I was watching an episode of The Season a few weeks back about a women climber who was a really strong boulderer. The lead in to her first segment was a beautiful panning shot of her climbing up a tall, proud boulder. The narrator, Fitz Cahall, one of the best outdoor story tellers of our time, was saying that if you boulder, its not a matter of IF you break something. But a matter of WHEN. Bouldering always results in a ground fall no matter what.
Last week, on Thursday, I met up with my friend Pablo who had recently lost his leg to amputation after a climbing accident. He had a new prosthetic and was having some trouble climbing and getting around uneven ground so we headed up the Horsetooth to work on both.
We walked in, and as we were poking around, I felt the holds on a problem I hadn’t done in years. I pulled into the start, which in the slanting gully we were in put me about 6 inches above the rocks that were the floor. As I moved down the gully wall feeling the holds, my prosethic popped of the lichen-covered wall and I dropped, 6 inches, to the rocks. I landed on a pair of rocks, or between them, and heard a branch snap. My toes all balled up, and a shot of pain ran through my foot. I turned around to see Pablo and the bush behind me that I broke the branch off.
Hmm, only Pablo, no bush.
My foot really started to hurt, and as I answered some of Pablo’s questions about how to fall better on his fake leg ( funny now) my foot grew in size. I took off my shoe and noticed the swelling in my toes. We were planning to move down the hill and boulder, but by that point I was having trouble standing, so I told Pablo I thought I broke my foot. “ No, are you sure?” He asked. “Ahh, yea, I’ve done enough of this to know when they are broken, I think I better leave.” The 300-yard walk to my truck was painful on the foot, I limped and the people who saw me must have thought that my missing leg was the problem, which in that instance was what was holding me up. Driving home I couldn’t believe that had just happened to me. I was barley off the ground, really just moving down the slope and here I was with what I knew to be a broken bone. I grabbed the kids at home, spoke to Cyn on the phone, and in her usual caring voice, she asked where I was going to have it x-rayed. The fact I didn’t argue kinda drove home the point of how it hurt, and off to the ER we went.
Three hours later and a walking cast as a new style booster, we were off to the pharmacy where Cyn works to fill a Vicoden script.
As the first day passed and I settled into the pain cycle I know all to well, the boredom set in due to the fact I was not allowed to do anything. Now I know what your thinking.
A smart man would listen to the doc, not weight bare, and do the time. I, am not that man.
I had to do something, and after meeting with the orthopedic doc yesterday, I was already figuring a way around this little roadblock. I was told that the break was clean and in a great spot, that by wearing a full boot for three weeks, the bone would set up nicely, and that I could apply a small amount of weight when I walked, but never out of the boot. I had already climbed again, Saturday we went to the gym in Colorado Springs. Mayah had a skate comp there and we had gone for the weekend to climb and watch her skate. I wanted to see if I could climb like this, and all in all, it went o.k. But now, I had a little loophole to play with.
No, I wouldn’t weight bare, it hurts to much, and I WANT to heal as fast as I can. But, ask anyone who knows me and they will tell you, I don’t sit still well.
It makes my whole body hurt, so back to climbing I go. Just like a man in an abusive marriage, she only breaks my bones because she loves me, I worked out a climbing system with my knee and prosthetic to get me back up into the vertical world. I made a kneepad with some sticky rubber so that I can use my fake leg as normal, bit use my knee on the broken side as a foot.
TaDa! I’m a climber again!
Now I have to go for three weeks like this until they shoot x-ray’s again to steer me the rest of the way down the road.
I also know that it’s not the best thing to do as an injured man, but I figure with as much broken and shattered in me, the fused and plated pieces, what’s one more broken bone. I look at it as another chance to work on my PT skills.
Craig DeMartino
outsideallday.com
