The sport I love is being taken from me

I truely love skiing. I started when I was in third grade in the states. Not having any idea what I was doing. I remember safety straps being clip laces which attached to my ski boots so they wouldn't run away down the hill when the skis released. As I got older I continued skiing until I was 17 becoming a more advanced skier and nurturing my love of the outdoors. My parents moved from a snowy climate to one less inviting and my love affair with skiing ended. Or so I thought. Fast forward 35 years.... yeah I know what the heck what a wait...
I'm involved in a long distance relationship, one of those that cover thousands and thousands of miles, and voila she takes me to the slopes of Switzerland and the magic is back as if I never left. I am bitten once again my the ski bug. I end up moving to Belgium and begin the magical mystery tour of the various regions. I slowly begin building my various accessories putting time into researching everything from gear to skis to clothing. All goes well for for 6 years or so.
Then to my horror I suffer what turns out to be an ACL requiring reconstruction. A person turns and stops on a narrowing run in front of me leaving two option collide with her or try to avoid her. I choose the avoidance route causing me to catch an edge and in turn my skis went in two different directions. Yes, I know the results are normally good and mine weren't. My right leg was like spaghetti..Long story short. Two months of rehabbing prior to the surgery. Followed by 4 more months rehabbing. It took time effort and commitment getting myself back.
Fast forward to to 19/01/18 the last day of a fabulous week of skiing snow ,snow and more snow-:) Yes I skied with my brace on faithfully the entire week and whenever I approached a narrow run my radar had gone up exponentially calculating if skier a stopped what are my options. It got better as the week went on but it was always in the back of my mind.
My friends and I were skiing down an intermediate run which was fairly flat. We were skiing in a straight line to gather some speed because at the end there was an incline and nobody likes walking uphill..... as we were skiing I noticed there was a single skier off to our left who was lazily carving long turns but increasingly coming closer and closer to us.. I was the second in line and noticed he kept getting closer and closer to me and that his head was glued to the tips of his skis. I slid further to the right not leaving any more room and saw the the run made a split to the right. Suddenly the skier makes a sharp turn and I feel the horror as the tips of his skis strike my left ski boot ..all at once my left ski releases and I feel myself falling to the right hitting my head and right shoulder hard on the snow. My right ski remained attached to my right boot and I immediately knew something wasn't right. Pain and lots of it in my right leg. My friend skiing behind me came right up and released my ski. I knew immediately it wasn't good.
The other skier gathered himself and asked if I was all right. I immediately told him no ..he offered a few sorrys but it did little to reduce the feeling I was getting that this is serious. The big question, why the hell didn't you at least look before assuming you had the whole slope to yourself. But I let the thought just sit in my head. Once I realized the mountain rescue was in route. I tried to relax when the skier who basically rammed me came up with a classic line I will never ever forget. It's probably a sore muscle and a warm bath will help make it feel better. REALLY???. That's the best you have. He offered a last I hope you are ok and I am sorry before skiing on his way
I was x rayed at the bottom of the slopes. Sent to the local hospital in Briançon given more imaging and fortunately due to insurance driven back to Belgium by Ambulance ( a10 hour drive) the next day. I was then re transferred to a different hospital where my trauma surgeon is trying to but me back together again.
I suffered several fractures in my Tibial Plateau region. The force of the leg action concussed the upper portion of my leg so that I required a large bone graft to fill up the new depression caused by the collision. Bottom line. This will require no weight bearing on my right leg for 6-8 weeks. I have no idea of the damage to my ligaments. The first step is to stabilize the leg. My rehab will be much longer and mor intense. I start my first treatment today.
Are the slopes more dangerous? Are people less cognizant of other around them? Is slope courtesy a thing of the past. Maybe I'm living in a different age. I'm almost 60. I didn't think I was living in that big of a time warp.. another thing I observed the week I was skiing.. a few people were in a button line ( yeah most everything was shut down due to winds and snow that day) they began inviting others in their group to cut in and join them in front of 15 -20 skiers dutifully waiting in line. I'm initial thought was wtf.... I remember in the US you lose your lift ticket for that crap. Is anything done in Europe for those ignorant of etiquette?

Really sorry to hear about your latest injury. Unfortunately, there are always a few plonkers on the slopes who care little for anybody else, oblivious to the threat that they pose through their carelessness. There is an increasing trend towards criminal action for reckless skiing but this may be concentrated on Austria and Italy. Also, more and more people are taking civil lawsuits to at least make people pay for the damage they cause. Maybe if this becomes more common, people will ski in a more responsible manner. However, I do appreciate that this is little comfort to you at the moment.

Some time back, I watched a documentary made by Red Bull about Lindsay Vonn's recovery from an horrific knee injury. If I recall correctly, the initial assessments by doctors were suggesting that getting her walking normally could be a challenge. Anyway after a lot of medical support but more particularly an extraordinary level of dedication and effort, she is back skiing and winning on the World Cup tour. It is truly an inspirational documentary and you might find it comforting if you can find it - maybe on YouTube or on Red Bull website.

It is natural to feel down after such a horrible incident but hopefully as your recovery progresses, things will begin to look up and things that seem impossible at the moment may become possible.

Our thoughts are with you. Good luck.

Thanks and I appreciate your comments. I'm rather depressed over the whole situation. I'll commit to the rehab and do what needs to be done. I've had to seriously reconsider if I will get back on my skis again. It's the thought of having to put my body over and over though the process. I'm not getting any younger and my body doesn't retain the elasticity it once had. I've already had to table golf for two seasons and I have sunk a considerable amount into new sticks

I sometimes wonder if the general trend of humanity is to more "me-me-me" type thinking."I've bought my lift pass, so I'm entitled to ski where I like". "I've got a car with a powerful stereo in it, so I'm entitled to play it with the windows down whenever the fancy takes me". "My legs are tired, so I'll rest my feet on the train seat in front of me". Etc etc.
Good luck with your recovery. Let's hope that on your next ski trip you encounter more of the 90% of responsible skiers out there, and fewer of the others.

Really sorry about the injury, Chris. After 51 years of skiing, and mostly avoiding injury, I feel fortunate.

However, if there is a collision, the fault just about always lies with the uphill skier. If the downhill skier looks like they may possibly move across the piste, the uphill skier, may go wide, slow down, stop, and let the situation go away.

None of us can possibly know the capability or next action of the skier below, and thus we have to assume the worst, and take appropriate action.

Yes, it breaks the run, it is a pain, but it is the safe, and right, course of action.

Sorry, pal. Get well soon.

I confess once to smashing into a poor gentleman in Bulgaria about 25 years ago when he decided to stop at the bottom of dip that clearly required a schuss to get up the other end. Clearly my fault but certainly one of the problems with skiing is that there is such a mix of ability on any given slope. One man's "rational" decision seemingly idiotic to others.

Carving skis are also not helping as they inherently allow people to ski more dynamically in medium to long turns where without a conscious look uphill you are unsighted (and you aren't going to do that every turn).

No obvious solution but it does sound like you were aware the guy had not seen you and I assume actively chose not to create room. Ask yourself had you been in a car with you family and someone had seemingly not seen you would you have remained in the 'danger zone'; I am guessing you would either accelerate or brake. I say the above as someone who has come back from ACL surgery so have every sympathy but your description of the event does baffle me. You took the moral high ground and ended up with a smashed leg.

Gee Ranchero I guess you didn't read the part where slid to the right away from the person. I guess like in a car I should have just gone off piste or driven my car off road as you indicate. So I should have just anticipated that everyone out there is a missle aiming to take me out????? I did what I would have done if I felt danger I moved to the right I get it. That's what I did. Why you assume I morally refused to move over is half baked at a minimum. Explain again how the tips of his skis striking my ski boot equate to some part of negligence on my part when all I am doing is following in a line of three skiers doing nothing but maintaining a straight line.

I'm so sorry, that sounds really awful to happen once is bad enough but then to happen again... Hope you can recover from it and maybe in time get back on your skis. I had a lucky escape last week when an out of control skier smashed right into me. I heard her coming but was powerless to get out of the way. Fortunately I only have some large bruises to show for it. But it really shook me up. the force of the collision knocked both of my skis off and managed to unclip my boots. I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that people should take some kind of test before being let loose on the slopes. All the best for your recovery.