If you intend to ski this year you could avoid the surgery and get a brace and ski. It is not a good idea, but I know people who have done it. I had a patella graft. That takes a while to recover. I had it in March and was skiing the next January. I did not ski much that year though. When I tore it I lived in Tahoe. I left Tahoe after that season and the next year I was in grad school and did not ski much. I think not skiing much the first year out was good for me. I trained like a mad man and came back strong the next season after pretty much taking a year off. I skied 2-3 weekends a month that year and felt fine. Obviously I was not as good as I was in Tahoe but my knee was not holding me back.
I guess the message is to take it easy and rehab like a beast. You want to be as strong as possible. Don't even think about coming back this year, just be safe and rehab strong. Like I said, you could wait to get the surgery until the spring. I hurt my knee in early January. I knew I was going to grad school the next fall and that my years of ski bumming were done, so I got a brace made and decided to ski through the year. A buddy of mine had done the same thing the year before. He was going to med school and wanted his last season. In both cases I would say to not push it too hard, you can ski technical steeps but I would not drop cliffs. After a month and a half I realized that the Chimney Sweep (a line at Squaw that was my holy grail) was not going to happen for me and that I should just pack it in.
Don't come back this year if you get the surgery. That is a very bad idea.
that sucks