Yesterday the entire skiing community lost a great friend, CR Johnson.
He died while skiing his home mountain of Squaw Valley.
He will be missed but never forgotten.
?We?re about three minutes out.
We?ll give you the word when we?re set, CR,?
Dustin, the cinematographer, answers back.
When he gives me the word, it?s go time.
I breathe deep and relax my anxiety by taking in the beautiful day life has blessed me with.
This winter was by far the most challenging winter of my career.
Because of that, it was also one of my most rewarding.
Returning to the sport that nearly took my life the year before presented many mental hurdles.
I had a deep sub-conscious fear of injury and death throughout the entire year.
We rented a lodge and flew a helicopter up to sit in our yard.
We spent ten days there and flew almost every day?
on the snowy days, we would fly to treeline and ski pillows the whole way down.
It snowed day after day, until one day we awoke to 100% clear blue skies.
The avalanche conditions were as stable as you could ever ask for.
The snowpack was bottomless and on top was the lightest powder any of us have ever skied.
It was by far the best day of heli-skiing of my life.
The rest of the time I was in BC it snowed like crazy.
It snowed every day, but we were still able to fly to the top of the tree line.
On the partly cloudy days, we shopped around for windows of sun ?
window-shopping can be a mildly stressful day, but when it opened up, it was spectacular.
It was a very fun crew, and it was truly a blessing for me to have Sarah there.
Sarah would see that and remind me of how well I was actually doing.
Although I wasn?t skiing everything exactly how I wanted, I was doing well.
I have such high expectations of myself and at times this winter those expectations were a bit unrealistic.
All in all, this year was amazing.
Realistically though, I can reflect on the year and be very proud of how I performed.
I overcame the fear of death while skiing ?
I also re-established my focus on this sport.
Over my entire ski career, I have wanted to be the best all-around skier.
Now I am going to focus on one aspect of skiing, and that is film.
I?m so fortunate to have the opportunity to film with Matchstick again.
That is where I love to spend my time and the aspect of skiing that I love most.
Every icy day, every deep pow day?
EVERY day is a blessing.
When we can appreciate every experience for all that it is, we will never need nor want more.
