We had a major incident a few weeks ago. Made me think about a few things. I wrote them up here: http://www.mbswindon.co.uk/articles/safety/mountain-biking-first-aid-alps-crash/

The victim explains what it was like for him: http://www.mbswindon.co.uk/articles/safety/real-life-first-aid-part-2-the-victims-story/

Finally, I’ve done some research on accident levels and some things about safety kit: http://www.mbswindon.co.uk/articles/biking-gear/cycling-safety-gear/

Thank you for sharing, a really balanced and helpful read.

I ride that path to chatel nearly every day now and it does remain slippy, hope your mate gets better.

Great writeup/story

Excellent write up thanks for the effort of putting that together and have noted a good couple of pieces of your advice

Excellent write up thanks for the effort of putting that together and have noted a good couple of pieces of your advice

Nice nurse at least! 😉

You had a nicer nurse than I got when I had exactly the same accident (without the blood) in Switzerland!

I didn’t get the winch treatment either, I was considerate enough to crash near a convenient helicopter sized clearing. 😉

Hope you heal up quick Chris! Good write up.

Thanks for taking the time to write it up and for sharing it. Healing vibes.

I can’t stand blood, so going to pretend it’s jam.

Anymore photo’s of this nurse

Fantastic write up. Even better Work by those present. Shit thing to happen. Hope your man is recovering well.

I’ll ask Chris. Every cloud has a silver lining.

Also amusing was our French mate Jerome who was asked by the woman delivering the food ” quest que ce “bon appetit” en Anglais?”, he answered “bon appetit!”. You had to be there.

Same guy, different location.
Phil doesn’t speak much French and was struggling to communicate.
Phil: “Jerome, can you ask the waiter for a coke and a beer please?”
Jerome to Waiter “can I have a coke and beer please”
You had to be there.

One other thing, I’m organising some 1 day first aid courses. £40 per person, based in Swindon. Room for 10 on the first one, will keep filling future courses based on demand. Sun 3rd of Nov for the first one. No more info at moment.

Fascinating articles. And good work! Especially taking a snap of your man whilst he was lying on the floor bleeding all over the shop. No really! I had quite a big one but no-one took a pic, and I was lying there for ages before the ambulance arrived to scrape me onto a spinal board. I don’t have any record of my greatest stack to date apart from a smashed-up full facer and a few scars, nothing to show the grandkids, oh well.

(Purely co-incidentally, as we’re mentioning attractive medical professionals, the doctor who assessed my head and neck injuries was fit as ****.)

Hi folks. I’m the victim!
The wound is healing nicely although i’m still some way away from walking/riding again.
French nurses are lovely, there was one called Cindi who believe it or not was even nicer than the one pictured. She was the one who washed me when it was too painful to move.
Loving the jam pic 🙂

Great articles and well written…… I was in Wales last week and rode some trails solo…. Felt a bit uneasy in places in case I fell….. These articles make good sense!

Excellent articles with some sound advice, thanks to both of you. Hope you heal up well Chris. Reminds me of when one of our group ruptured his kidney a decade back and the wait for the helicopter with the rider going into shock, not fun.

Bet you get a reverb now. 😉 get well soon.

Wow, what an absorbing read! Hope you’re not off he bike for too long. 🙂

Very interesting – that track caught out a friend on this year PPDS, not quite as bad an injury but it did result in a helicopter ride too. Couldn’t fault the help received in a very awkward place to access – even had the same first responder looking at your pictures. Hope you make a speedy recovery.

That very steep and rocky unmarked run from the top of super morzine that gets a mention… 😀

I’ve just had a very similar alps emergency, without going into too many details, we found that the swiss emergency service asked for a smartphone app called Echo112 to pinpoint our location, luckily someone there had this. Basic first aid knowledge, a comprehensive first aid kit and a couple of space blankets are things that we can all equip ourselves with.
I wish you a speedy recovery fella.

Great write up, brings back some memories of similar but not as bad incedents.
To date – mate broke himself in Chatel side of the valley, thankfully had a guide with him
Another mate broke his shoulder at Ae, basic first aid and calmness helped
The one who broke himself in Chatel did the double (or not) in the Les Gets bike park – getting bikes off the mountain was tough enough after we got him off in the Ambulance
Mate with an Ice Climbing fall in Ft William

Too many to happen but I concur with what was written, you need to respect where you are and be prepared. For the minor inconvenience of carrying a little bit more stuff bad things can be made more bearable.

Well done guys for getting control of the situation.

Good stuff. I was in town on Sat & picked up an emergency foil blanket, reduced to 50p; I’m ashamed to say I chucked it back thinking nah…I’d never need that….
😕

On the strength of your write up I shall be packing a few bits extra now.

We had an incident a few years back on Cannock Chase. Was getting dark, somewhat off piste when my mate went over the bars, landing literally full force on his head. He went into some kind of shock & couldn’t move anything from the neck down. To make matters worse he’d split his helmet clean in two & he appeared to be bleeding from his ears. The other chap started flipping out so I despatched him off to the main road to await the ambulance etc. I set to work looking after my mate, basically just putting into practice the bits of first aid I’d gleaned from various courses.
The sense of relief when the 4×4 ambulance appeared was immense.
Thinking back now it’s easy to rationalise what happened & the steps I took but at the time it was all on adrenaline I think.
(Mate was fine after a night in hospital).

And that nurse deserves a thread all of her own. 😆

@tom – I’ve done a few first aid courses aimed at sailors (it’s a requirement for certain races) the reason I mention it is they are focused on issues you could get biking, broken arms/legs, head injuries, hypothermia and having to deal with those without outside help possibly for some time. If you contact RYA they may have some teachers they can recommend.

My girlfriend and I came passed you guys and this incident, we stopped and asked if everything was ok.
When we were in Chatel taking a coffee break, it suddenly occurred to me why had you not phoned for help, instead of sending somebody back on a 15 to 20 minute ride?

tomstickland – I did the passportes with two mates and we saw a woman crashed in more or less the same spot, laying covered with a space blanket waiting for medical help. It seems like quite an innocuous bit of trail but it’s got enough odd surprises to catch you out.

Back in the UK we had ambulances out for people a few times who’d crashed not on big things (although one mate did spend some time in ICU after an ill advised drop to face) but stuff like slipping on roots on a fireroad .

Interesting read on the stats about injuries. I was in Bangor A and E about 2 weeks ago as my mate hurt himself at Festeringwog. The A and E doc said mountain bikers tend to come in with low impact injuries, like broken bones, cuts etc. whereas roadies come in with huge road rash or have lost a battle with a car (dead unfortnately). His opinion was road cycling is much more dangerous than mtbing! Food for thought.

atlas – that was one of our group, also resulted in helicopter trip, fortunately only mild concussion.

The mad thing is I came off on jagged rocks and landed at speed on my hip bone (a nice cut/compression on the edge) with a green/yellow bruise that went out up and down my leg which looked impressive (along with the rotor cuff injury to the same side). Mad how you can fracture your pelvis in such a inconspicuous area of the trail? JRA are “scarier” than full on DH sometimes.

OP – great write ups.
Always get piss taken for carrying first aid kit and survival kit (foil blanket & nylon shelter) but you only need to be involved in one of these incidents to realise how helpless you could be without it.

Came to MTB from mountaineering so bring my old habits with me, I ride alone most of the time so route cards left at home etc, phone + backup, paper map etc. Means carrying a bit of gear but if it’s not you, at least you can help someone else.

What do people think about the hip protection options?

What do people think about the hip protection options?

I looked into this after I broke my hip mtbing.

The bolts they’d put in stuck out fromt he bone quite a bit and I kept trapping the muscles between the bolt heads and hard external objects like trees and the edges of tables. It hurt.

The conclusion I reached was that the hip protection would likely stop penetrating injuries and protect an existing ‘soft spot’ in a low speed/impact accident but that the sort of energy needed to cause the injury I had would be beyond the kits ability to deal with. This was 10 years ago so protection levels offered will have changed since.

I had the bolts out after 2 years and I’ve not worried about it since.

One piece of advice I would give to anyone who breaks a bone in a ‘well you wouldn’t; have thought you could have broken that falling off there’ type incident is to get a bone density scan.

Road cycling is known to contribute to low bone density (not sure if there’s been studies on MTB’s) – I had the bone density of a 70 year old man (I was 35 at the time) which probably was the reason for the break int he first place. Get it diagnosed and get treatment.

I was thinking that a semi-hard pad in your shorts would dissipate a sharp force over a larger area, possibly preventing a break. I know they make shorts with pads in, I dunno what they are like though or how firm they are.

The bolts they’d put in stuck out fromt he bone quite a bit and I kept trapping the muscles between the bolt heads and hard external objects like trees and the edges of tables.

*winces*

Thanks for sharing, I just hypothetically put myself in that situation and I would be ill equipped to deal with it.
I need to sort a first aid kit for riding, as it can all go wrong so quickly.

Its crazy isn’t it, Snowboarding I have all the kit, shovel, probes, Tranceiver, helmet, back protector, impact shorts etc

I practice with the probes and shovel and am very careful who I will ride off piste with (On the basis that I have to know, if the worst happens they will at least be as well equipped to search and rescue as I am)
On a mountain bike I appear to take the minimum kit 😳
I should know better

Thanks again for sharing and GWS to Chris

I wore padded shorts when I was learning to snowboard, and whilst they were great at stopping bruising from repeated falls onto one’s arse, I doubt they’d do much to stop something like in the OP. Bit like knee pads really, they’ll help but can easily be defeated.

Get well soon!

Great article with some really interesting things to consider… Good work by Tom & Jerome too.

molgrips – Member

I was thinking that a semi-hard pad in your shorts would dissipate a sharp force over a larger area, possibly preventing a break. I know they make shorts with pads in, I dunno what they are like though or how firm they are.

I have Dianese impact shorts (Undershorts)for snowboarding, hard plastic to dissipate the point load with a foam inside to absorb the energy.
They also have a Coccyx protector made in the same way

I hit a rock about 4″ under the surface on a carving heelside turn at about 15-20 mph, that caused the edge of the board to lose grip and the next thing that happened was I slammed ar$e first into the ground (And said rock under the surface) The shorts still have the witness mark in the plastic (All deformed and white)

I broke my Coccyx 😯 🙁 it still hurt sitting down on some surfaces 2 years later.

I dread to think what would have happened if I hadn’t been wearing them…