Having skied every year since I was 3-years-old, I was desperate to get back onto the slopes.
The team at Dorset Orthopaedic organised a session at the Snowdome with Disability Snowsport UK – two hours to try three different methods of skiing – yes, it was as tiring as it sounds!
Pro Carve
The first method was the Pro-Carve, a custom-made skiing prosthesis.
It was very fancy and took two prosthetists (I think one, Alastair, just came along for a jolly) to calibrate and attach to my socket, but once on, it enabled me to get back on the snow for the first time in over a year.
I don’t know whether it was the fact that everything just felt so weird and clunky that I declared it a hard no after a couple of rubbish runs of no more than three meters that ended with me against the padded walls, unable to turn or stop.
Three-Track Skiing
We hastily moved onto the three-track skiing. Basically I was on one leg with two poles that had little skis on the bottom – outriggers. This, I found, even harder!
And how on earth I’d enjoy the après ski mid-mountain at La Folie Douche with just one leg and one ski boot I have no clue, so we ditched that method as well.
Genium X3
Once again, my Genium X3 came to the rescue. My taleo prosthetic foot was shoved into a standard ski boot and with one click of my Ottobock App my leg was in ski-mode.
I’m not going to pretend it was perfect, it wasn’t, it was heartbreakingly difficult, but I found this method the best of the three, plus it means I’ll be able to walk around the ski villages as normal and enjoy the après ski with two ski boots on two legs.
The video below shows how far I have to go, but I’m determined to get there and enjoy the mountains once more.
