Tim Durtschi Recovering Following The "Most Painful Injury" Of His Career

Tim Durtschi is amongst the best big mountain skiers on the planet, but the last two seasons have been challenging, to the say the least.

Durtschi was sidelined for the majority of the Winter '22/'23 season due to an inflammatory disease called Ankylosing Spondylitis. A painful joint disease that runs in his family, Durtschi rested and learned to manage the inflammation and fatigue.

Winter '23/'24 was going well for Durtschi, until it wasn't. His home of Jackson Hole experienced an odd season in terms of snowfall, but he was happy, healthy, and back to doing what he does best- skiing.

Unfortunately, disaster struck on April 2nd, 2024. Durtschi dislocated his knee and ruptured several ligaments while filming a Jackson backcountry segment for an upcoming TGR film.

Check out the Instagram post below in which Durtschi shares a video of Teton County Search and Rescue evacuating him from the scene. Tap to play.

Feeling gutted for the seemingly always-jovial Durtschi, I reached out to check in on his recovery process. The following interview is a transcribed excerpt from a phone conversation we had on April 24th, 2024.

Tim Durtschi Q&A- Dislocated Knee Injury

Can you start by telling us what happened and what you were doing out in the mountains that day?

"We were filming for next year's TGR movie and we had a pretty small crew, two cinematographers, Kainen Kruger and Hayden Lynch, and then one other athlete Maggie Voisin and myself.

We wanted to ski 'No Name' and towards the end of the day we made our way over there. We filmed 'Once Is Enough', which is a big line in Jackson earlier, and then we're like, 'oh, let's just do one more run on No Name. Snow looks pretty good.'

I hit a rock at the bottom of my line on No Name, my ski didn't release, and it ended up dislocating my knee.

I instantly knew that I wasn't going to be able to ski out. So I told Kain on the radio, I was like, 'We need a helicopter. We need Teton County Search and Rescue'. 

We have a pretty strict filming protocol on safety, and so he instantly called them and got them activated. They were there in an hour to pick me up, and then I was at the hospital in two hours.

So my knee was dislocated for about three hours in the whole process and they didn't relocate my knee until I got to the hospital. During the exit and the helicopter rescue, they long lined me and put me in a screamer suit."

Your knee was dislocated for three hours? Could you visibly see it or how did that shake out?

"My leg was just dangling there. I tomahawked a few times, and I could feel my leg freaking flopping around. My instinct was to get my ski boot off, so I did that instantly. Then my ski boot was sitting there still in my ski. There was no way I could release my boot with my dislocation. It was kind of creepy."

I would say...

"Have you ever seen the SAW movie when the guy's like dragging his leg across the floor?"

Yeah, I have. Oh man. That sounds brutal.

"I know that's pretty graphic, but it gets the point across that it was not a fun injury."

Were you in pain the whole time just waiting to get the help that you needed?

"Yeah. I had a shoulder dislocation when I was younger, and people always told me that is one of the most painful injuries you could ever get. Now I say that dislocating my knee is the most painful injury I've ever experienced."

I'd like to know more about the experience with Teton County Search and Rescue. How did that play out?

"As soon as I told (the search and rescuer) that my knee was dislocated, he said, 'I'm not going to do it. I'm going to get you to the hospital where they have the tools to do that.'

It made more sense to fly me to an ambulance, it's a shorter flight and they can get better care quickly. They gave me pain medication instantly which was super helpful.

The guy (in the ambulance) checked to make sure it wasn't bleeding. I don't know if you're familiar with Stoko? It's a new pant/knee brace that's out there?"

Yeah, I've seen them around.

"I've been wearing those all season and I almost think that they helped make the injury a little less severe. I know they're not made as body armor, but it did help minimize the twisting of the knee. The doctors were really surprised that I didn't do any vascular damage."

That's incredible. I guess you can be thankful you were wearing them that day. What's the road to recovery look like?

"Since I tore multiple ligaments in my knee: ACL, LCL, PCL, and MCL they're going to have to do two surgeries.

They already did the first surgery, which is LCL, MCL, the outside stabilizer joints. Work on getting the side to side stability, and then the front to back stability with the PCL and the ACL. That's in the next surgery, which they can do in three months."

I'm curious now that you've had major injury does that change your psyche going into next season?

"I've always seemed to learn from the injuries and use it to my advantage as far as like managing fear. I don't really think it'll affect me. Once I get back to a hundred percent, everything switches back on."

Well I know the entire team here at POWDER is pulling for you to get back to 100%. Is there anyone else you wanted to thank or shout out for helping during the injury?

"Just super huge thanks to those guys for getting me out safely and dealing with it in such a professional way. I could have lost my leg out there, but thanks to everyone's hard work and fast action, we were able to get me out of there and get me to the hospital where they were able to fix my leg. I really don't know how I could have gotten out of there without search and rescue."

Related: Tom Wallisch Says Red Bull Unrailistic Is A "Return" To Freeskiing's Roots

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