Norway to Injury

Kelly — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 17:10:33 +0000

I had one of my most amazing trips ever this spring to Lyngen, Norway. The mountains were 6,000-footers that dropped to the ocean and ran through the fjords…it was gorgeous. They call them the Lyngen Alps for a reason. I spent a week in the area, hiking and skiing some of Norway’s finest above the Arctic Circle and under the midnight sun. I was lucky enough to even find light, fluffy powder on a northerly slope on one of our hikes, and it was already late May…how cool is that! Unfortunately, I had the bad luck of injuring myself on the last day of the trip. We hiked a peak that had been in the sun all day, so the snow was as heavy and wet as cement. Needless to say, my skis drove straight into the snow on a turn and got stuck while my knee kept twisting. Yeah, it hurt. Forty-five minutes later I had a heli evacuation off the mountain and was flown straight to Tromso, Norway. I had surgery the next day and won myself a week in the Tromso hospital. I broke my tibia apart, right at the knee joint, and tore up some ligaments, so I did a good job. I flew home after my week in the Norwegian hospital–the longest flight of my life–and found out that I needed more surgery when I saw my doctors in Utah. They felt they could put things together a little bit better and save me some problems that would arise down the road. So, I had my second surgery a week ago, and after a few more screws and metal pieces I’m on the road to recovery and finally back in one piece…more or less. It has been a crazy few weeks, but I’m just happy I had such a wonderful trip before I got hurt. I’ve been so lucky this year with my travels and couldn’t ask for a better winter. Breaking myself definitely sucks, but it was worth it for all that I’ve seen and experienced these last few months…it’s been a dream.

Kelly Holland » Travel

Norway to Injury