Last weekend the snowboard coach for the Jackson Hole Freeride team called me up and asked me to coach for a day. They needed another coach because one of their ski coaches hurt his ankle and couldn't ski. He said I would get paid, and I obliged. My little brother is on the Freeride Team, and I was on it throughout my high school years.
I arrived at the mountain and we split up the kids into groups. My group had 4 or 5 kids in it, between the ages of 12 and 15. We all went up the gondola together, and bailed out and jumped on our skis because it had been snowing pretty hard the previous day. At this point, all the coaches and kids were together.
We start down under the gondola, and immediately 3 or 4 kids crash into each other. It wasn't a big deal, everyone was OK and it was kind of funny. We continue down under the gondola into some nice looking snow. I skied down through a small ravine that I knew was full of rocks in the summer (I worked there over one summer). No one was following anyone at point, and we were all mobbing down the run, excited to ski some good snow at last.
I stopped a little ways down to have the kids hit a cat track. When I looked up, there were 5 or 6 kids with their skis off, walking around. I immediately assumed someone had lost their ski, and that everyone was helping him look for it. I was still trying to make sense of the situation when another coach came down and said, "Get the ski patrol, NOW".
I knew it was bad, because this guy (Tate MacDowell, ex-TGR editor) was clearly shook up. We skied down and found the patrolers, who said they had people already on the way. He filled me in as we waited for the rest of the kids to come down.
Tate thought the kid (Coleman) had a spine injury. He said that when he skied up, Coleman's back had been wrapped around a rock. Apparently, he had been skiing through the same ravine I had, and crashed. When he fell forward, his body broke through the layer of snow and basically tomahawked through a rock field. He had split a cheek open (on a rock I assume), and had definately recieved some pretty serious trauma to his head.
We continued skiing the rest of the day, but the crash had really put a damper on the day. We recieved regular updates from his mother, who had arrived at the scene shortly after the accident.
Coleman had split his helmet in half, and cracked his skull. He broke his orbitals when his face smashed against the rocks, and his brain was bleeding. He was flown to Idaho Falls for evaluation, where he was determined to be in stable condition and recovering.
The Tram opens tomorrow, and I'm sure more powder hungry people will get hurt doing things they shouldn't, especially with current Wyoming snow levels.
I don't want to scare any of you guys, but BE CAREFUL. It's early season, and there's often less snow coverage than you think. Coleman was lucky, had he not been wearing a helmet, the outcome would have been vastly different. It's the beginning of the season, and you have the WHOLE REST OF THE SEASON to get gnraly/shredular/radical. It can wait.
That being said, have a great season everybody, have fun, and be safe.
-Sam
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