The following week I received two pairs of the Ski and Board Tights, size Large and X Large. I tried both on and sent the XL’s back. They are supposed to fit snugly. When I first tried them on they were a bit confining compared to what I am used to wearing for long underwear, which is I/O Bio thin merino. But it made sense that they needed to be snug and supportive to be able to benefit from them. After my first use I was amazed to feel good throughout the day of riding at the Village and especially at the end of the day, when I normally have knee pain (post exercise), there was none! I don’t know the exact science behind them, but they were developed with the Steadman Hawkins Clinic by Mr. Gustafson, a skier who wanted to reduce his knee pain after years of hard skiing. It is my opinion that with the development of the S1 Ski Tight and Board Tight, he succeeded – with flying colors!

Me, showing off my Opedix Ski and Board Tights on top of Albright Peak, Grand Teton National Park. Click on image to increase size.

For the past several weeks I put the tights to the test…snowboarding, skiing and ice climbing…from several trips into the Tetons (on the Middle, Albright, Nez Perce) all day skinning and riding to ripping multiple Tram laps (both skiing and snowboarding) at Jackson Hole to  climbing hard ice and mixed routes in Highlight Canyon outside of Bozeman, MT, to “skiking” (skinning and hiking) Snow King, hiking and riding Glory Bowl on Teton Pass, I have put these tights to the test and they are AMAZING! They “Unload” the joint (read about it here), according to the website and research. All I know is that when I wear them I no longer experience knee pain, which I have been having for the past 5 or so years, especially in my left knee, which has had 2 ACL repairs and is missing a significant portion of the Meniscus. My knees have been through the ringer…six knee surgeries in total to repair and rerepair/replace most of the ligaments in both of my knees as well as the precious meniscus. Of all the issues from torn ligaments, it is the meniscus damage that causes the most pain. Keep that meniscus as in tact as possible. With our active lifestyles we do harm to our joints. Based on how well these tights have performed and actually eliminated my knee pain with extensive use over the past several weeks, I think that they will add years to my active lifestyle. I have a few clients who suffer from excruciating knee pain who I want to have try these. I bet that they will suffer less. Isn’t that what we all want? Less suffering? I  sure do! And to have a lot less suffering for $190 is a deal!

The pain I was experiencing after a day of riding or skiing, especially resort riding (more vertical on generally firmer snow) was getting so bad that I was no longer enjoying riding unless it was untracked powder. So that basically eliminated the Village (Jackson Hole) and other resort riding. I am happy to say that I rode and skied the Village several full days this winter in the S1 Tights and had no knee pain. This is really remarkable. I highly recommend the Opedix Ski and Board tights and look forward to trying the running tights and also the posture shirt, which will hopefully cure my “climber’s” posture (overdeveloped lats and underdeveloped pecs).

Goats caught on film mating high in the Teton Mountains!

On one trip using the tights with Darrel Miller of Storm Show Studios on Nez Perce’s West Hourglass Couloir, I took this photograph of Goats Mating in the Tetons. The one on the bottom may even be a native big horn sheep. Word has it that the mountain goats, pictured mating in this rare image taken in Lupine Meadows, may threaten the native Big Horn Sheep. Story on goats invading the park here.

On this outing I was skeptical of Darrel’s mode of uphill transport, snowshoes. They do not glide and generally sink in more than skis or a splitboard. I met up with him as he was breaking trail up Garnet Canyon. I took the route on the Morain between Taggart and Bradley Lakes and contoured into Garnet after the initial steep section above the morain’s end. I was fortunate to find a couple of sneaks down into Garnet and was happy to have my new Scarpa F1′s, with their forward lean lock throw, which allowed quick transition from uphill to down without removing my skins. Up high, as we were entering the west hourglass couloir on Nez Perce, the snow became firm and steep and I was not comfortable skinning so removed my skis (splitboard) and began postholing through the crust. I watched with envy as Mills stomped up the couloir, with much less effort than I, on his snowshoes.  I did not have a pair of splitboard crampons that fit, like these, from B and D Ski Gear, which I am soon to get. Crampons are vital for skinning in firm conditions!

Back to the Tights…There are a couple of minor annoinances: no zipper/pee hole and the waist closure is a simple shoe string type tie with elastic waistband. For $190 I would like to have a zipper to pee and a better waist closure, like an overlapping Velcro closure. At least reduce the size of the elastic where the knot is to be tied for ease of tying! I did have better results with the knot staying tight by using the surgeons knot, shown here on this fun shoe lace tying site.

Bottom line: if you want to reduce or eliminate knee pain during activities like snowboarding or skiing or want to prevent knee pain from developing in the first place, buy the Opedix S1 Ski and Board Tights.

End Knee Pain with these tights!

Help support StephenKoch.com and get the best athlete nutrition / GU Energy Gel or Chomps at Backcountry.com.

Thanks to Jane Galley for shooting this after we randomly met this morning in GTNP while skate skiing.

Help support StephenKoch.com with a pair of warm gloves from Backcountry.com!

Hi Stephen,

Thanks for keeping your blog, its a good diversion from my current horizontal life. I am writing to ask you about your experience with dealing with your injuries after your accident on Mt. Owen. I have not-so-recently acquired some injuries from a fall I took, and they are especially slow to respond to treatment. I have developed some residual back pain that occasionally progresses to the point of spasm, and a torn hamstring that does not seem to want to heal. It has been almost 4 months since the fall, and I am currently limited to yoga as my physical activity. While nowhere near the injuries you sustained, I wanted to ask your perspective on dealing with this forced inactivity. How did you cope, and what strategies seemed to help? Thanks for your time.

-V

Hi V,

I can relate to your being injured and know it is challenging. First thought is yoga and hamstring injury do not mix. I would guess your hamstring and lower back are all tied together and causing you the suffering. I suggest trying deep tissue massage on your psoas. This will likely relieve your back pain and put less pressure on your hamstrings. Only my intuition/thoughts based on what you are telling me.

To answer your questions about coping with forced inactivity…I did not do it very well. I was so injured at first that I was in hospital for several days on morphine and pretty out of it, next I was out of surgery and all jacked from the knee surgeries (both knees…left ACL (with a bunch of meniscus damage cut and sewn) and right reconstructed MCL (which was pretty much obliterated) and meniscus which was torn as well as patella relocated (it was on the side of my knee, they discovered only after viewing the MRI due to all the swelling). My back had two compression fractures also. The plan was to have the ACL / PCL in the right knee, the one that was dislocated, repaired a couple months after the surgeries mentioned above.

My right knee after my second round of surgeries to repair the ACL and PCL.

I did watch several movies and had my mother come out for three weeks to help me! Thanks Mom! Also worked on a story for Men’s Journal about the experience.

What I did was focus on what I could do physically. As soon as they let me go to Physical Therapy I went (with Percocet), worked as hard and as often as I could, came home and went to sleep, repeating 2x in a day when I eventually had the strength. I was as positive as I could be…thankful to be alive after such an event (I do not call it an accident because I do not thing there is such a thing…it is a term we use to describe cause and effect that we do not like). Fact is I was on slope when it avalanched. Avalanche hit me. I fell over 2,000 feet, sustaining injuries. Spent night out without shelter and in only a long underwear shirt. Took things one step at a time. Prioritized really well, which was not too hard at the time and is not difficult for me when climbing or doing physical things. Other things are more challenging for me to prioritize and execute, that is for sure! Survived night out. Got rescued. Was stoked to be in emergency room getting hot blankets from hot nurses!

I also thought a lot about risk and risk management.

My suggestion is for you to try meditation (audio guided meditation with John Travis here), or to find a way, if you haven’t, to get quite inside your mind so you can settle and feel what is inside of you. You have the answers inside of you already, waiting for you to feel them. The next step is to then trust what you are feeling. Not an easy task, but a worthy one! The mind likes to get in the way through distractions/neurotic thoughts. Let the distractions go and get back to the settled place, like a pond after a stone (neurotic thought) has made ripples. In time the pond will be still, like your mind. This comes with practice. That is why meditation is called a practice. Like anything new, you will improve with practice.

The other suggestion is for you to trust your body. It is, like your heart/inner self/sixth sense, full of the answers you seek. The challenge is to listen.

To be gentle with yourself and not hammer down that you are a wimp or weak for being injured/not healing as fast as you would like (a judgment). You are healing at the perfect rate. That is a fact. Cause and effect. Be gentle. Not easy, like much of what I am writing about, but ultimately very worthy! You will benefit, as will those around you. So be selfish and the world will benefit!

I have found that keeping my back strong through regular exercise (in mountains or gym at Mountain Athlete) has kept the bulging/herniated disks at bay. They may come back eventually and if/when they do, I will try to take it in stride and not beat myself up about this or that and just except the reality of my situation. Life is nicer this way, for me and those around me.

May you be well,

Stephen

www.stephenkoch.com

View from below the entrance to the Black Ice Couloir, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming

I climbed the Black Ice Couloir in Grand Teton National Park last week. I had a blast and it was the first moderately serious solo climb that I have done in several years. The climbing and conditions were favorable and felt moderate enough where I did not break out the rope, which I took as an added measure of safety. I could have belayed (protected myself in case of a fall…only falling 10 or 20 feet instead of 1,500…) myself with the rope or used the rope to rappel (slide down the rope off of anchors, some permanently in the rock (no bolts!) and other I could have left with the small selection of equipment I brought).

The Black Ice was gone (melted out due to lack of snow and warming of the earth) and now is back, possibly due to President Obama’s more progressive efforts to combat global warming?

The ice may hold out through the winter without sublimating out, but only time will tell. It was thin at the crux (most difficult section) but still climbable with ice axe picks in ice!

There might even be enough ice/snow next spring or summer for someone to make a snowboard or ski descent!

I shot several “Climbing Tips” videos that I will roll out over the coming days and weeks as we get fired up for ice climbing season!

Cheers,

Stephen

Mark Newcomb and Stephen Koch on top of Cloudveil Dome during the first ascent of the Grand Traverse in Winter.

This was first published in Alpinist Magazine in June, 2004.

On January 17 at 4:45 a.m. Mark Newcomb and I began the Grand Traverse, a route that comprises ten peaks (in order: Teewinot, Owen, Grand Teton, Middle Teton, South Teton, Ice Cream Cone, Spalding, Gilkey’s Tower, Cloudveil Dome and Nez Perce) in Grand Teton National Park. Despite several attempts, this historic route had not had a complete winter ascent; the proper combination of good weather, stable snow conditions, mental preparedness and top physical stamina had eluded teams over the years. I had attempted the Traverse on several occasions, usually ending at Teewinot, the weather having taken a turn for the worse.

After several hours, we caught up with Renny Jackson and Hans Johnstone–who were also attempting the Traverse–midway between Teewinot and Owen. We began working together as a team of four, breaking trail in the deep snow and cold temperatures, climbing Owen, rappelling into the Gunsight Notch, and climbing out to the top of the Grandstand (at the base of the North Ridge of the Grand Teton), where we bivied.

After enjoying the first rays of the rising sun over the Wind River Range, we began preparing for the crux of the Traverse: the Italian Cracks. Hans and Mark led this section, while Renny and I followed. Once we were all safely on the Second Ledge, Mark and I soloed around to the Owen-Spalding Route. The ascent of the Grand Teton via the upper part of this route was spectacular, with much rime ice plastered to the rock.

At the Lower Saddle, Mark and I decided to continue up and over the Middle Teton in the remaining light, while Hans and Renny elected to stay at the Saddle to dry one of Renny’s boots, which had become wet the day before, resulting in frostbite damage to one toe. That second night saw Mark and me struggling to stay dry as wind blew spindrift into every nook and cranny of our stove and sleeping system.

We were hoping to have Renny and Hans with us as we departed the third morning, but after a brew and oatmeal there was still no sign of them, so we began climbing in full conditions. On top of the South Teton, where we were pounded by sixty-mile-per-hour gusts, we discussed abandoning our ascent. I suggested we continue until we absolutely had to bail, and we continued the Traverse over the South Teton toward Nez Perce. From Nez Perce’s summit we descended to the Platforms and our skis, which had been brought up by friends, and skied to the valley floor, arriving back at my truck in the dark. The following day Renny and Hans made it safely down to the valley.

The first winter Grand Traverse involved much teamwork by four friends. Winter climbing in the Tetons is a special experience, and those willing to brave the cold and avalanche danger will be rewarded with solitude and beauty.

– Stephen Koch, Jackson, Wyoming

Flag over Mount Owen and Grand Teton, WY By Stephen Koch

On Sunday I drove to the Grand Teton National Park with my family for something fun to do because it was too cold (-28) to go skiing with my son Axl, age 2 1/2. As we drove north on the highway the first crown I noticed was one I had seen the day before from the new Tram as we crested the top of Rendesvous Mountain and was blown away to see a massive (approx. 8′ crown to the ground…the entire snowpack) from Tower 5 all the way around to the north of Horseshoe Couloir, several hundred feet across). I could easily see the Tower 5 crown from miles north in GTNP. This avalanche was set off by the Ski Patrol with a 2 lb. bomb and had been bombed daily during the past days, without event. Why did it go this day? The deep slab instability is lurking and nobody knows where it will strike next.

I was surprised to see a crown on the east face of Buck Mountain and then another on the east face of Teewinot. These must have been massive to see so clearly from miles away in the middle of the valley.

Buck Mountain Showing Avalanche Crown Grand Teton National Park, WY By Stephen Koch

It was so cold that I watched my finger turn white before my eyes in about 25 seconds. That was time to put the camera away!

Jackson Hole in winter is a magical place. Enjoy!