I’ve been meaning to start a new thread on this but haven’t had the time till now. Jim (munivision) and I broke our backs muni’ing less than 9 months ago both in Simi Valley, CA. He broke his first when I was with him and then a few weeks later on a different trail nearby I ended up breaking mine. Luckily both of our backs have seemed to heal (at least for the most part) and we are both back riding together again! We rode for the first time since breaking our backs 2 weeks ago at Aliso Woods & Canyon and had a great time. Pictures are below. Just goes to show you that even though injuries suck, with time most people will be back at it doing what they love!
glad you are able to ride again. broken backs can be really sketchy.
Great to see that both of you are back on the wheel despite the injuries :). If you don´t mind me asking, how extreme was the muni ride that led to the accidents?
What exactly is a broken back? Is it the back of the ribs or spine or both or something else? It sounds real scary. 
Actually a compression fracture of one or more vertebre.
i love riding at aliso. where do you live?
I always thought that broken backs did not heal and left you paralysed.
Obviously there are more minor forms that aren’t quite as bad?
Jamey and I both had compression fractures of a thoracic vertebrae. Think of stepping on an aluminum can and squashing it. It is a braoken back, but is the best kind to have! It is really good to be back out riding. Both of us hurt ourselves on very technical, steep muni. Mine was the hardest line I had ever tried. Here is a photo of seconds before:
brokeback.bmp (506 KB)
Well at least you got a damn good picture out of it! 
Glad you guys are at it again!
Did you intentionally make that pun? 
Anyway, glad to hear you’ve both recovered well and are still riding!
Nerves don’t heal, basically. That’s what’s in your spinal cord. The stuff around it can heal, though backs can be tricky things.
Glad to see you guys back to pounding the trails, probably doing stuff I’m still chicken to try!
Glad you guys recovered so well:)
Tell me about it. 
Me:
Compression fracture of my first lumbar from going off a jump 15 feet high & at 35 mph and landed in the flats on my but on 5/3/99.
Two months in a wheelchair.
Four months w/ a walker.
Two years w/ two trecking poles.
Two years w/ one trecking pole.
I still can hardly walk, unless I’m wearing my AFO’s (see avatar).
What is a compression fracture?..Imagin a well risen thick biscuit, that’s a vertebral body of the spine. Now step on the front or back of it.
That’s what a compression fracture looks like on X-ray.
It usually is not associated with injury to the nerves but leaves you with loads of spinal instability / pain after the fact. Did I mention that you may not be as tall as you were before your biscuit was stepped on?
I forgot, a compression fracture isn’t the only way to “break” your back. One or more vertebrea can come out of alignment puting pressure on or completely cutting the spinal coard. If you were to look an x-ray it would look like a stack of biscuits, but one is sticking out to the side. So, a broken back is basically a vertebre putting pressure on the spinal cord. A herniated disk can have similar results (and is often easier to fix) but effects the disks and not the bones, usually from repeated stress over a very long time.
I’ve read that if you break your back everything from there down is effected. Interesting thing w/ my back is when I looked at my x-rays L 5 was really out of wack, but my doctors never said anything about it. All of my issues involve the nerves related to L 1 and L 5, nothing in between or below. 
Its great to hear that you guys are back in the saddle…Now stay there!