LOCAL & REGION SECTION A || PAGE 2 || SUNDAY, 1 • 6 • 13 || 970 • 949 • 0555 || VAILDAILY.COM VAIL By Randy Wyrick ? trivia [email protected] What planned but abandoned VAIL — Dr. James G. Garrick mountain restaurant got as learned all sorts of things treating far as the foundation? skiers in Vail during the early 1960s. For the answer, see this story at For example, he learned that most vaildaily.com. F1RSTS ski injuries were gawd-awful cuts skiers suffered. In those days, people in tied their skis to their ankles with a Technology has reduced the tick- leather strap. When they fell the ski et-to-trauma ratio ten-fold — 0.8 would flail around and hit something injuries for every 1,000 skiers. Some VAIL•Tales — usually their head. of that technology started with Gar- VAIL And yet like tattoos, eight-track rick’s study in Vail. tapes and most political affiliations, those leather straps seemed like a Hey doc … Doc Garrick conducted the first ski injury study good idea at the time. Timing is everything, and when In 1962-63, Vail Associates sold new doctor’s residency starts in the around 55,000 lift tickets. That summer, they have a few months to number matters because it fill during the winter. That’s how Gar- was never clear that the rick landed in the upstart ski area, in new ski area would make it, a clinic in the Red Lion. and because Vail averaged “We were very fortunate to get about eight injuries for some excellent doctors,” said Dr. every 1,000 skiers — most- Tom Steinberg, Vail’s first full-time ly lacerations. Stitches ensued. Firsts in Vail,page A7 COLORADO SKI & SNOWBOARD MUSEUM | Special to the Daily SPECIAL TO THE DAILY Dr. James Garrick was patching people up in the clinic in the Red Lion That’s Jerry Ford on the far left, not long after he and Betty started bringing the family to Vail. It when he conducted the first ski injury study. He found that when you use can now be told: Jerry and Betty borrowed against the cash value of their children’s life insurance leather boots like these and strap your ski to your leg, bad things can policies to come up with the down payment for their first Vail home, a condo in The Lodge at Vail. happen when you fall. 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Vail Daily assumes no financial Submit a sports tip? 970-748-2937 Catherine Sum 970-748-2916 Sara Belden 970-777-3130 Circulation responsibility for errors beyond the cost of the Jared Staber 970-748-2976 actual space occupied by the error. BACHELOR GULCH RITZCARLTON PENTHOUSE One of the Vail Valley’s premiere penthouse residences, with perfect ski-in/ski-out access, stunning views and elegant décor. All the luxuries and unparalleled services of the Ritz-Carlton. Bachelor Gulch Club Membership included! 3 Bedrooms. 3½ Baths. 2,074+/- sq. ft. $3,135,000 furnished | MLS#912510 www.ritz902.com THE VAIL DAILY || 970 • 949 • 0555 || vaildaily.com Sunday,Ja nuary6, 20 13 || A7 FIRSTS IN VAIL FROM PAGE A2 physician. Vietnam veterans were high on the list. Dr. Jack Eck showed up that way. John Garrett came in 1972 when he AT MANOR VAIL LODGE was waiting for his residency. Bert Zarins spent some time OZ OZ in Vail. He now heads the sports medicine department at ALPENGLOW SPECIAL $200 $225 Massachusetts General. The list goes on and on. MEMBERS NON-MEMBERS Garrick was a medical student at Sanford School of Med- 3 COURSES FOR $45 icine in South Dakota. He was completing his residency at the Mayo Clinic when a professor called him in — usually a 25% OFF SELECTED WINE LIST bad sign, he said. He made Garrick an offer he couldn’t Sunday – Wednesday for parties seated by 6:30pm AS ASK ABOUT OUOUR R K NOW HIRING refuse. CAREGIVER CREDIT H BUDTENDERS C I “If you would like to take three months off and run a med- O G ical facility in Vail, we’ll approve it,” the professor said. R H Garrick is a practical man. The Mayo Clinic paid residents OVER 20 $200 a month in those days, TWO FOR D Y and he could make lots TUESDAAY!Y! I R STRAINS more than that in Vail — S P S A E N AVAILABLE enough to get him fact oid BUY 1 - GET 1 through the next year. In the early 1970s, Vi Brown FREE GRAM OF HASH! He started searching was volunteering in the Vail medical literature for Information Center when a ·DAILY SPECIALS· information about young guy came in with a treating ski injuries, but question. WILD GAME TRIO he learned there wasn’t “Do you have any gay Quail | Venison | Buffalo 970-926-4408 Roasted Baby Carrots & Onions | Parsnip Pur ée any. hotels?” he asked. ���� Edwards Village Blvd. Unit C-���, Edwards “I had no idea what I “Oh, they’re all fun!” Vi said On Highway � across from the Gashouse 595 E. VAIL VALLEY DRIVE | p 970.476.4959 | LORDGOREVAIL.COM was going to see,” Gar- excitedly. OPEN NIGHTLY 5:30-9:30PM | RESERVATIONS RECOMMENDED Mon-Sat ��am-�pm | Closed Sun rick said in an article in It wasn’t until later that she the magazine “South realized he may have been Dakotan M.D.” asking about something else. If he needed data, “We could be a little isolated and he did, he’d be up here,” Vi said. gathering his own. In Vail, Garrick launched the world’s biggest study of ski injuries in the world up until that time. Garrick’s team of interviewers buttonholed every 100th Keeping People Active skier who entered five different ski resorts around the west- ern U.S. Then, they questioned every skier injured, or at The Steadman Clinic is recognized worldwide for least those willing to talk. excellence in orthopaedic care, and is committed to He got his data, reinforcing his hypothesis that having a ski strapped to your ankle as you fall down a mountainside helping its patients maintain their active lifestyles. in the snow is a design flaw. He also learned that high-end tourists can be a little testy. “I don’t think it brings out the best in people if you are paying a trillion dollars to ski in Vail and on the second day you break your leg,” he said. He said he was a terrible skier, but the ski patrol took him skiing everywhere. They enjoyed his company, but they were also making sure he could get to any spot on the mountain in case anything happened to them. Changing everything In 1967, after Vail, Garrick was pressed into service as a T doctor at an air base near Da Nang, Vietnam. He called his Y O Vietnam service, “great,” and launched another research H R study, documenting effective management of casualties. E M L Garrick volunteered to extend his Vietnam tour to 15 A P : months to complete it, because it was so important, he said. R I E K The ski injury research continued while he was in Viet- S nam. When he returned, he gathered the data and pub- K C lished an academic paper. E L F Administrators at the University of Washington noticed F A it.