BREAKING OUT: Brant Moles' Recovery

Broken and torn bodies ruin the careers of many professional athletes. Skiers certainly suffer their share of injuries, even at the enthusiast level. Professional skiers, especially those at the upper echelons of racing, jibbing, and freeskiing, dread the thought of incapacitating accidents. From PY LeBlanc’s broken femur in Las Lenas to Kent Kreitler’s dislocated knee in Alaska; Tanner Hall’s calcaneous fracture in Little Cottonwood Canyon to Simon DuMont’s crushing tranny overshoot in Park City, physical devastation appears more of an inevitable part of the job than ever.

1997 World Extreme Skiing Champion Brant Moles knows this all too well. Last season, after spending three years overcoming one of the weirdest hip dislocations on record, Moles threw himself back into the freeskiing arena. He spent the season filming for the new High Definition film Waiting Game and taking fourth at the 2005 U.S. Freeskiing Nationals in Snowbird (he had the winning run on the final day). Only four days after Nationals, Moles suffered a major injury number two.

“In a critical part of my line, I caught some air, landed, and was going pretty fast across the hill,” says Moles of the run of the accident. “Then I hit something and my knee just buckled.”

Moles tried to stand but could feel the damage. “I knew I blew my knee out, he says. “I snowmobiled myself back down to the truck and drove myself to clinic.”

No stranger to the TOSH clinic in Salt Lake, Moles went in on a Thursday and was on an operating table by Monday. Unbeknownst to Moles, the three- hour surgery revealed more damage than anyone had expected. In addition to the expected torn ACL, Moles experienced damage to his meniscus as well as a pulverized femur.

“Basically, my entire femur head, my whole meniscus, and my ACL were trashed,” recalls Moles. “I had a lot of speed when I hit the ice or whatever was under the snow, so the impact was devastating on the entire knee joint.”

The doctor—the same who operated on Moles hip in 2001 went the extra mile reconstructing Moles’ knee, anticipating a quick recovery. After six weeks of recovery, Moles could only achieve eighty percent range of motion due to scar tissue build-up (part of his super-healing abilities). After ten weeks of painkillers and crutches, Moles is now training again, ready to rip big mountains.

But after coming back from a devastating hip injury only to blow out his knee, Moles says this latest injury will likely change his focus in skiing.