[Closed] Accident in the alps...photos, write up and some advice.

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.

[img] [/img]

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 4x4 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?

[i]What do people think about the hip protection options? [/i]

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...

Pussywillow will have a field day when he reads this...

As a rider and mountain rescue team member I though that this was a great write up btw. Great advice and a really good account of what is a relatively common (in serious injury terms) injury for riders (of bikes, motorbikes and horses).

Oh the one thing I'd add is know how to call out mountain rescue, rather than just asking for an ambulance. If you think that a couple of ambulance technicians aren't going to be able to easily extract to a road then dial 999, ask for the POLICE and then ask for Mountain Rescue:
[url= http://www.mountain.rescue.org.uk/mountain-advice/in-case-of-accident ]http://www.mountain.rescue.org.uk/mountain-advice/in-case-of-accident[/url]

Register your phone for 999 SMS: [url= http://www.emergencysms.org.uk/registering_your_mobile_phone.php ]http://www.emergencysms.org.uk/registering_your_mobile_phone.php[/url]

If you're going aboard make sure you know how to call for help where you are. 112 will usually do the trick, [url= http://www.hamradio.si/~s51kq/photo_album/Climbing_and_Mountaineering/pdf_climbing/Splosno/MRS-emergency-phone-radio.pdf ]but there are exceptions[/url] - 118 in Italy for instance

Healing vibes to you Chris.

I'm still recovering after breaking my arm in the Mega and getting a helicopter ride. Funny how quickly you react and rationalise your situation when something like that happens.

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.

While I was in the clinic in Alp D Huez [i]on the day of the Mega[/i], I was the only MTBer - but there were at least three roadies, and one was in a very bad way.

it suddenly occurred to me why had you not phoned for help, instead of sending somebody back on a 15 to 20 minute ride?

Good write up Tom & Chris.

Just one point on the accident statistics;
I'd always thought "upper limb" referred to the thigh or bicep/tricep, and "lower limb" referred to the shin/calf or forearm. Otherwise, why not just say "arm" or "leg".

It's a quote from a research paper.

Not quite the right words, but it is good to read that the casualty is on the mend and others around him were insightful enough to help.

Mountain biking is a strange one. People I work with won't go out with me mtb'ing as it is 'too dangerous' and then go ride 20 to 50 miles on the road, yet I'm increasingly finding myself avoiding my road bike for the same reason !

There is a lot of food for thought in how one should prepare and look after your own interests when cycling miles into the countryside alone. Be it road or mtb if you have a nasty off that doesn't involve anybody else then life can be in the balance quite easily.

Despite this a lot of folk don't even take a mobile when cycling - because it might get damaged if they crash. Something ironic about that thought process me thinks.

Good write up...it's made me realise how unprepared I am. I carry very little with me aside from the bare minimum (water, multi tool, pump, tube, tyre levers, spare tube, shock pump and sone grub). Even less if I'm mucking about in the local woods on the jumps and DH runs.

This made me think back to a few weeks ago when I was in the local woods and bumped into two guys who I started riding with early Sunday morning. We went to do a short line that has three drops on it and a table top at the end. After a few runs we decided to have one more and move on and one of the guys up hit the table top too fast, put his nose diwn fir the landing but was miles past it. He ended up hitting a tree head first at a fair old speed and was in a really bad way; full face smashed up and he was lying there saying his neck was hurting.

His mate had no idea where they were because it was his first time riding here so I ended up having to call the ambulance an decoration where we were. I ended up riding out to the main road to meet them a d helped them carry their gear in. They then wanted to use a air ambulance because they were concerned about the amount of pain he was I and the fact that he was now struggling to breath. Despite being just off a main road there was no where fir the air ambulance to land. Another crew where dispatched to see if it would be possible to handball him out but in the end a special crew were sent with a 4x4 buggy who specialised in such situations. The ambulance crews were all fantastic in helping him. I've since heard from his mate that he has four broken vertebrae so will be off the bike for a long time.

It just goes to show how a fairly easy line or run can really catch you out. His helmet pretty much saved thin and he was lucky not to get impaled on branches on the tree. I'm not sure what would have happened if I hadn't been there; his mate didn't really know where he was and wouldn't have been able to leave him to get help. Even riding with one other person can be a bit limited.

I'd always thought "upper limb" referred to the thigh or bicep/tricep, and "lower limb" referred to the shin/calf or forearm. Otherwise, why not just say "arm" or "leg".

To be pedantic, the upper limb is what most people would call the arm but medically is comprised of the 'arm' and 'forearm'. The lower limb = thigh + leg. Bit bizarre but that's how it is.

I put these on my Road and Mtb helmet[img] [/img]

OK, thanks. I wasn't trying to be picky, it was more like one of those, "Wow, how have I gone my whole life not knowing that ?" moments.

crikey - and there was me saying in the pub the other night that the full body armour I rode with in les Arcs was "a bit overkill"

Tom,

Good work dealing with this, really well done. Pass on a "Get Well Soon" to Chris and thank you both for doing the write-ups.

I am really at risk of sounding a c@*^t here but......

From the [u]writeup[/u] I thought there might have a bit more emphasis on minimising blood loss even at the expense of increasing the victims alarm/unease.

I wasn't there, it's a great write up and hats off to all.

The blood loss was under good control as soon as we had the big bandage round it and done up tight. The extra blood that came out happened when the paramedics had to move him.

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.

Interesting thought that, I've broken my arm twice in 18 months. I put the second down to it just concentrating stress at the end of the plate put in after the first and/or maybe being weakend (cracked rather than broken?) in a much more brutal crash the weekend before. Because I realy did just slide off on some fire road gravel.

Mine cost £100 - £150. I was too young for a GPO referral despite the unusual injury for someone my age.

I actually went through a private consultant and paid for a couple of visits to him too.

Basically, I was told to take calcium and vit D supplements for a year and do some impact exercise to stimulate bone growth.

Went back for a second scan after a year and I'd taken about 25 years off my age bone density wise (so mid forties rather than 70).

I've not had any follow up scans tbh but I've had a few hard falls and only suffered soft tissue damage.