Professional free skier CR Johnson, 26, was killed in an accident Wednesday at Squaw Valley, CA.
Johnson was skiing with a group of friends when he tried to negotiate a “very, very tight, rocky area,” said Jim Rogers, a member of the Lake Tahoe-area resort’s ski patrol.
Rogers said Johnson was skiing recreationally and not as part of a competition when he lost his balance on the steep slope in a part of the resort known as the Light Towers area.
Squaw Valley spokeswoman Amelia Richmond released this statement, “Witnesses immediately notified ski patrol and medical personnel arrived on the scene within minutes. Despite efforts to revive Johnson, who was wearing a helmet at the time of the incident, he succumbed to his injuries.”
Johnson was a two-time Winter X Games medalist, earning bronze in the 2001 Big Air and silver in the 2002 slopestyle. In recent years he was admired for his inspiring return to skiing after suffering a traumatic brain injury in December 2005. The injury, sustained when another skier accidentally landed on him during a run, left him in a coma for 10 days. He spent 34 days in the hospital and several months in rehab, but was back on snow by the end of that winter.
Johnson was a pioneer in park-style and halfpipe skiing and an inspiration to those who knew him. “He’s the defining person who put halfpipe skiing on the map,” says two-time Winter X SuperPipe champion Simon Dumont. Johnson also appeared in numerous ski films, including Seven Sunny Days, Ski Movie III, and 2007’s Believe.
“CR lived every day in the present,” said Poor Boyz Productions cinematographer Tyler Hamlet, who filmed Johnson last winter for the PBP movie Every Day Is A Saturday. “He was always positive, always stoked. I just hope people can take his vibe into their own lives. Live it, shred it, be happy.”
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