My friends skiing down Middle Earth at Sugarbush on Feb. 2, 2025.

One week ago today, I was ripping around Sugarbush with my friends. We got there shortly after open and were planning to ski until close. Fortunately, we got most of the ski day in before I had a moment where, for the first time in my life, I thought I was going to die.

It was Groundhog Day, a day in which the world turns their attention to whether or not a rodent saw their shadow. Myself? I ask if the skier saw their shadow and, this year, they did. That means six more weeks of winter, for those who always get it mixed up. That’s a lot more winter to come for what has already been a very good winter in northern New York and Vermont, where I primarily ski. Snow has been ample, thaws have been limited and the cold has hung around. Needless to say, the mountain was fully open and there was plenty of snow for a great day.

I skied with Pro Skier Darren White, my friend Chris and Wild Bill, who had never been to Sugarbush before. Wild Bill doesn’t venture away from his home mountain much, so in a way it was kind of a special event. It was a cold day, but overall, the weather was great. The sun was out at times, there was no wind and the cold kept the crowds away.

Sugarbush is a large ski resort that’s split into two main areas: Mount Ellen and Lincoln Peak. In terms of skiing, the mountain’s aren’t close so you kind of need to choose to ski one or the other for the day. We chose Lincoln Peak. We didn’t ski every run, but we did get around to all the major areas. Conditions were overall pretty good. There were some icy spots here and there, but there was also plenty of packed powder, too. The bumps on the natural snow-only terrain, such as the runs off Castlerock, weren’t firm. They weren’t crazy soft either, but it was nice skiing.

My run of the day was probably Paradise, which is located off the Heaven’s Gate Lift. We skied some trees alongside Paradise that were deep, steep and challenging. We did not put on a clinic in those trees, but we did have a good time and that’s all that really matters. Not to mention it was absolutely beautiful in there.

It wasn’t until near the end of the day that the accident occurred. Based off a photo I took shortly before it, I came crashing down on the run ‘Sleeper’ between 2:45 PM and 3 PM. Sleeper is an intermediate trail located down low on the mountain. Sleeper has some character due to the trees that are scattered around on it, which is the reason I really enjoy skiing it. It’s not a glade run and there aren’t a ton of trees, but it’s different and it’s really nice to ski through.

As we came down Sleeper, I skied around a tree and then went to make a turn ahead of another tree. When I went to make that next turn, I caught an edge. Time slowed down. I knew I was crashing and I knew a tree was nearby. Upon the first impact, I felt the air rush out of my lungs. I couldn’t breathe. With me breathless, my body flying and flipping along the ground, my eyes were closed bracing for what was next. For the first time ever, the voice inside my head expressed that I might be on the verge of death.

Sugarbush Ski Patrol attending to me. Photo credit: Chris Cover.

Suddenly, time sped up. I was laying there, gasping for air, saying “help.” I’ve lost my breath before and it’s not normally this bad. I knew something was different. It took me a few seconds to get my breath back and even once I did, I could barely breathe. My friends quickly called for ski patrol and an instructor for Sugarbush stopped and said he would stick around until ski patrol showed up if we wanted him to.

Moments after ski patrol loaded me in to the sled. Photo credit: Wild Bill.

My friends were trying to be positive, but the pain was extreme. I couldn’t move the upper half of my body and I could barely breathe. It’s not a great position to be in on the side of a mountain, I can tell you that much. When ski patrol arrived, they asked me what happened and if I’d hit a tree. I told them I remembered the accident and I didn’t think I hit a tree. My friends didn’t think I did, either. It was just a very hard fall. Ski patrol tried to set me up right, but the pain was too extreme.

The ride down Sleeper in the ski patrol sled hurt like hell. It felt like we were moving a million miles an hour and I could feel every bump and groove of the trail in the upper half of my body. It was one of those moments you know you just have to suffer through the pain. Once we reached the bottom of the ski area, they wheeled me into their clinic and started checking my vitals. They also did an ultra sound. The doctor on-site determined an ambulance was needed.

Once I was loaded into the ambulance, they let me know they weren't going to give me pain medicine, because they wanted to wait for the doctor to see me or something along those lines. The ambulance ride was long and bumpy, traversing its way through the Green Mountains to a hospital in Berlin, Vermont.

They wheeled me into the emergency room and I was finally given pain medicine. To be honest, it didn’t feel like it did much. I was still in extreme pain. They did a bunch of tests and then took me back for a CT scan. The scan found that I had broken 6 ribs on my left side, ribs 3-9, as well as punctured a small hole in my renal artery. When the doctor told me the news, he told me, when you break that many ribs, other complications could arise and I needed to be sent to Burlington for further care. Another ambulance showed up later that night and took me to Burlington. I got to my hospital room around 11 PM.

My wife came to stay with me in the hospital the next morning. Before she got there, the doctors had let me know that there’s really not much you can do for broken ribs except pain management. They also let me know that I was going to have to find a way to get up and move around to help prevent other issues from developing, which was something I hadn’t done since crashing to the ground. Getting up was extremely painful, as was basically all movement, but I managed to force myself to do it several times a day while I was in the hospital. Along with all of the pain in my torso, my left arm had limited movement due to the pain stemming from my ribs.

Riding the ferry home from Vermont to northern New York after leaving the hospital.

I stayed in the hospital for two nights. Late Tuesday afternoon they cleared me to go home. The drive home from Burlington to northern New York was a painful experience, but it was nice to finally be home. That first night and the next day, without the IVs and injections the hospital had been giving me, were extremely painful, too. They had sent me home with pain meds, of course, but it wasn’t the same.

It’s now been 5 days since I got home. I’ve spent most of that time bound to a recliner, getting up periodically and moving around at a turtle-like pace, all in still-extreme pain. The good news is that my pain has started to decrease. It’s probably at an 8 out of 10 now. I still don’t have much movement in my left arm, but it’s a little better than it was. Breathing deeply is still a struggle. Progress has been slow, but I’m starting to recover.

My dog Oscar sitting in my lap as I lay in my recliner.

I want to thank my friends Pro Skier Darren White, Chris and Wild Bill for calling ski patrol, being there along my side during it, collecting my things, contacting my wife for me and offering to help in other ways. I especially want to thank Wild Bill for coming to the hospital in Berlin and sticking around until late in the evening with me. I also want to thank the medical teams at the hospitals, and the ski patrol at Sugarbush for their help getting me down the mountain, as well as my neighbor who has cleared our driveway of snow several times over the last week.

And most importantly, I want to thank my wife who has taken care of me this past week. From helping me stand up, to giving me 10 different medicines at differing hours of the day, to taking care of the dogs, carrying the recliner up from the basement, and so much more, thank you for everything. I’m very blessed to call you my wife. I love you.

The last week has been a tough one, but I’ve managed to overcome it. I don’t know what the rest of the ski season looks like for me. The doctors have all given me a pretty wide range of timelines, but I do think I’ll be back out there at some point. In the meantime, I’ll be dreaming about my next day on snow.

Never Quit Skiing,

Lincoln

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