Telemark skier suffers serious injury at Free-Skiing Championship at Alyeska

Eric Teela/ Teela Photography Ben Johnson, 34, of Denali, launches into his ill fated jump that left him with a broken neck and ankle. Johnson has undergone two surgeries in four days. He has mobility in his arms and legs but faces a long-term recovery. Johnson is an extreme telemark skier. He went “big” attempting to land a jump of more than 100 vertical feet. When he landed it is believed that he broke his ankle on impact, and then “rag dolled” another two hundred feet. Restart to see the animation again. To see the entire sequence click here.

By Allan Warren
Special to the Turnagain Times

On Saturday, March 29 at the World Telemark Free-skiing Championships hosted by Alyeska Resort in Girdwood, Ben Johnson, 34, an extreme telemark skier who makes his home just outside of Denali National Park, severely injured himself while skiing to raise money for Challenge Alaska, a non-profit adaptive ski program based out of Girdwood.
Challenge Alaska improves the quality of life for people with disabilities and the whole community through adaptive sports, therapeutic recreation, and education. Ironically, Johnson’s efforts to help this organization, and the individuals that are involved in it, nearly left him paralyzed.
After a clean first run and shortly before his second run at 6 p.m., Johnson text messaged his friend and spectator, Andy Morrison, a Girdwood resident, (My) first run (was) good and clean, (my) second run (is) soon, I plan to go big.”
Johnson began his second run in a steep chute called “Waterfall” off of Max’s Mountain at Alyeska, but quickly turned to his left through a rock band onto a unique line that no other skiers had attempted.
“Ben was on the line he wanted,” Dave Magoffin, fellow competitor and close friend of Ben’s said. “We scouted it earlier in the day and it was something that nobody else was even looking at trying to do. We felt that there was a 45 degree bail-out chute on skier’s right.”
But when Johnson approached the cliff band something didn’t seem right. He stopped at the top of the cliff and amongst poor visibility in the late daylight, cloudy skies and snow flurries, Johnson seemed unsure about what to do next.
“He spent about six minutes assessing the situation,” Morrison said. “Rock bands covered with snow and ice to the sides and below prevented him from skiing out of the area. Ben kicked a standing platform into the snow and considered his options. He appeared to remove and adjust his goggles, considered a kick turn several times and waved a ski pole.”
Finally, Johnson jumped an initial six to ten foot cliff and then launched off what many estimate to be a 70 to 120-foot cliff.
“It was one of those things where I was saying whoa, whoa! all while he was still dropping,” Eric Brown, close friend of Johnson’s and spectator of the event said.
He initially landed the jump but the impact sent him into an explosion and he “rag-dolled” down the mountain before sliding to a stop just below the High Traverse. Johnson was on his back, spread eagle and with his head down hill.
“He was in free-fall for a second and a half,” Eric Teela, photographer for the event said. “I was only about 150 yards from where he landed and heard him crash. It creeped me out but he was conscious and alert the whole time. Patrol got to him relatively fast.”
Teela, an adaptive ski and snowboard instructor for Challenge Alaska, was stationed near a rescue sled and pulled the sled across the slope when ski patrol needed it.
Brown, lower down the mountain, immediately called Morrison to tell him Johnson wasn’t moving. Meanwhile, Jesse Weeks, a close friend of Johnson’s from his hometown of Salt Lake City, Utah and guide for Chugach Powder Guides, called Clark Fyans at CPG to get a helicopter in route. CPG has a co-operative agreement with Alyeska to help out in severe accident situations.
Brown and Weeks then began running up the mountain and arrived immediately after the Alyeska Ski Patrol.
“I was freaked out huffing and puffing up that hill,” Brown said. “(Ben) was scared when I got to him but he was alert and began reciting off phone numbers while I was talking to him. He told me he couldn’t move and gave me his dad’s cell phone number and told me to take care of his dog. He even told me that he had a credit card payment due the next day and asked me to take care of it.
Minutes later the helicopter landed and ski patrol secured Johnson and he was enroute to Providence Hospital in Anchorage.
“When we first got on scene the prognosis was that he was paralyzed from the shoulders down,” Fyans said. “But when we were moving him onto the helicopter his elbow bumped the wall and he said, ‘watch my elbow’ which let me know he could feel it. I was shocked at how alert he was. He was asking questions and told us that he didn’t think he was getting blood to his hands and feet. I just placed my hand on his head and kept telling him everything was going to be okay.”
Johnson was initially moved to an ambulance at the base of the mountain and then transferred to another helicopter on the Seward Highway.
“I pulled in right behind the ambulance at the turnout,” Brown said. “I started to tell Ben that everything was alright and he screamed at me to take his boots off, his feet hurt. I yelled to him that that was a great sign. I had to tell the paramedics, ‘man, if you had super-tight ski boots on for an hour, your feet would be killing you too!”
Brown arrived at the hospital shortly after Johnson did and after speaking with him briefly the doctors came in with cat-scan results and whisked Johnson away to surgery where he had his cervical forth, fifth and sixth vertebrae fused. He is now stable and heavily sedated, but after surgery Johnson had movement in his arms and legs. It will be a few days before Johnson will be off sedation and the doctors can find out what else is wrong with him, but for now they think that his only other injury is a broken ankle. As of this writing, Johnson was also on a ventilator due to breathing complications from the spinal bruising.
Johnson skis for a charity program called “Athletes With a Cause,” organized through the Web site LifeMoreNatural.com. Prior to this weekend’s competition Johnson had raised almost $1,000 dollars to purchase a sit-ski in order to share his passion for skiing with local people with disabilities.
Johnson has been working hard all winter to raise money through his competitions and friends and family would appreciate any and all support for him and his efforts in helping Challenge Alaska.

Allan Warren is a writer from Alaska but currently lives in Reno where he’s pursuing a Master’s degree in Journalism at the University of Nevada, Reno. He expects to graduate this year and return to Alaska.

photo:

The run Ben Johnson chose during the World Telemark Free Skiing Championships was a unique line that no other skiers had attempted.