Returning to leading after a broken ankle?

I took a fall last summer while leading this route, struck a small ledge and shattered my talus. It's been 6 months since surgery and my recovery's coming along well (back to light running, lifting and top-roping at the gym).

I'd like to get back to leading routes again and want to hear from folks who've suffered similar injuries about their experiences in returning to lead climbing. Should I continue to focus on additional leg strength / ankle mobility work at this stage of my recovery or get back into easy leading (assuming that my belayer will provide soft catches and not spike me into the wall)?

Absolutely concentrate on rehabbing the injury before you start climbing again. I broke my ankle, stripped some ligaments, and got back into climbing way too soon, and I'm still paying for it two years later. Take the time now to heal.

Yep, focus on rehab or PT if you're going to PT (and you really should be if you want to get better ASAP). A few years ago I broke my ankle in a ledge fall (fractured tibia) and it was about 5 months before I was leading again and a year until I was back to normal at 99% (because you never get back to 100%) even without any surgeries or shattered bones.

So given that you have to deal with both of those complications, I'd expect a longer timeframe before you should go back to leading. My advice would be to pump up the stoke and then get out there and start belaying your buddies. The stoke will be contagious and you can live vicariously through their leads. And when you're back to leading, they just might return the favor.

If you're lucky, belaying your partner on a few brownpoints ought to delay the atrophy to your lead head for a little bit. 

Thanks very much for the advice! I'm on a 2x a week PT schedule (aside from my daily workouts) and those guys are working wonders on the ankle. I like the idea of belaying my friends outdoors as well!

I sprained my ankle badly two years back--definitely focus on the PT. One thing that I think is a bit more fun than the PT exercises but has a lot of the same benefits is slacklining--I personally find that a lot more motivating than PT exercises.

Additionally, you might try hangboarding. When I came back to climbing after my ankle injury, I had been consistently doing the Beastmaker 1000 workouts, and after some initial working back into climbing, I quickly came back a full grade stronger due to the additional finger strength.

Patience is key! For me it's difficult to wait: climbing is a huge part of my life and it's really difficult to have to take time off from it. But climbing is also a lifelong pursuit for me, and I have to keep in mind that a few months isn't that long in the scheme of my whole life, and if I get reinjured it will only be longer.

Check out Dave McLeod's blog, etc.  He discusses his ankle injury, recovery, and return to climbing pretty extensively.

Another thing that helped me significantly was that, when I was taking NSAIDs and/or using ice, compression, elevation, I would do those during the day as needed but avoided doing it a night. When you're asleep is when you're body is best able to repair itself and heal, but you need enough blood flow (swelling) at night to let your body heal. So get lots of sleep too!

Also make sure you are getting enough of the various vitamins, especially vit D and B. Vitamin D is a precursor to the chemical that paralyzes your body during sleep, which allows you to get into deeper levels of sleep where your body is better able to heal. And various B vitamins are some of the building blocks for repairing injuries. 

At 6 months you MIGHT be ready to lead, but it depends on the kind of surgery you had, the hardware placed, and how intensive a rehab you've been doing.

My husband broke two ankles in two separate events. One was a bad bouldering fall, one was a hard catch. In both cases he was leading (carefully, overhanging routes with clean falls) about 3 months after the break, but he had no surgeries in both cases. He also had a knee surgery, and was leading at 5-6 months post surgery with no problems. I had a different knee surgery, and was leading at 6 months, but only overhanging routes with clean falls and only super-trusted belayers, and didn't feel that my knee was back to normal until a year post surgery. About 10-11 months post-surgery is when I was able to start bouldering again.

Can you hop on the injured foot? Can you hop on it as well as you can hop on your other foot? Can you jump off things and land evenly on both feet? How do you feel when you are bouncing on a trampoline? How well can you balance on the injured foot vs non-injured? How much can you leg press on the bad side vs good side? You probably aren't even yet. I think that takes about a year. But if you are doing ok on those things, you can probably lead routes. Especially if you can find routes that have clean falls, and if you have a good belayer that gives soft catches.  

(presumably these are the things you are working on with PT. If not, find some videos of climbers taking lead falls, and ask your PT if they think you are ready for this yet. I had to explain to my PT that I needed to be able to land after jumping off from a tall boulder with my feet at about head height. I also wanted to get back to being able to do pistol squat on the injured side. She told me that i was crazy, and nobody needed to jump off boulders of that height, or to do pistol squats. But she is a good PT, so she worked with me, until I could. )

Lena chita wrote: At 6 months you MIGHT be ready to lead, but it depends on the kind of surgery you had, the hardware placed, and how intensive a rehab you've been doing.

My husband broke two ankles in two separate events. One was a bad bouldering fall, one was a hard catch. In both cases he was leading (carefully, overhanging routes with clean falls) about 3 months after the break, but he had no surgeries in both cases. He also had a knee surgery, and was leading at 5-6 months post surgery with no problems. I had a different knee surgery, and was leading at 6 months, but only overhanging routes with clean falls and only super-trusted belayers, and didn't feel that my knee was back to normal until a year post surgery. About 10-11 months post-surgery is when I was able to start bouldering again.

Can you hop on the injured foot? Can you hop on it as well as you can hop on your other foot? Can you jump off things and land evenly on both feet? How do you feel when you are bouncing on a trampoline? How well can you balance on the injured foot vs non-injured? How much can you leg press on the bad side vs good side? You probably aren't even yet. I think that takes about a year. But if you are doing ok on those things, you can probably lead routes. Especially if you can find routes that have clean falls, and if you have a good belayer that gives soft catches.  

(presumably these are the things you are working on with PT. If not, find some videos of climbers taking lead falls, and ask your PT if they think you are ready for this yet. I had to explain to my PT that I needed to be able to land after jumping off from a tall boulder with my feet at about head height. I also wanted to get back to being able to do pistol squat on the injured side. She told me that i was crazy, and nobody needed to jump off boulders of that height, or to do pistol squats. But she is a good PT, so she worked with me, until I could. )

Lena, thanks so much! I think your post has convinced me that I should focus on PT for a few more months. My ankle is still quite temperamental w.r.t. to hopping and jumping (fine on most days, less than great on others). I remain optimistic about doing a pistol squat on the injured leg by the end of this year :)

Tri-Mal fracture with taler dome collapse.  6 years.  6 surgeries.  Comeback is still in process.  I'm finding two things:  First, getting strength, vision, and moves back is taking longer than I expected.  Second, getting my confident lead-head back is also taking longer than expected.  Climbing on unfamiliar rock with Jeff Constine today was a plus, as he tends to push for speed.  But it's not easy.

I just spent almost a year on the couch after a BASE jumping accident where I totally fucked my ankle. I would highly recommend not climbing cracks until your ankle feels really good as I was living in Moab and made this poor choice. Just top rope stuff until you feel confident that a fall won't hurt it. Then just lead easier stuff for you that you know you won't fall on. Then go charge it. Basically if you can jump off a curb or little drop and your ankle doesn't hurt you are good to go. Also if you are really worried just stick to overhanging stuff where you won't really even slam into the wall.