few minutes before I took my hands off my knee so I could see if I could even bend it. I never went into shock or anything, just tried dealing with it as it happened and tried to not be a burden to anyone either. It was legit just one thing at a time. One motion. One thought. I wouldn’t even have a single thought about the rest of my season until almost an hour later.
Austin, Cole, and Josh were ahead and waiting on me. I finally slowly got up maybe 5 minutes later and hardly boarded to them. Tried to move it around to see if I could ‘take it easy’ the rest of the day yet still hang. But it would catch wrong simply standing there strapped in while I was trying to gauge my capability and I knew that was done for the day. Austin kindly offered to go to base with me but I assured him I could make it. I did without hurting myself more or having my knee catch wrong.
Big Sky tries too hard to be a big fancy place. I know it’s origins, and I know how it’s gotten to be in the last decade. Big Sky is legit blown out of proportion. I’ve never liked the big resort vibe I get from the place and the ritzy attitude, but I do have to hand it to them for one experience. I was limping around trying to find Ski Patrol to walk into to see what they thought (I knew I wasn’t going to go into a care center yet, just had a couple questions about ACL and Meniscus stuff I wanted answered…I’ve never had a knee injury so I don’t know much about differences between the two.) when a super nice lady host came up and pointed me in the right direction and offered extra help. I told her I could make it. I hobbled my way all the way up the hill to ski patrol and went in. Then that patrol dude was super nice and very helpful and caring. I was impressed is all I gotta say. Usually Big Sky isn’t that down to earth from my experiences…but maybe a person just has to get hurt to have someone there be cool with them. I don’t know. Either way, it was pleasant to not have Big Sky attitude go along with what I was already going through.
I hung out at the base for the rest of the afternoon. Maybe an hour and a half after I hurt myself, I hiked up to the base of the Swifty Lift with my board like I was going to go back up or something. I strapped in and moved around some and knew I couldn’t do it. THAT is when it hit me. I realized then that this is probably season ending for me. A season has never been cut short on me like this and I was immediately at a loss of what to do with myself. I stood there with some tears rolling down my face and soaking into my goggles, so no one could see me being a wuss about this. I’m not the first this has happened to and I know I’m not the last. But snowboarding is my passion and riding is what keeps me going. I kept trying to hold it together while I waiting for my Team to come down, knowing I wasn’t going back up with them. I was extremely pissed. I thought about the rest of my winter season and how it was all over for me. I thought about my next Solo Snowboard Trip that I was supposed to embark on in a couple weeks. How I had planned it all out already and was going to finish three state’s mountains off and be able to say I did them all. How I was supposed to finally get to shred my helicopter drops at Silverton. How I had worked so hard and saved up money and vacation time for this next adventure. How I live only 5 miles from my home mountain and now I only get to look out my window at the ski runs for the rest of the winter at missed days, missed laps, and missed passion.
It’s not fair. But it happened and I can’t help that now. At least the photo that Cole got of me jumping is half decent. Wish I had done a grab or something holy if I was going to send my knee to hell doing it.
I stayed another night with the Team and spent more time laughing and hanging with the crew. Really enjoy the down time with them all and making fun memories by watching them be goofs.
On the 4th we got a slightly later start. It snowed some more overnight. We all met up at the hut that Gilson rented out in Beehive about 30 minutes away from the house in the canyon. Slick spot with just the basics for survival it seemed. I geared up with the rest of them and got ready for some hurt. We split into two groups. One built a booter off of the slope just beneath the hut. The other hiked about 30 minutes up to a jump that was built already but needing a little reshaping.
I went with the hiking group. I don’t know, man, they wanted pictures taken of the members hitting the jump and I brought my camera…so I offered. I felt like this was all I could do at this point now that I was hurt and useless on a board. So I hiked up with Austin, Cole, Quattro, Paul, Ben, and the guide to take photos of the three guys hitting the feature. It snowed a good amount and we had to break trail all over again to get to the jump. I was last, thank God. I let the guys do the heavy lifting on this one and pack in the trail for me. I did hobble gently the entire way, in pain. Only caught my knee in bad spots four times the entire day and only on this hike. There were a few steep spots and they took me a good deal of creativity to get up.
I was back behind them a ways. When I crested over the steepest part of the hill and saw that they had already starting to shape the jump, I yelled at them and asked how it was going. They noticed I was still on my way and all let out a little hurrah for me which felt neat. I didn’t turn around like I found out they thought I would. I felt only as cool as a fresh cripple could in the situation I found myself. Again, I didn’t want to be a wimp. I needed to do the harder thing.
I filmed a few clips and took air-time shots of these fellas getting sendy, flipping like mad. It was still snowing and cold, so by the time I stood back up from my frozen throne to leave with the rest, my butt was as cold the frozen tundra. I got a head start on leaving by a few minutes but they all still smoked me back to the hut.
I chilled out the rest of the day at the hut and then at the house as it was getting later. I left that night just after 7pm to make it home to sleep some. I planned on getting up early to make it to Same Day Care first since I couldn’t make an appointment and wanted to be first in. I did have to start my five nightshifts the next night so I wanted to get as far as I could with figuring out what I screwed up in my knee. Hoped against all hope it was only a sprain and I could have the end of season to ride. Yeah. No.
I got to the hospital in Billings first thing the morning of Feb 5th and jumped through their hoops. They were even able to get me in for an MRI an hour after I saw an Urgent Care doctor. Doc said he believes that I injured both my ACL and Meniscus. My season is ruined and now I gotta pay some medical bills and worry about canceling all the things I booked for the Solo SB Trip. Saddest of days. Plus, I am actually embarrassed about getting hurt. I wanted to be better than this.
We’ll see what surgery brings and what kind I need. I have spent the last five days since it happened trying to be prepared to fully accept that I won’t get to be on a snowboard again until 21/22 season and it is killing me inside. I can feel myself get this darker anger/sadness if I think too much about the next two and a half months without snowboarding on top of not getting to hike the Beartooth Mountains to board this summer. I have already gone back to work and the miners have begun teasing me about my knee and for getting hurt like it isn’t a big deal, when to me it very much is. They’re also taunting me with the amount of snow that we are getting now, it’s over two feet in the last few days, which means winter FINALLY showed up…and I’m out just when it was getting good.
(UPDATE: I had an appointment with my knee surgeon on February 10th to discuss the extent of what I did and to discuss options. MRI confirmed I tore my ACL as much as I could have possibly torn it, and that I have two gnarly bone bruises above and below my meniscus to boot. He said my meniscus might be injured as well since it looks almost like it's bulging in one of the MRI images, but that we will be able to tell more the day of surgery and fix it then if need be.
I set my surgery to March 9th, with recovery around 6 months long. I started to walk mostly normally with only jumping and stairs really bothering me. Two weeks after I tore it, I decided to go snowboarding on Feb 19th. I know, not smart, but I legit could not help myself. After I went out and started walking and not being too bothered by riding I did reschedule my surgery for April 27th so I can finish out this season to some extent. I have been boarding several times since and have taken it as easy as I can. Yes, I’ll do double blacks still but I do take my time on those bad boys. I even took a few day trip to Idaho to try to knock out a few more mountains this season and use my EPIC pass a little bit and not totally waste it, plus I’ve had the opportunity to ride with new people I’ve met at work and on tiktok. I’ll continue to take it easy, and am super thankful that I can still participate in my passion this year. I do hurt and ache but I am looking forward to getting fixed and making this recovery my bitch. I’ve never had an injury like this so it most definitely did scare and disappoint me, and I’m sure from reading the original post above you could tell I thought it was the end of the world. Grateful that it has not been!)