If there’s one thing I’ve learned in life it’s that you just can’t win ’em all. I don’t want to make it sound like the #SaltysTeam trip to Brian Head for Southwest Super Sessions was a bust, because it most certainly was NOT, but it was one hell of a roller coaster ride. Allow me to explain.
April 24th: Day 1 started bright and early when the heavy crew consisting of myself, Tyler Hubbell, Taylor Miller, Chris Frost, Kyle Harmon, James Fleege, Carl Spandgrude, Eli Hays, Alex Bass, Kevin McClelland, and Justin Keskin, left the valley at around 7am to make the 3 1/2 hour trek down south. Spirits were high, albeit sleepy, and we made it to Brian Head in record time where we met up with Amanda Hankison and Davey Steigerwald. It was a bit cloudy and cool when we got there, but we knew conditions would turn pretty perfect as we rode, so we immediately geared up in the parking lot, cracked our fair share of beers, and got after it. For me personally, Day 1 was the highlight of the trip. Brian Head’s terrain park crew is absolutely phenomenal, not to mention incredibly friendly and welcoming, and the whole Southwest Super Sessions set-up was beyond fun (shout out to Noah and Adele for being BOSSES). The park got slushier and slushier with each run, and more and more time was spent slashing banks, euro-carving, and trying to emulate proper surf-style rather than hitting rails. I’m actually pretty sure I only touched metal a handful of times the entire trip. Everyone was loose, spirits were even higher, and life was good… but this is where things took a turn.
In the span of two runs, Tyler hurt his back, Kevin broke three teeth, and Miller taco’d a kink rail harder than I ever thought possible. While three of the crew were immediately out, those of us left continued to lap, but not for too much longer. Right before I was about to drop into my favorite surf line, I got the call from Kyle that Miller had just thrown up in the parking lot and was not doing ok. I ditched the casual surf turns and pointed it down as fast as I could. People from the lift probably thought I was going to hit the big jump, but little did they know I was racing the clock.
When I got to the bottom, Kyle was helping Miller walk to Ski Patrol (don’t worry, it was a short distance). Miller got checked out, and they didn’t feel anything immediately wrong, but he seemed to be getting worse and they eventually put him on oxygen. It was shortly after that that we made the call to get him to the hospital. Kevin and I dumped what we could out of my car, loaded in Miller and pointed it towards Cedar City. With Miller looking like he was losing consciousness and my fear/stress at an all time high, I drove roughly 95mph the entire way with Kevin sweating bullets in the back. I won’t get into all the hospital details, but it was a long night. Kevin and I left there around 11pm with more uncertainty than when we arrived. Miller seemed to be doing better, but there was a chance that he did more than bruise his insides and he might need surgery to survey the damage.
April 25th: The next day, I got the dreaded call from Miller that he had to get the surgery. Kevin, Eli, and I went down first thing in the morning to be there before and after. The plan was to make a small incision and insert a camera to see what was wrong. Turns out things were very wrong and his surgery was going to be more extensive than planned. He had bruised one of his kidneys and ripped a hole in his small intestine. If they didn’t repair it, he could have kept bleeding to a point where part of his bowels would die, forming a perforation that would let bodily waste leak into the rest of his body making him dangerously sick down the line. Not cool. The surgical team ended up removing the ripped part of his intestine then stitched it all back together. When he was out of surgery, Tyler, Amanda Hanikson, Davey Steigerwald, and Alex Bass joined us to support Miller as he began his recovery. Upon returning from the hospital after another long day, libations were poured and cheers to Miller being a boss were shared. The rest of the night is a bit of blur as the cheers and libations continued into the witching hour.
April 26th: On the bright side of all this, we awoke the next morning to a foot of fresh snow! After packing up the incredible condo (Giant Steps Lodge, go there) that I barely spent any time in, and poor Miller didn’t even get to see, we ripped some of the most fun turns of the year. Since there was only the one park lift open, we hiked for the goods a few times which proved to be more than worth it. From there it was back to the hospital to say our goodbyes to Miller as his parents were rolling into town, then we pointed it back to SLC, exhausted, drained, and probably pretty dehydrated.
While I will admit this has been kind of a downer of a blog post, if you look at the other side of this whole trip, the rest of the crew killed it! Chris, Kyle, James, Carl, and Justin kept the shred alive and ended up getting some sick powder shots! So by no fault of Brian Head’s, the weekend ended up pretty hit and miss, but that’s just the risk you have to take when going full bore on shred adventures. Some of the boys got fantastic shots and epic powder while others were down for the count. I can’t thank everyone at Brian Head enough for putting on this event, and I really hope we can get a second chance at Southwest Super Sessions next year. For now, enjoy these few shots and stay tuned for the video coming soon!
Kyle Harmon enters…
…and exits the white room.
James Fleege with a high speed slash.
Manager extraordinaire Colin Howells getting it.
Powder is better with the squad.
Chris Frost is always committed to get pitted.
Never bummed on the frozen snow beard.
