A Learning Moment About Bone Density

Did you know that individuals with Inflammatory Bowel Disease are at a higher risk of osteopenia and osteoporosis than the general population because of chronic inflammation? Are you wondering how this relates to skiing in Chamonix?

Because I had to take most of December off from skiing for IVF, I spent early January trying to make up for lost time. The goal was to do as much resort skiing as I could to prepare for a week of skiing in Chamonix. Of course, midway through January, I slipped on some ice while night skiing and injured my leg. I was so nervous that I had some sort of fracture and wouldn’t be able to ski on the trip.

Last time I had a bone density scan (probably 5 years ago), the scan showed that I had osteopenia. Considering I exercise frequently and my Calcium and Vitamin D levels are typically normal, I attributed my low bone density to my IBD. And this is why I was nervous about a fracture.

Nothing showed up on initial X-rays, but I pushed for a MRI because of my medical history and concern about continuing to attempt skiing on a potentially injured leg. I also had an updated bone density scan around that time, which actually showed increased mineralization around my spine, but decreased mineralization around my hip, so I’ll take that as good news! Anyway, the MRI also came back negative for fracture, but showed “bone marrow edema.” I’m still waiting to follow up with the orthopedic surgeon, but since my leg started feeling better, I decided to try skiing in Chamonix, and my leg did great! Based on how my leg did and has continued to do well, I think I just over-stretched some soft tissue. What a relief.

On to Chamonix!

After attempting Denali last year, Tyler and I decided it would be nice to go on a type I fun trip this year. Chamonix has been on the list for quite some time, so we decided to go for it. What we didn’t realize when we made the decision in the fall, is that it would be a terrible snow year in Europe.

But it didn’t matter, the trip was a blast! Living in Alaska, we hardly go lift access skiing (Alyeska, Arctic Valley, and Skeetawk are the closest to us), so we were excited to ride all the lifts and check out all the terrain, and of course, enjoy the apres.

We flew into Geneva and took a bus to Chamonix with one of our friends. My sister and brother-in-law met us later that day. We stayed in an awesome Airbnb near downtown Chamonix and we were able to walk to the Brevent lift, the bus stop, and the Aiguille du Midi from the apartment. We spent the week checking out almost every resort in the area. There are so many options for where to ski, it was a bit overwhelming at times. Since this was our first trip to the Alps, we decided to mostly resort ski, but it would be awesome to go back and do some more backcountry exploration.

We skied Brevent and Flegere the first day and Grands Montets the second day. Grand Montets was my favorite mountain and I would love to go back when the top lift is re-opened and there is more snow to explore the surrounding off-piste terrain.

On the third day we skied the Valle Blanche and then took a rest day halfway through the week. We ended up deciding to hire a guide for the Valle Blanche because two members our our group had never skied on a glacier before. It ended up being a great decision because the day was completely stress free, relying on someone else for navigation and group management. Dylan Taylor was the IFMGA guide recommended to us and I would highly recommend him to anyone else getting out in that area. We had a perfect bluebird day for the 23km ski. And it was my birthday, so it was my favorite day of the trip.

We finished off the week with a day on the Italy side at Courmeyer, a day split between Balme-Le Tour-Vallorcine Tour and Grands Montets, and a final day at Brevent.

We took one day at the end of the trip to check out Geneva before flying back home.

The trip was pretty seamless. I had a few ostomy issues, but I’m still waiting on my stoma revision, so that makes sense (I’ll have an update on that soon).

It was nice to do something “easy” for a change. Life feels very complicated right now, so a week of sun, skiing, friends/family, and inspiration for future trips was just what I needed.