From this to that

From This

To That

A few weeks ago Alex and I, along with a few others, went to try to get a shot out at Echo Lake. It was a beautiful day with a big feature. Alex always has an eye for features that will make him stand out amongst the crowd. This feature was a rail gap over a stream that was about 30 ft long. It took us about 2-3 hours to get set up with lots and lots of digging. He did a few speed checks before actually attempting the trick. When we started the session nobody was around except us. He hit the rail a couple of times and fell just short of completing the whole thing. We took 5 and gathered our thoughts. At that time 2 men that were cross country skiing came up on us and wanted to watch. This made Alex a little nervous. When he attempted the rail the third time it didn't go as planned. He fell over the wrong side of the rail, slammed against the opposite wall of the gap, and fell right into the stream. Upon landing in the stream, he broke his tibia and fibula. This wasn't just a break though, he shattered the bones into ten different pieces right under his knee. Alex knew right away that he had broken his leg but somehow he was still able to stand until one of the onlookers and I ran to grab a hold on him. We carried him out of the stream and laid him down in the snow. Right after the accident, by some grace of god, an orthopedic surgeon and his wife came walking by. (Remember this is in the middle of the back country.)

After we assessed how bad the break was we called search and rescue. We knew there was no way we could carry him out. The surgeon made a splint with sticks and some of my rope while I ran to find a ladder at the summer cabins that could act as a stretcher. We turned my snowboard upside down and placed it on the ladder so that it made a flat surface. We then layed him on the stretcher and carried him to a secure location to protect him from the beating sun and the rotor wash from the helicopter. Unfortunately the Heli could not land because of the wind conditions. We waited about another hour for the search and rescue teams to arrive with a snowmobile and carriage.

All in all it took about 2 hours from the time of the injury until the time he was in an ambulance. This is a great example of being prepared and using your instinct when something bad goes wrong. When venturing out in the back counrty always have a simple rescue equipment on hand in case something goes extremely wrong. Luckily I had the rope to stabilize his leg and my early planning led me to quickly locate a device to carry alex to a protected location. The number 1 item that should always be carried while in the back country is a phone. Without that we either would have had to leave him behind to meet up with search and rescue or carry his ass all the way out. the number 2 item that should always be carried is rope. Without rope we could have damaged his leg even worse. Plus if I wouldn't have found a ladder we would have needed to make a stretcher out of tree branches. I hope everyone who reads this excerpt will think twice about where they are going and always be prepared for the worst.

Alex is doing fine and healing well. He'll be back on his own two feet in about a month and ready to shred in 2. I want to thank Merrick for all his help that day. I also want to thank the four people that volunteered their time to help us get Alex out of there. And finally thank you search and rescue for their assistance in retrieving Alex.