Location: Killington, VT

Trail: Skylark

Gather around kids....

It was about 10 am. At this time of day some parts of the trail are hit with the sun and in those parts the snow is soft. Other parts of the trail still are in the shadows so the snow there is harder and choppy.

I took the Superstar head wall and cut right into skylark. The part of the trail that I was on was about to bend right. I was on the left side of the trail and I was about to cut over to the right to get more in the middle of the trail but didn't yet because there was a guy in the middle. I get into a shadow covered part of the trail. I was probably doing about 45-50mph. I notice it is getting really choppy so I toe side (I ride regular) to slow down. Wasn't enough. So I turn heel side to really plow into the snow. Just as I do that, the terrain dips down and I start chattering across the snow and am going straight for the trees. Within 5 seconds I shoot off the trail. Somehow when I shot off the trail my body was vertical like I was doing a jumping jack. In front of me I see a steel snow-making pole and just kept my body loose and thought "oh shit". I hit both legs on the snow-making pole and do a front flip and land sitting down on my ass with the left side of my snowboard angled into the snow. There was so much pressure on my left knee cause I couldn't move my legs and was just stuck in the snow. Luckily...The guy I passed before, saw me shoot off the trail. I was about 20 feet in a ravine off trail. No one would would see me if they rode past. Also, this guy turned out to be an EMT. So he came down and unstrapped my board, released the pressure off my knee and straightened my legs out. He also had his wife call ski patrol right away.

It took ski patrol about 10 min to get there and about another 30-40 to get me out of the woods. A couple hours later I was in surgery and got two titanium rods put in my legs.

I am very lucky to be alive or even more injured than I am. In a bad situation things went well:

-The EMT behind me called ski patrol right away and saw me go off trail. -The bones did not break through the skin. -The main arteries on both my legs did not rupture -The pole saved me from hitting the massive trees in front of the pole which could have easily killed me. -I did not hit my head or chest and was conscious the whole time.

Result:

-Broke both femurs -Got a gash under my left knee (Do not know what I hit) -I can't put weight on my left leg until May

(Yes, that one femur bone will straighten out and fill with bone.)