A horror video has captured the moment that Scotland’s top ranked skier suffered sickening injuries after falling 30ft down an Austrian mountain.
In the clip, Kieran Troup falls 30ft from the cliff while skiing with friends on the Bluebird Pow trail in Kappl on January 12. The 24-year-old Aberdonian can be seen folding as his knees buckle upon impact before falling hard into the snow and down the mountain.
He was wearing a camera, filming a short film documenting his professional freeride season, at the time of the drop and can be seen flying through the air doing somersaults before crashing hard.
Kieran told the Record that he heard “popping” noises as he landed on his legs during the incident. He said: “I landed slightly off and my knee just completely tore.
“I twisted and can remember looking up at the sky and having this crazy vision of my ligaments tearing. It tore, tore and tore, and then all I heard was a pop. I was screaming in agony and I’m lucky to be alive.”
As the UK’s top freeride skier, Kieran has survived multiple injuries in his career, including breaking both of his legs at the same time, but admits this was the “scariest” accident yet.
Kieran, who represented Scotland in speed skiing before switching to freeriding, is scheduled for surgery in Glasgow on February 12, but faces a massive financial challenge to get back in the skis.
He continued: “I went to the emergency room in Austria but my insurance wouldn’t cover it because it’s not a life-or-death situation.
“The surgery would cost too much out here, so I need to go home and it’s going to cost around £8,000 to £10,000 in the UK because I have heard other stories of people waiting two to three years on the NHS for the surgery I need. As a professional skier, I can’t afford to wait that long.”
A GoFundMe page has been set up to cover the costs of the treatment by world-renowned surgeon Professor Gordon Mackay of the Mackay Clinic in Stirling – who developed an internal brace system for ligament tears.
“The recovery process will be pretty awful. For three months, you can’t walk at all. After that, you can start building up strength again. So it’s going to take around eight to ten months before I can go skiing again,” he said.
Those wishing to support Kieran’s recovery can donate through his GoFundMe page.
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