I remember it clearly like it happened just yesterday. It was the most intense and frightening time of my life. It was the winter of freshmen year in college and I came back to Los Angeles for the break. I had been planning a trip with two friends to go Snowboarding at Jackson Hole. My best friends growing up Patrick and Keven, it was rare that we got to see each other because we were all in college at different schools but when we had the chance to hang out together we took advantage. We had been planning this trip for a few months now and it finally dawned on me how close the trip was. I had a couple of days to pack and get all of my stuff ready. The stresses of packing for a big trip are always tough making sure I have all my snowboard stuff together, making sure I had my plane ticket, and enough clothing for the two week vacation. We arrived at LAX at five in the morning for our flight at seven. Checking in our snowboard bags and getting through security was a bit of a challenge. The flight only took a couple of hours because Jackson Hole is in Wyoming. After getting off of the plane we went to baggage claim. Patrick and I got our snowboard bags right away but Keven’s never came. We found out that it got sent to the wrong airport and that he wouldn’t have it for a couple of days. This put a damper on our plans because we were going to go snowboarding as much as possible. We got in a cab and drove around the city a little bit to get familiar with the area. When we got to the hotel it was about mid-day and I took a nap while Keven and Patrick walked around the hotel for a while. It was a couple of days before New Year’s the mountain was rather crowded so we decided that we would do some backcountry snowboarding so that we wouldn’t have to worry about lines and the number of people. Keven still hadn’t gotten his snowboard at that time but we wanted to go so bad. He told us that we could go without him for the next day. Patrick and I went into town to see if we could rent snowmobiles so that we wouldn’t have to backpack in snow that was up to our waist. We found a small little shack where a local was renting out his two snowmobiles. He was a nice guy but a little strange because he was wearing parachute pants and a tank top in the middle of winter. But who am I to judge? We rented the snowmobiles for the following day, and then went back to the hotel where Keven was sitting in the lobby watching Monday night football with a large group of other vacationers. Patrick and I both joined him but immediately after the game ended went up to our room and went to bed. We had a big day ahead of ourselves. I woke up looked out the window and saw fresh snow on the ground I was so excited I went over to Patrick’s bed and woke him up. Patrick and I went down to the lobby and got breakfast. Then we went back up to our room gathered all of our snowboarding gear and went over to the snowmobile rental place. The fresh snow made it possible for us to snowmobile straight from the rental shack to the mountains where we found untouched powder. It was the most beautiful day the sun was high in the sky the weather wasn’t too cold and the snow was soft and fluffy. We took the snowmobiles up to the top of this one super steep run that was at the top of the peak. I dropped in first and immediately realized that it was a lot steeper then it looked. I was being cautious as I was going down the hill making speed checks so that I wouldn’t get out of control. I started going down the ridge when I heard a huge CRACK! I looked behind me and the snow shelf had collapsed. I saw Patrick at the peak of the mountain panicking. The snow kept getting closer and closer it was a full on avalanche and I was right in the middle of it. I decided the only way I could get out of this alive was to try to out run it. There was a chance that I would be able to out run it but I was only a quarter of the way down the mountain. I would have to b-line it straight down the mountain so that’s what I did. The snow was twenty feet away and closing quickly I knew at that point that I wasn’t going to make it down the mountain. I braced myself for impact. I remember the impact then complete darkness I had no idea which way was up or down. I heard Patrick stop close to where I was he was yelling my name. I started yelling back but he couldn’t hear me. A couple of minutes went by and I started to panic my vision was getting blurry I was running out of oxygen. That’s all I remember my life flashed before my eyes and then I was out. I woke up in the local hospital with multiple machines attached to me and my best friends Patrick and Keven sitting at my bed side. We flew back to Los Angeles early due to what happened. As a group we went back to that exact spot ten years after the accident. I was just lucky that day and truly blessed to have the best friends possible.