Skiing in the Himalayas or any other backcountry terrain carries a high risk of injury, this makes it paramount to know the best tips on prevention and how to recover from skiing injuries. I am prety sure visiting a hospital when skiing Gulmarg is not on your bucket list.
The best way to recover from injuries is to never get one in the first place, be sure to obey these basic principles of prevention.
Maintain Good Fitness
Know your limits
Do a dynamic stretch before starting to ski, and stop skiing before exhaustion sets in.
Skiing or snowboarding when tired makes people prone to accidents as they become sluggish and start compromising form.
Use the right equipment
Learn how to use the lift
Believe it or not, 75% of skiing injuries don't happen on the slopes! instead, they occur on the lifts either from falling, tumbling or getting tangled.
Using the lift goes beyond knowing how to get on and off, but also being attentive and on the lookout for accidents, obstacles or other issues.
No matter the type of injury, follow this general advice to make the recovery go smoothly:
Seek medical attention: no matter if it´s just a torn muscle or a grave fracture, never leave the injury to just heal by itself.
Get enough rest: We know it´s hard to remain inactive for long periods of time, but failing to respect the recovery downtime makes it harder to heal and increases the risk of more injuries.
Take your pills: Be sure to take any prescribed medication, natural remedies may be appealing but will never be as good as proper medicine.
Don´t delay surgeries: In cases like torn ligaments and meniscus, surgery may be needed to correct the issue. Do them ASAP to avoid worsening the injury.
Physical Therapy: Injuries will leave the body weakened and fractures will surely cause imbalances. Doing physical therapy can help solve these issues by means of directed exercise and rehabilitation.
Take it easy: When coming back to the slopes for skiing, snowboarding or just trekking remember to take it easy and give the body enough time to readjust to high levels of activity.