no offense, but i strongly disagree with this one
ive heard stories from friends and some warnings from doctors...
but i know for a fact, that there are players in the german national hockey team (actually like 6 guys or something) who play without ACL
and hockey, beeing the contact sport it is, is at least as much stress for a knee as skiing is
only thing I believe in is, that you might have to deal with arthrosis sooner or later
people need to start thinking of medicine as an art of estimating chances and giving advices based on known cases
there is no "one and only", no "best" solution for a problem... specially when we talk about something as complex as a knee
still, the chance of needing a surgery is way higher than beeing a lucky bastard like me (the tube surrounding my ACL e.g. is still in one piece, making my torn knee almost as stable as the other one)
anyway... the answer to the actual question is no
even if you need a surgery, youll come back even stronger and more confident