Ankle Injury

To be honest, as I write this post, I'm not even sure if/when I will feel like publishing it. It's pretty painfully fresh in my mind and I'm still processing what has happened. And, at the same time, I do want to share the experience to sort of help me process it. So, this blog (as opposed to maybe a lighter facebook post) seems appropriate. Plus I'm only worried about thoroughly embarrassing myself in front of my devoted reader base of one. So maybe this post will show up soon, maybe later, maybe it will be taken down and reposted, I don't know! 

So here it goes. 

September 4: Excited. Had been toying around with exactly which mountain/peak I would climb or which trail I would hike for the past few days. Since Shelter In Place had begun in March, I had not set foot outside of the Bay Area. The most adventurous I had been was hiking in Mission Peak prior to the Wildfires and having a socially distanced picnic/walk with my Mom in Martinez. But now we were kicking off Labor Day weekend. The Bay Area air quality was horrible as were the nearby surrounding areas. I was absolutely DYING to go on SOME kind of a road trip to some place new and have an adventure. Pyramid Peak had been on the list as a goal for a while, especially since I was looking more for class 2/3 scrambles; mountains that would add an element of challenge to your normal hike by requiring some climbing moves with your hands. I first set on Pyramid Peak as a goal with a friend, but then after discussing with my Dad decided to switch to a bit more moderate of a climb for Mt. Price. The trip was a bit touch and go for a while as my friend and I were unsure of the AQI in nearby Strawberry (our closest reference), nevertheless I did fully prepare to get up early Saturday morning and drive out. 

September 5: Wake up early to check AQI and weather forecast. We're looking at about 75 AQI in Strawberry and highs of low 90s. Not ideal.... but good enough. I'm stoked. Unfortunately, my friend decides she's out, but I've waited so long for an adventure I decide to go anyway! There is of course inherent risk in hiking/scrambling alone, but I'm confident that I'm prepared by having shared my itinerary with my Dad beforehand and that I have all 10 essentials in my pack. Get on the road at 8am, quick bite and coffee on my way up and I'm at the trailhead.

I hike from Wright's Lake Trail head out to Smith Lake on a very steady trail. Am a bit miffed I had to hike an extra half mile or so due to lack of parking spots, but meh. Excited to be out. Some minor bouldering along well marked cairns to make my way up to Smith lake, and then a quick lunch rest. Afterwards the "scrambling" portion of the climb began in earnest. I checked my map and decided I would continue up in an approximately NW fashion to gain the next ridge. There were a few ways to make it to Price, and I figured this way looked reasonable and would save me from having to traverse the perimeter of Smith Lake. The going was slow and many rests were taken, but I did gain the ridge. At that point I rechecked my map to decide where I would head next, which I figured was a NE direction along the ridge to a peak I imagined would be Price. 

As I approached the next peak, it became pretty obvious to me that the peak was not in fact Price at all, but just an intermediate peak. I decided at that point, that I would be satisfied gaining only that peak, as it offered beautiful views and it was getting somewhat late (about 4:30 pm.) I summited the intermediate peak, took a panaroma video and a few other shots with my brand new phone, and planned the trip back. I descended the peak and made for the same ridge I had ascended earlier. I began back on my path towards Smith Lake, trying to choose the safest way back. And then...

Without a warning I found myself falling. I don't know if my foot slipped, or I lost a handhold, or what. But I knew I was falling and shortly thereafter I hit something on my right side. I expected of course what I had hit to stop me from falling. That that would be it, a couple bruises, no more. Instead, I found myself falling even further. This feeling was freaky. My immediate panic was that if I had not stopped falling after the first thing I hit, why would the second one stop me. I mean you gain speed falling down. Fortunately, my fate was to stop falling after the second "leg" of the stumble. Luckily.

And there I was. I knew I had fallen and was likely hurt, but I did not know how severely. I told myself the best thing to do would be to take a few deep breaths, relax for a moment, and then try to assess myself and figure out a plan. So I did that. My back was sore, but not sharply painful. I had a few bumps and bruises on my face, hands and hip, but I did not seem to be profusely bleeding. Then I looked at my right ankle. The inner bone of the ankle looked crooked and out of place. I was not in severe pain, so my first thought was, "Oh this must be one of those situations where it's broken but doesn't hurt that much surprisingly." Probably because I had recently read "Touching The Void" describing Joe Simpson's catastrophic leg break and subsequent fall into a crevasse. 

My second thought, also stemming from the frightening recall of Joe Simpson's Peru mountain climbing accident was, "Someone with a broken leg/foot/ankle is as good as dead in the mountains". Fortunately, I convinced myself I was overthinking that as a balmy day with highs in the 90s in a snowless desolation wilderness with many hikers nearby would be far more survivable than a remote ice-laden mountain face in Peru.

I also took inventory of my gear. Apparently, in the fall, I had lost my map and 5 day old phone from my shorts pocket. Also my sunglasses were broken and my hat lost to the ages. But everything in my pack had been retained. It was now time to "cowboy" up. To figure out what I needed to do to get back to safety. Basically I figured, force yourself not to freak out now, there's plenty of time for that later (basically what I'm doing with the blog writing). 

My first thought was to see if my ankle was indeed broken and how weight-bearing it would be. I attempted to stand up and found I could put my weight on the right foot, but as soon as I twisted it slightly I felt excrutiating pain and fell back down. Broken. I then thought to use the first-aid technique of immobilization and took a spare fleece out of my pack to wrap tightly around my ankle. This did provide support and I was able to take a few more steps before experiencing the same excrutiating pain as before and ultimately falling back down. At this point I had to make a decision. If ABSOLUTELY necessary, I imagined I could crawl and drag myself back down the scrambling portion of the climb to a trail. However, this would GREATLY delay my return to safety and might injure my ankle further. So instead, I imagined that I would be within shouting range of other hikers/campers and began shouting for help.