Increased knee injuries related to higher binding settings?

What an interesting debate. We started with one hypothesis and have perhaps arrived at a conclusion disproving it.

I think miss-alignment plays a considerable role, after sorting out my fore-aft alignment largely by reducing the binding delta and my lateral alignment having my boots canted I felt a lot better balanced than before. If the angles built into the boots and bindings are pushing you out of balance you are more likely to fall in an awkward way.

I also think technique also plays a role, I don't think skiing with your feet wide apart and upweighting to initiate turns is a good idea. This bloke had a very near do.





The bindings didn't show any signs of releasing as he fell backwards, and only released some time after he hit the deck.

Lucky man indeed, there is certainly an element of chance that goes into rupturing your ACL. That guy seemed to have ticked every one of the break boxes and got up smiling.

The reality is that you want the bindings to come off when you fall and stay on whilst you are skiing. There is a cross over point for many who are powerful enough to put big forces through the bindings when skiing at speed or bumpy terrain where the need to keep the ski on means that the binding settings are high enough to potentially not release the ski in some falls.

Anatomically women are at greater risk of ACL injuries.

Why are they reported more? Not sure that compensation is likely to be the biggest factor in this as falling over and injuring yourself is considered an inherent risk in the sport and difficult to prove negligence.

What has changed is that ACL repairs are becoming more commonplace.
In the past the techniques were not that successful but these days the techniques have been refined and are done more frequently by more orthopaedic surgeons, with greater success rates. Again MRI scans becoming more commonplace has made it easier to diagnose an ACL rupture easily, so if you rupture your ACL you are more likely to be investigated and a definitive diagnosis made because there is the option of repair.

Ultimately this means more ACL injuries are documented because there are options that mean the injured skier will be referred by their physio or GP for investigation and thus documented ACL injury rather than documented painful knee or unstable knee.

Are more people skiing these days? Are they skiing faster? Or are the skis or bindings the fault? Or is it just the way statistics get recorded?

I have been thinking about this for a while, and would like to throw another thought into the mix...

Global warming! In recent years I have seen a rise in softer snow conditions in resorts, as they suffer from unexpected warm snaps. Usually the pisteurs leave snow alone when it gets warm (at least they always have whenever I have been the victim of it :( ) and as a result, there seems to be a growth on soft slushy moguls on the pistes. Generally, those who deem themselves to be high intermediate skieers after just two weeks of skiing over the past few years, then seem to have huge problems dealing with said conditions, and I have seen many people carried off the mountain with leg injuries as a result.

Far Queue may have something there. Slushy moguls did for my mate in Ellmau. My knees were really feeling it in Are when travelling from ice (fastish) to standing water (not fastish)...the deceleration really pulled at the legs

Generally, those who deem themselves to be high intermediate skieers after just two weeks of skiing over the past few years, then seem to have huge problems dealing with said conditions, and I have seen many people carried off the mountain with leg injuries as a result.

After two weeks? They are certainly high on something!