Advice on Skiing with no ACL in one leg

Anyone tried it and not ripped their leg off?

I’ve been snowboarding for the past 10 years but haven’t skied in 20 after a big smash (M/cycle) but want to try it again.

Thinking about booking a session at an indoor venue, but looking for some pointers first.

Yip I do, ruptured 2012, not had time to have it done yet, I use a Ossur off the shelf ACL specific brace, first season back it took a few days for the confidence to build up, it wasn’t comfortable to start with but I self modified it to make it comfortable, I was going to upgrade to a custom one but I don’t notice I have it on now apart from it is a bit bulky compared to the custom one, if it makes any difference I only really tour and skin into the back country these days with the odd day of uplift with the family / friends, I think I have sort of decided not to bother having a graft done now as I can ski no problem without the ACL which I thought I wouldn’t be able to.

Same issue here. Destroyed ACL in 2001 and never saw the need for a graft/reconstruction (was always crap at football & rugby anyway). Snowboarding no problem-tried skiing again and initially no problem, but on lower slopes and when the snow got slushy/warm I really struggled to the point where I thought I need to give up. I tried a multitude of off the shelf braces, but for me it was more of a placebo than actually physically holding my knee together! In summary-boarding in powder/heavy snow & skiing on cold freshly groomed pistes!

I did one run and it ruined my knee, can snowboard but skiing was too much

Had a custom knee brace on too

1. Get your legs as strong as possible. Squats, lunges, deadlifts. I found this to make a massive difference.

2. Mobilise. Calf’s, quads, hammies.

3. Get a proper ski knee brace professionally fitted. This is the one I’ve got:

https://www.physioroom.com/product/Donjoy_Full_Force_Knee_Brace/3110/38767.html

Used by the US ski team apparently. Not cheap but my knee is now rock solid on the slopes. Zero pain. Oh and I have no ACL or cartilage.

One of my ski mates uses a fancy hinged knee brace and seems to do fine on that.

My mum did, now retired due to foot and ankle issues. Had the same type of knee brace as 2poc. Certainly possible.

Cheers for the replies. Glad some people are getting out on the slopes. Think I’m going to try the indoor session for a couple of hours and see how it goes.

Lived for 7 years without my ACL. Not skied (that was what tore it in the first place) but did lots of other things in that time.  Had my reconstruction in April as my knee got weak and collapsed twice last year and tore mybMCL too (and they found I had some arthritis behind the knee cap due to lack of ACL for so long). So my caution is doing further damage due to inherent weakness in the knee (though this seems a bigger issue for women, like me, than men). Strong quads etc and suggestions of a knee brace seem a good idea.

Do lots of hamstring strengthening and knee proprioceptive work standing on soft surfaces (mattress/cushions/trampet). Progress to more dynamic exercises when your knee control improves. If in doubt, go and see a physio.

I tore / ruptured my ACL in December (2017), didn’t have surgery and surgeon said it was okay but is there anything I should be wary of? Or should I invest in a brace?