Fuelling the Comeback: Rehab, Rebuilding, and Real Resilience

Life in the mountains & the instant everything changed

SiS athlete Ross Hewitt is at home in the mountains. From his childhood in Scotland, through nearly 30 years as a popular member of the Chamonix community, it’s his natural habitat. As a renowned exploratory skier, climber, and photographer, he has numerous first descents and ascents to his name, along with extensive safety expertise.

His love for the mountains doesn’t take a day off. When he’s not guiding or instructing, he skis purely for the joy of it. On one such morning back in January, Ross joined a group of friends on an exhilarating outing through the stunning Alpine terrain he knows so well.

Skiing ahead, and ever vigilant to the conditions around him, he sensed potential danger and instinctively paused to reassess their route. Perhaps two seconds elapsed before, as he puts it, “the slope started to move”.

A standing start gave him no chance of evading the accelerating avalanche, which promptly swept him over two bands of exposed rock. The impact of his eventual landing was “like stepping off a curb in front of a 40-tonne truck doing 60 mph”.

Thankfully, Ross was dumped on the surface. His colleagues were with him fast, and their immediate actions were decisive – keeping him safe, still, and warm, with a clear and simple message: “Just keep fighting”.

From Rescue to Reconstruction

The helicopter rescue team arrived within 30 minutes. Due to the risk of further slides, immediate extraction took priority over stabilisation and pain management. So he was winched directly by his harness, in “mortal, screaming agony”, upwards to safety.

Thus began Ross’s journey from his desperately bleak position on Mont Blanc. It’s that journey we’re here to celebrate.

Five spinal breaks were almost incidental next to the complex, multiple fracturing of both pelvis and sacrum. He’d also suffered serious internal bleeding, blood clots, pneumonia, and various other complications.

Alongside the physical pain, Ross has spoken frankly about the distress and anxiety of first struggling with the unknowns, and then coming to terms with the reality of his injuries. It was a brutally hard time.

After a long and harrowing week in intensive care at Aosta, he endured a comical ambulance transfer to Grenoble. The bumpy ride was worth it – its university hospital is home to a world-class specialist pelvic reconstruction team. Here, the immediate focus was preparing him for urgent surgery.

Fully two weeks after the accident, Ross finally emerged from the operating theatre. The procedure had been successful and permanent damage avoided. The next step? Seven weeks confined to his hospital bed, while fractures consolidated and assessments continued.

The Athlete’s Mindset: Starting Over at Bedside

The cost of a fortnight’s inactivity, on a diet consisting mainly of fentanyl, had been substantial. He’d lost nearly 20% of his body weight through muscle wastage.

But he’d turned the corner. His day-to-day progress was encouraging. Buoyed by this, and by more time with his family, his athlete’s mindset inevitably turned impatiently to how fully – and how soon – he could regain his strength and mobility.

And so Ross’s rehab regime started while still restricted to bed – gradually introducing realignment work, upper body resistance exercises, stretching, and daily nerve stimulation targeting the quads, hamstrings, glutes, and calves.

When he eventually returned home, the real work began.

In two months, a physique built by a lifetime of precise, functional movement had lost nearly all its strength. His single-leg extension maxed out at just 2 kg, for example. Ross’s entire physiology – once boasting exceptional power-to-weight ratio, core stability, precision skills under fatigue, and endurance – had been drastically diminished.

But Ross was alive. Returning to full health. Moving relatively freely. Back at home with his family. Eternally grateful for the support he’d received. And acutely aware that, having had to fight to survive, he’d now have to fight to rebuild.

Above all, he was determined to commit to the training and the resting required to get back to where he belonged – the mountains. In consultation with his physio team, Ross put together a detailed rehab programme. He embraced these increasingly tough sessions, a renewed hunger added to his old discipline and attention to detail.

Fuelling the Rebuild: Precision Nutrition & Supplementation

Naturally, nutrition would be absolutely central to his progress. During those long weeks in hospital, Ross had already been reminded of the difference that a fresh, varied diet makes to general wellbeing.

Now that the priority was regaining and then protecting muscle mass, as well as soft tissue repair, his prime focus was the quality, volume, and consistency of his protein intake. As part of this overall strategy, his varied, wholefood-based diet would need comprehensive supplementation.

The target was a daily minimum of 2 grams of protein for each kilogram of body weight. This he achieved with four 30 g doses of SiS whey protein, supported by creatine and collagen, evenly distributed around his meals. In terms of the raw materials for rebuilding, this combination proved highly effective.

As Ross’s workouts stepped up in duration and intensity, our energy gels, hydration tablets, and recovery powders played a significant role. And, refusing to rely on medication at night, he also leant heavily on our products to achieve the quality sleep his rehab regime demanded.

Acknowledging the range of complementary factors at play, Ross credits superior nutrition as crucial to his revival and his ongoing progress:

“Once I’d made it through the traumatic initial period and the operation, my focus was entirely on how successfully I could bounce back.

As an engineer, I’d worked on some vast, complex projects. This was more daunting than any of them. Here’s a 50-year-old, trying to repair – virtually from scratch – what had taken over 30 years of obsessive dedication to build.

I was determined to get maximum return from every benefit available to me… physiotherapy, training, diet, supplementation, hydration, and rest. And I was intent on facing some seriously challenging sessions – so I wanted to back that effort with the very best support I could get.”

Overcoming the mental hurdles

And then there’s the mental aspect. Getting back out on two wheels has obviously been massively influential – not just for gradually restoring Ross’s stamina, but for its psychological impact. After months confined to bed, the morale-boosting effect of an inspiring outdoor environment cannot be overstated.

“The work isn’t just confined to physical rehab. One of my biggest fears rock climbing is getting injured falling. Some specific fall training is essential – so I can climb efficiently without the fatigue of over-gripping caused by unnecessary stress in safe situations. Mountain biking is a really helpful here.”

And so the upsides keep on coming. But this story’s not yet done. Although the most dramatic days may be behind him, Ross’s recovery journey continues.

The Road Ahead

Cleared in August by his surgeon to return to normal activity, he’s now heading for a month’s intensive rehab at CERS, the European Centre for Sports Rehabilitation. This world-renowned facility provides innovative treatments and specific re-education for elite-level athletes. In Ross’s case, the emphasis will be on dynamic and plyometric movements to accelerate his already impressive gains.

The ultimate goal is a return to guiding ski groups this season. He’s irrepressibly upbeat that he’s on course to achieve this target.

Hand in hand with his trademark tenacity is Ross’s grateful recognition of all the support he’s received – from his friends, his family, every medic at every stage of his journey, and every encouraging ally from the skiing and climbing communities and beyond.

He respects the road he’s been on and equally the one that lies ahead. And he does it all with abundant humility, humour, and honesty.

We salute Ross’s indomitable mindset. The avalanche changed his life in an instant. But it’s the character he’s shown since then that defines the rest of his story – including whatever tests lie ahead.

His relentless resolve – to optimise the best resources available and to dedicate himself fully to his rehab – embodies the true spirit of resilience. We have no doubt that these qualities will see him soon return to tackling the toughest mountain challenges.

Forza Ross!