Imagine that you wake up in Chamonix France or Vail Colorado and decide to spend your day skiing on pistes. You eat a quick breakfast and head to the slopes. After taking a lift to the top you jump on your skis and start skiing fresh new powder. You see a nice little jump in front of you and decide to try some new-school tricks. You hit the jump and start flying.. For some reason you fail with landing and you fall on your side. You’re arms hits the ground and you feel strong pain in your wrist. Your great day of skiing has turned to a bad day. You have stretched the ligaments of your wrist.

What should you do in this case? Do you know how to help yourself in situation like this? Let’s start from the very first thing you should remember. Carry ALWAYS cell phone when skiing. If you or someone else gets injured, you or someone else can call help with your cell phone. In America call 911 and in Europe call 112 for help.

If you get injured in slopes, you need to help yourself. With soft tissue injuries such as the one described above, RICE works well. RICE stands for REST, ICE, COMPRESSION and ELEVATION. It is a treatment method for soft tissue injuries.

Components of RICE

R stands for Rest. You must stop doing anything in order to avoid additional injuries. With skiing this means that do not ski any more, just stay in rest.

I stands for Ice. In order to stop swelling of the injured area, you need to apply something cold, such as ice, on the injured area. In case of skiing, snow works fine. Apply snow or ice directly to the injured area for 15 to 20 minutes.

C stands for Compression. Another method to stop swelling is to compress the injured area. In case of soft tissue injury in your wrist, you can compress the injury area with your other hand. If you happen to carry bandage, wrap it firmly around the ice or snow of the injured area.

E stands for Elevation. Elevation helps to drain excess fluid through the help of gravity, improve the venous bleeding and swelling and to raise the injured area or limb above the level of the heart.

If your buddy or someone else injures him/herself, you should apply this same RICE method to the victim. After the first aid is given, you should call for help if it seems that you cannot help the victim to a hospital.

Now when talking about skiing injuries, I would like to remind you of the meaning of insurances in skiing. Please, read my article on skiing insurances to know why it is important to be insured.