I was doing backcountry snowboarding on a mountain I grew up near. It’s not anywhere near an established ski resort so there’s no mapped out sections or any safety measures. I was with a group and we were mostly sticking together, but I didn’t want to wait for them to smoke a cigarette so I just went ahead.

The ride itself was a ton of fun and probably the craziest line I’ve ever hit. I bombed it out of the bottom because I could see there was a big flat section coming and I didn’t want to walk through the snow to get out. I rode as long and far as I could, but eventually stopped as I didn’t have enough speed. I was in the middle of a big clearing and didn’t see really any other tracks, but it was late spring and where I was was pretty icy. So I unstrapped and stepped off of my board, picked it up, and started walking toward our meeting spot.

Apparently the clearing I was in was not so much just a nice meadow. Nope, it was a pond. I don’t know how many steps I took before I just fell straight through the top layer. Now I don’t know if the water had just backed up there from an ice floe and then maybe the dam melted and it all went away, but what I do know is that I landed with my armpits on my board and I was dangling.

Thankfully I was a strong little shit, so I pulled myself right up and was able to spread my weight out using my board and otherwise. But when I looked into the hole I had made, it was like fifteen feet straight down to a bunch of big rocks. Had I fallen in, I have no idea if anyone would have been able to find me.

I wasn’t too scared then, but it hits me now and again how utterly close to death I was just then. Terrifying.