After months of skiing and riding over icy runs, dodging dirt patches and avoiding debris fields, Nico Heins was ready for a powder day.
“We were all excited,” he said. “Everybody was waiting for all this powder. It's like powdered sugar under your feet, and it's ephemeral.”
In February, the Snowmass Ski Area saw over a foot of snow in 24 hours, following nearly three months of exceptionally dry conditions.
“It's only for a short amount of time — especially the powder,” Heins said. “So, it’s magical.”
After a morning on the mountain, Heins wanted to lap Sheer Bliss a couple more times. Near the bottom of the run, he came up behind another skier who was eyeing the same powder patch.
The other skier did not look uphill and cut across the run.
“My body just automatically reacted to stop as quickly and as fast as possible,” Heins said. “I was leaning one way; I had to break another way.”
Heins twisted his leg — causing a spiral break down his tibia and fibula.
While snow had been falling that day, the snowpack underneath was rock solid — creating divots and hidden ice patches on the ski runs.
“There were some rocks underneath that were definitely sticking out — some sharks,” Heins said.
He added that these hazards forced many skiers and riders to follow the same lines, making them more likely to collide. Skiers brave enough to weather the icy conditions also funneled into fewer runs, since the Aspen Skiing Company intermittently closed several parts of the Snowmass Ski Area during the season due to a lack of snow.
Ski patrollers transported Heins off the mountain in a toboggan and to a hospital, where he underwent surgery.
“There were other people getting wheeled in at around the same time,” he said. “That day was just a bad day for accidents in general.”
Physicians in the Roaring Fork Valley heard several similar stories last winter.
Joe Rubarsky, an orthopedic surgeon at Aspen Valley Health and the Steadman Clinic in Vail, said patients tend to come in with more broken legs and wrists during a low-snow year because people slip and fall on hard ice patches.
“We'll see lots of tibial plateau fractures in the knee,” Rubarsky said. “We'll see more femur fractures. We'll see more collar bone fractures.”
In a snow year with more powder, he sees more patients complaining of muscle tears — mainly ACL injuries.
“That, we think, is due to having a ski on your leg that is like a propeller,” he said. “When you’re in powder, that creates a lot of resistance.”
Ski injuries happen at a consistent rate in an average year — three injuries per 1,000 people on the mountain, according to the National Institutes of Health.
But James Spencer, a physical therapist in the Roaring Fork Valley, has seen that number decrease locally.
“Frequency of ski injury does seem to have decreased a little bit over the last couple decades,” he said. “It probably has to do with some change in the equipment or snow quality over that time frame.”
Although both Rubarsky and Spencer treated more breaks last ski season, overall skier visitation was down at all four Aspen Snowmass resorts. As a result, the two medical professionals saw fewer patients overall compared to other years.
Advancements in equipment, snow grooming and snowmaking technologies have made conditions more reliable as low-snow winters become more common.
Spencer wrote a course for the American Physical Therapy Association to help other physical therapists learn about ski injuries. He recommended athletes prevent these types of injuries by preparing in the off-season.
“If you put a little bit of effort ahead of the season and get your legs strong, get your core strong, you really can make a big impact on your risk of having an injury this ski season,” Spencer said.
Weightlifting and other recreational activities, like hiking and biking, will strengthen bones and the ligaments around them.
Heins began physical therapy after his surgery, building back some of his strength. In May, he was finally out of his brace, but he hasn’t been able to hike or bike this summer, and he’s nervous about heading back onto the ski hill in a few months.
“Do I have the guts to do that?” he wondered. “Currently, I'm bionic, and I've got a nail in my leg with screws. They say I can't break my leg again, but I don't want to hurt it either.”
Heins said he will wait to see how good the snow is next year. He has lived in the valley for six years and has chased plenty of powder, but if this coming winter is just as bad as last season, he probably won’t ski.
Heins said it is getting harder to find powder as climate change worsens and snowfall becomes more erratic.
“You do have to chase the powder a little bit more,” he said. “You have to look at the maps a little harder.”
Despite the ongoing challenge of finding good snow, he said, “there will always be people who are going to chase it.”
He remains optimistic and hopes he can get out into the mountains again soon — riding through the forest, the glades and the Hanging Valley.
