Kathi,

Wear the jacket - it had nothing to do with it! ACL issues can happen thru tons of means and it was just bad luck that you had yours w/skiing. But I think most women's soccer, basketball, lacrosse, etc teams have one or more players with ACL recons, and I suspect most happily don their uniforms the first time they are able to again....

I tore mine in 98 doing Tae Kwon Do (1st time) despite being a frequent and then not so good skier (where one could argue it would have been more probable).

And then I stretched the lig at home a few years later jumping from a counter top (ok, not my brighest move ever). and went in for a revision. Fortunately that's been steady ever since.

It's just one of those bad things that can happen.

Other than that, just watch out for other skiers & don't rush yourself. It'll be a bit before you feel trusting of the whole situation again; that's normal. You will be fine! Have fun, I wish I were going!