Unbroken: The Snowboard Life of Mark McMorris Page #2

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and go out there and think

you're safe, you know.

You're just a little

ant out there.

[Craig] I don't know, you look at

it on a scale of risk to reward.

Maybe somebody's like

I don't see the reward

for all that risk, but I

definitely see the reward for risk

because it's like no other

place on earth, really.

Having got to do a ton

of the backcountry side,

especially last year,

and the spring when I would

usually be in the backcountry,

I had a broken femur.

I get the itch again,

really excited to get back

in the backcountry

for the whole spring

with some of my

hometown friends,

some friends from

Whistler with my brother

that I hadn't really

snowboarded with once all year.

Mark could just finish

up the competition schedule

and Whistler stands alone

when it comes to

backcountry snowboarding

in terms of shear magnitude.

It's extremely fun.

Craig calls me

and he was like,

hey backcountry is gonna

be good, really excited,

really good snow.

Found this little

mellow pat-down,

like kind of a famous little

step-down in between two trees.

This one that we went

to, it's called Rainbow.

I was like, that's

perfect for me and Mark.

It's not super big, you're

just landing in snow.

You don't have to

jump over anything.

There's not a

cliff-face or anything.

So we built a take-off.

Ryan, Teeny and Torstein were

building a jump on the shelf.

There was a lot of

bad weather in Whistler.

The snow was coming in and out

and there's cloud-coverage.

On those days we set

up jumps or features

that are close to trees

just cause it helps

with definition when it's

not a full, nice sunny day.

I did a switchback five

and I spun to the right

and I hit the tree branch,

like just on the left.

You really gotta

spin to the right,

like even more than I did.

Then Mark went, he

tried a cab spin,

so he spun to the right,

pretty far to the right.

He landed in the perfect spot.

We each hit it once, both

kinda miss our trick but barely.

And then the clouds

came even thicker in,

so visibility was a huge

issue, so we waited.

And Craig's like you

know what, I'm over it.

I don't even wanna hit it again,

and then I was like okay, well

I'll just wait like an hour

and see if this weather

changes 'cause it clouded over.

Then it kinda did change.

Mark went up again.

(yells)

Okay, ready Mark?

So I'm takeoff,

but instead of

spinning to the right,

he spun to the left.

(dramatic string music)

(crash)

It was a direct hit.

Mark just exploded into

this pack of trees.

[Woman] Did he make it?

[Man] Hear that?

[Woman] No.

[Man] Mark!

And just like silence,

and there's like nothing,

so I'm like oh, oh

sh*t, here we go.

(suspenseful music)

(Marc cries out)

You don't know if it's

a spinal chord injury

or anything like that,

so you don't wanna

move him really at all,

but you have to keep him warm.

So, get him into

a safe position.

This is not good.

We need to keep calm here and

just assess the situation.

Craig was the one with

the satellite phone.

Luckily he brought that, so he

started calling heli-rescue.

Gotta get him off the snow

cause hypothermia could

set in (snaps) like that.

[Torstein] Mark,

how's your temperature?

Hang in there, buddy.

[Craig] Yeah,

you got this, Mark.

[Torstein] Help's on the

way, help's on the way.

We got the heli.

[Craig] The

heli's coming, Mark.

You know, I could see

his jaw was super broken

cause hanging off,

blood everywhere.

Don't know if the blood

is coming from the inside.

He was lying there,

waiting for the helicopter.

He was so messed

up, so much trauma.

So a half an hour went

by, couldn't hear anything.

An hour went by and

Mark's starting to fade

and vomiting a lot of blood

and like really dark blood.

There's gotta be

trauma to the inside

but you don't know how much

and how long he's gonna last.

You're just waiting

for the helicopter.

It's taking so long,

it takes so long.

Craig kept calling back and

an hour and a half goes by,

and we still can't

hear the blades.

(Mark groans)

[Woman] Okay, don't move.

Don't move.

(Mark groans)

(suspenseful music)

And then Mark is

really starting to fade.

You know, is this

actually happening?

Is he fading that

hard right now?

Okay, you hold on to your arm,

we've got the rest of you.

(Mark moans)

(Mark mumbles)

You got this Mark,

you're a champ.

[Woman] Just focus on

his breaths, in and out.

When it seemed like

it was no hope left,

we started to hear

the helicopter.

(helicopter whirring)

Okay, let's do this,

let's get him out of here.

(dramatic music)

He is fresh off a

World Cup Championship

in snowboarding with

the nation's hopes

for Olympic glory already

riding on his shoulders.

But tonight, Mark McMorris

is in intensive care

in hospital after a horrific

snowboarding accident.

[Reporter] In a release,

Canada snowboard's

team physicians

said the injuries

to McMorris's shattered body

included a fractured jaw,

a fractured left arm,

a ruptured spleen,

a stable pelvic

fracture, rib fractures,

and a collapsed left lung.

(bass drum hit)

The call was from

Craig and when he said,

"You need to come,

it's serious,"

then the panic set in.

When he got to

Vancouver and we started

hearing from the trauma team

in the Vancouver General,

and then knowing that

he's bleeding internally,

that he'd had a ruptured spleen,

and they had to

operate right away.

So now it has

completely gone from,

not what the future

is going to be,

it's whether he is

going to have a future.

(machines beeping)

Yeah, I mean, it

was terrifying because

being in the medical field I

knew what he was up against.

And when we walked into

the room the first time,

of course he's unconscious,

and you have the breathing

machine going beside him,

and all the tubes going

in and coming out of him.

I expected all that

because of where I've worked

and what I've seen, so I

wasn't shocked at that,

but when it's your kid,

it's like, oh my God.

It's like you just

feel sick in your stomach

that he's like, so many tubes,

so many needles,

so much surgery.

And you see what they've

done in intensive care,

and you're like how the

hell did he survive?

I don't remember the

instant second I came to,

but I remember

slowly looking around

and seeing everybody and

just so happy to be alive.

His eyes are wide open.

He knows exactly

what's going on.

He couldn't speak

yet, but write, and...

He's kind of sitting up

in the bed with a clipboard

and writing little notes to us.

He wrote, "I really

thought I was gonna die

"because I saw light and dark."

One was, "So lucky

to have Craig."

He said he really

did keep me alive

because he said I

was blacking out,

and he just talked me through.

We were so thankful

that he was there.

Unfortunate for Craig, I think,

because I think it

was very traumatizing.

But, (clicks cheek), they

do those crazy things.

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