Down Time In Chile

August 23, 2007

The summer of 07 I was invited to go on a trip to South America with a couple friends of mine, we planned to be in Chile for 2 weeks and Argentina for one. The first week went really well, we had 4 pow days and the stoke factor was super high. We heard there was a contest the next Saturday so I thought it would be fun to go in and maybe win some quick skrillas to help pay for the trip. The contest ran from afternoon till evening so the temperature of the air and snow would change drastically. The qualifiers went well and the pre-final went smooth also until the sun dropped behind the mountains, making the snow quite a bit faster. I had already landed a solid run which left me confident about the finals so I was just going to play it safe and do something stock. I didn’t really account for the change of speed that would occur and came into the jump at the same pace as before. I knew as soon as I was leaving the lip of the jump I miscalculated!! Spinning out of control all I could think of was trying to spot my landing and protect my head. When I hit the ground and bounced and slid to the bottom and thought to myself “that wasn’t that bad” so I unstrapped and when I tried to get up and walkway from the landing I felt sharp piercing pains shooting through my foot, and had to get a hand walking to the lodge to assess the damage.

after 20 minutes of have a new heartbeat in my lower left leg I decide I couldn’t finish the finals because the pain was just too much. Now back in the hotel for the last 4 days with assorted pain killers and ice packs I wait it out to see if I should go for an x-ray. where were staying is about 1 hour from the hospital down the sketchiest narrowest road you’ll ever see in your life and I cost’s about $150 to get a ride there, Oh and did I mention you have to book your ride at least a day in advance…. so while everyone is out slashing it up having fun in the sun, I just wait in the hotel till we leave and then get some x-rays to see what’s wrong.. The only thing I can do right now is stay positive and just be happy that it wasn’t my knee and thank my angel’s for watching out for me!

Posted by Timo