In the Summer of ’82 I did quite a lot of climbing. I traveled to the Pacific Northwest via Jackson Wyoming and spent pretty much the entire time outside in the mountains. It was then that I fell off Symmetry Spire in the Tetons.

I had been doing technical day climbs. This particular day I found a climbing partner for the Durrance Ridge. Durrance Ridge is a Grade III, 5.6 1150ft. vertical climb. So about 10 pitches. After a good start we made the summit in the early afternoon.

The fall started with a careless descent. As can be easily seen in the top picture, the Symmetry Couloir is shaded by the SW Ridge. At midday the upper part of the coulior is exposed to direct sunlight, making the surface a rough corn snow. I began the descent without crampons as the summit snow was pretty soft. Passing into the shadow of the ridge the situation was quite different. Where the snow had been shaded it had a thick ice coating from the previous days melt. I was unable to plunge-step through this ice crust and so I began my fall down the coulior. Furthermore, I was unable to make the pick of my ice-axe penetrate the ice crust with my full weight against it.

At the base of the Durrance Ridge, and the bottom of the coulior is a waterfall at about 9000ft. That is where the pick of my ice-axe caught against rocks protruding through the snow and my fall was arrested. I had the ice-axe secured with a lanyard around my left wrist. The sudden stop dislocated my left shoulder.

I was sore for quite a few days after that. I remember doing exercises and pull ups within the week. I never saw a doctor, and I had recovered well enough to keep hiking and climbing. But I was not yet 25.

Then, almost 30 years later, while I was doing some maintenance on my airplane and reaching over the wing on a ladder, suddenly the supraspinatus tendon in my left shoulder let go. I was not able to lift my elbow past mid waist height. Latter, the tendon was surgically re-attached with a titanium anchor to the shoulder joint. The biceps was reconstructed at the same time.

Unfortunately there was considerable scarring at the rotator cuff causing impingement and limiting the range of motion in my shoulder.

I’ve since had the scar tissue arthroscopically removed, but still have a significant arthrosis in this shoulder. I have been advised that an artificial shoulder joint would be a surgical option.

Luckily none of my other youthful injuries have been so long lasting.