Colorado woman's ski injuries leads to support group for skiers, riders longing to return to the slopes

If you ask Betsy Meredith about what she was hoping would resonate about this story, she said that she wants to make sure that the ski patrollers who saved her life get proper recognition (Alex, Stevie, Isaac and Tommy) and that she hopes this kind of story reaches that one person who needs it to -- someone who feels alone, lost and forgotten who doesn't have to be. 

Meredith is still healing from eight snapped ribs and 21 fractures after hitting a tree stump skiing at Keystone Resort like she frequently did. As she lay there in incredible pain, she got word to ski patrol that she needed help and was secured, and taken down the mountain. It was the start of a very long recovery for Meredith, who needed to wear a brace while she healed, and certainly was not supposed to get back on the mountain anytime soon in fear of reinjury. It wasn't just fighting the disappointment of not being able to do something she loved anymore. It was about climbing her way back mentally, now that her passion was marred with such a traumatic experience. 

"A lot of my friends don't ski," Meredith told CBS News Colorado. "They don't understand. Some are like, 'Well, that's the risk you take when you are skiing.' And as time went on, and I was trying to recover, and the PTSD, and the trauma, and the panic attacks. I have a therapist -- and that is what ultimately helped."

Getting to talk to someone about the constant pain she was living in as she healed, the fear she had about another possible crash, and the souring of the joy in her life helped her find a place to heal and eventually make her return to the very same mountain that took her out, and it gave her an idea. 

"I was like, 'I can't be the only one,' Meredith explained. "So I just posted on Facebook something along the lines of, 'Hey, if anybody is in this situation, here is my story. Let me know, and I will try to help you.'"

That spawned the page "Colo Ski/Snowboard Injury Support Group," which has exploded in popularity as a place for people to commiserate, support each other, and help inspire one another that getting hurt on the slopes isn't the end of the story. Meredith said whether someone ends up back out on the mountain at the end of it isn't the point; although, that's her happy ending. It's more that folks in these dark moments don't have to do it alone. 

"Four months later when you're still talking about the pain, and you know, and it's sort of like, you know, when somebody passes away and you go to the funeral, and you move on with your life, but their pain is just beginning," Meredith explained. "I had to mourn my lifestyle, and that's exactly what it was."

Moving forward, Meredith hopes to turn her life altering moment, smashing into a tree stump, into a watershed experience of understanding, listening and supporting one another. 

"I want the story to be so big that it saves one person from the depression," Meredith said. "That chronic pain comes with and keeps the people that were there to save my life motivated to do their jobs."

Speaking of which, Meredith has no limit to the thanks she lays at the feet of her saviors, the Keystone ski patrollers who helped load her up and ski her down that day of her crash. 

"How do you thank people that literally physically carried me on the worst moment of my life and got me to safety?" Meredith said. 

We like to believe this is a start.