Battle Wounds - DISCOLERATION

Sun Peaks, B.C. - On the first run of a two-day trip, I was heading through some ungroomed backcountry, when I rounded a corner and spotted a dad and his kids in the middle of the narrow, tree-laden run. I swerved to miss the kid, but, unfortunately, I happened to be on a huge patch of ice. The board slipped out from under me and my knee came down like a brick on the ice. I got up, brushed myself off, smiled at the horrified looking kids, and finished the run. I stayed on groomers the rest of the day and the knee didn't give me too many problems. Until...

The next day the discoloration had increased and it hurt a bit, so I wrapped a padded knee brace around it and headed back up the mountain for another six hours of boarding. The knee didn't give me any problems (I think the brace was so tight it restricted all blood that the entire thing was just numb!). Anyway, so I pull the brace off at the end of the day and find that the stitching in the material had left a pretty gnarly looking blood blister running the length of the bruise. Combined, they made for a pretty graphic photo. It still hurts to walk, but nothing that a few days in bed won't solve...