{"id":2455431,"date":"2020-03-05T21:12:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-06T04:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/buried-in-avalanche-crouch-eyes-olympics\/"},"modified":"2020-03-05T21:12:00","modified_gmt":"2020-03-06T04:12:00","slug":"buried-in-avalanche-crouch-eyes-olympics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/buried-in-avalanche-crouch-eyes-olympics\/","title":{"rendered":"Buried in avalanche, Crouch eyes Olympics"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
FILE – In this Thursday, Jan. 23, 2020 file photo, Brock Crouch finishes his second run of the men’s snowboard slopestyle elimination on day one of X Games Aspen at Buttermilk Ski Area in Aspen, Colo. Snowboarder Brock Crouch was swept away in an avalanche two years ago and buried under the snow for five minutes. He broke his back, tore his pancreas, knocked out five teeth and suffered a concussion. Crouch now has a tattoo on his left shoulder of the mountain range that nearly took his life. He also has a new recurring dream of making the U.S. slopestyle squad for the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. (Liz Copan\/Summit Daily News via AP, File)<\/strong>
AP | Summit Daily News<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

VAIL \u2014 A recurring dream frequently woke snowboarder Brock Crouch: Buried alive and unable to move.<\/p>\n

He couldn\u2019t shake that nightmare for nearly two months.<\/p>\n

Even more, certain sounds \u2014 like someone cracking their back \u2014 caused flashbacks to that day nearly two years ago when he was caught in an avalanche near Whistler, British Columbia.<\/p>\n

Swept away in the snow, Crouch heard his back break as he tumbled about 1,500 feet through a rock-lined chute.<\/p>\n

For five minutes, he remained buried deep under the snow until his buddies dug him out.<\/p>\n

On his left shoulder, Crouch now has a tattoo of the mountain range that nearly took his life. Along with it, a new recurring dream \u2014 to make the U.S. slopestyle squad for the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.<\/p>\n

\u201cCan you imagine going from being buried for nearly five minutes to being on the podium at the Olympics?\u201d the 20-year-old from Southern California said. \u201cThat accident changed my whole life perspective, on living my everyday life.\u201d<\/p>\n

On April 22, 2018, Crouch and some friends took a helicopter trip into the backcountry to do some filming. Being April, they knew the snow might be a little unstable and were conscious of the avalanche dangers. They scouted the line they intended to traverse and had an exit plan just in case a slide occurred. Crouch was wearing an avalanche airbag as well, along with a locator beacon.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s Mother Nature you\u2019re dealing with out there,\u201d Crouch cautioned. \u201cThe mountain can change at any given second.\u201d<\/p>\n

It did.<\/p>\n

Standing on a ledge, Crouch was about to start when there was a loud crack.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe next thing I know, I\u2019m in this big whitewash ball of snow,\u201d Crouch recounted.<\/p>\n

He tugged and tugged on a cord to inflate his avalanche bag.<\/p>\n

The bag never deployed.<\/p>\n

Crouch heard the sound of his back breaking as he uncontrollably plummeted down the mountain. When he finally stopped, he was buried under about 6 feet of snow.<\/p>\n

There was no panic. Instead, a sense of calm washed over him as he tried to clear snow from his face. But it was as thick as concrete.<\/p>\n

So he closed his eyes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember thinking, \u2018This could be it,\u2019\u201d he recalled. \u201cIt will be a gift from God if I make it out of this one.\u201d<\/p>\n

His companions acted quick. One of them raced down on \u201cpretty much straight rock,\u201d Crouch said, to reach him. The others went around the slide as fast as they could.<\/p>\n

At the sound of the avalanche, the helicopter pilot was in the air to get to him. He was able to point out the vicinity of Crouch before he disappeared under the snow.<\/p>\n

Five minutes later, an unconscious Crouch was dug out by his friends. A few moments after that, he was alert.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember screaming really loud, \u2018I broke my back,\u2019\u201d Crouch said.<\/p>\n

He was taken to Whistler and transported by ambulance to Vancouver. On their way down, he tried to get the emergency personnel to make a stop at a convenience store.<\/p>\n

\u201cI asked if we could go buy a lottery ticket,\u201d Crouch said. \u201cIt would\u2019ve been a good day to buy one, because it was my lucky day.\u201d<\/p>\n

His injuries: Three fractured vertebrae, torn pancreas, five knocked-out teeth, a black eye (from either hitting a rock or his knee, he\u2019s not sure) and a bad concussion.<\/p>\n

The good news: No surgery would be needed to fix the back. There was no nerve damage, either, for the snowboarder who\u2019s been riding as much as he can since he was 3 years old \u2014 when he wasn\u2019t surfing or skateboarding \u2014 and is sponsored by the likes of Burton boards and Red Bull.<\/p>\n

One of the first to reach out to him soon after his accident was the late Jake Burton Carpenter, who founded the Burton snowboard company which helped launch an entire industry. Carpenter died in November after a relapse with testicular cancer.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe asked for everyone on the crew that helped rescue me,\u201d Crouch said. \u201cHe then called all of them individually and thanked them all for all their hard work. He sent them all bottles of Champagne. How cool is that?\u201d<\/p>\n

After a week in a Vancouver hospital, Crouch was flown back to Southern California.<\/p>\n

Next, the emotional recovery.<\/p>\n

He dealt with post-traumatic stress disorder after the avalanche. He had \u201cgnarly dreams\u201d of being buried, he explained. He was dating a girl at the time who cracked her back and brought back such intense memories that he would blurt, \u201cYou\u2019ve got to stop that.\u201d Living close to a small airport, the sound of a helicopter affected him.<\/p>\n

To help him overcome PTSD, Crouch attended classes that his friend\u2019s mom taught. The sessions helped ease the vivid nightmares.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt made me a lot more comfortable,\u201d Crouch said. \u201cIt\u2019s definitely pretty crazy, how your brain can be like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Six months later, Crouch was back on snow. He went to Switzerland with the U.S. team for a training camp. By the third day, he was already hitting jumps.<\/p>\n

The avalanche ordeal caused him to take a long look at his lifestyle. He vowed to take his snowboarding more serious.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was like, \u2018Well, it\u2019s time to buckle down and get serious and try to make a comeback out of it,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s taken a big step on the competition front this season by placing fourth at X Games in Aspen. Crouch also finished second to good friend Red Gerard in the slopestyle competition at a Winter Dew Tour stop.<\/p>\n

And while he didn\u2019t make the final round at the Burton U.S. Open last weekend in Vail, his exuberance was on display when he greeted Gerard, who took third, and the other finalists.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not really competitors but best friends,\u201c said Gerard, who won the Olympic slopestyle gold medal at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games. \u201cI\u2019m just happy he\u2019s still here.\u201d<\/p>\n

High on Crouch\u2019s future agenda: Return to that mountain spot for another attempt.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be a very special moment,\u201d Crouch said, \u201criding away from that.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FILE – In this Thursday, Jan. 23, 2020 file photo, Brock Crouch finishes his second run of the men’s snowboard slopestyle elimination on day one of X Games Aspen at Buttermilk Ski Area in Aspen, Colo. Snowboarder Brock Crouch was swept away in an avalanche two years ago and buried under the snow for five […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2455431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-18 12:03:24","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2455431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2455431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2455431\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2455431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2455431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2455431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}