What? What were you doing that day?
Were you intentionally rock climbing?
Who are you with? So I was with my friend Trevor,
Hunter, Maddie and Isabel, and we were paddle boarding actually
across from the deck to where the rocks are.
A lot of people will jump off these rocks.
There's been couple injuries out there previously, but we paddle
boarded across the lake and we were going just to kind of hang
out on a beach area that we love to to camp at all the above so.
What happened? So a lot of the other people
were hanging out paddle boards. We kind of all broke off into
different groups. And my friend Trevor and I
decided to climb a boulder that was anywhere from 35 to 40 feet.
And it was very mossy and kind of insecure.
And then when we got to the top, when he jumped, essentially, if
this is the bottom of the Cliff and this is the top, there was
black lava rocks on the edge and you really had to jump far and
out to clear it. And I saw him and he barely
like, made that water zone. And it really freaked me out.
And then he kind of swam away. And it was just my friend Isabel
down here. She had a GoPro.
But then her GoPro died, I guess minutes before this, minutes
before this happened. And when I went to jump, I
hesitated. I got scared.
And so I fell on my side onto the lava rocks.
Wait, hold on, you were rock climbing up Moss.
Well, it's kind of like a form of bouldering, but it wasn't
anything crazy with grades. It was definitely an easy maybe
like V-0 V1, but yeah, we climbed to the top, bouldered it
more like. It's definitely not the steepest
climb ever. I don't even know if we could
put it in the V-0 range. I at this point, I can't
remember how hard it was, but I do remember that there was Moss,
the lava rocks. There's a type of Moss.
It's one of my favourites. It's called photosynthesis Moss,
and whenever it gets wet, it photosynthesizes within less
than 3 minutes. So it'll go from black dormant
to bright green. And so that's what was on the
rocks with lichen. But a lot of times when people
develop areas to climb, they'll do a lot of route developing
where they're cleaning the routes, either scrubbing the
Moss off or the lichen and making sure the holes are all
clean and secure. How old were you?
I was 17. So the senior year of high
school. Summer before.
Summer before high school. Wow.
And was this a boyfriend? No.
One of my best friends, he's actually married to one of my
really good friends, Brinley. OK.
Yeah. So you at the top, you're both
standing there, you're looking over the edge and you were not
deciding to climb down because the Moss was too slick.
Yeah, and it was not. Not only was the Moss too slick,
but again, when you develop routes, a lot of times routes
are chassy, which is where bits and pieces of the rocks kind of
fall off and you develop it, make sure it's clean.
The more it's climbed, the less chass or more secure the rock
becomes. And this rock wasn't really
fully secured. It was not.
It's not like a place people go and climb.
It's not a place people go in Boulder.
It was like we were at the lake. It's a place we go swim when
it's really hot in the desert of Saint George, it gets over 100°.
And so in June, that's why we were trying to do was escape the
heat. Had you climbed this boulder
before? No, not like that.
No, at least. No, no, no, no 'cause I felt
trapped on top, yeah. How long were?
You up there? I just remember I got up top and
I felt that gut wrenching feeling that's like, don't do
that thing. And Isabel was down there
waiting for me and Trevor had swam away and I told her I'm
scared. I don't know if I want to do
this, but then. What was stopping you from
jumping or from being? What was What was causing the
fear? Was it the fear of heights?
Did you think you were going to hit the rock?
Did you think you were going to hit the water?
The rocks, the uneven you saw. Him jump off 1st.
Yeah, and and it, I watched him kind of get freaked out with how
close he was hitting the rocks. I think seeing his momentum go
down, I almost wish that I went first and then he could have
gone second. But I also think being up there
looking down, I did feel trapped and then a thought in my head
went I do not want search and rescue to come and save me
because I don't. This all went through your head
before you jumped. Yes.
And then it was just like, no, like I just have to go and do
it. And Isabel was down here, and
she was the one who saw me hit. So when he jumped, did he just
jump or did he do like a running start?
He did a running start, and that's what, now that you asked
me that, that's what freaked me out.
It's because I knew I would have to do a running start.
I'm not as coordinated as Trevor that way.
Especially then I hadn't climbed as much to the degree I
definitely climbed, but I didn't train in the way that I do now
in comparison. So yeah, running and jumping off
a Cliff, that is the aspect that freaks me out.
If you had decided to not jump, what would been the alternative?
Either down climbing, which I just don't think was doable
because it was like a 40 foot high boulder.
I think in the police report said it 30 to 40 foot Cliff.
So down climbing with Moss. No climbing shoes too, right?
Like we weren't we didn't have climbing shoes.
We didn't have chalk. We were barefoot from like
paddle boarding and swimming. Were you roped up?
No ropes. Oh my gosh.
Yeah, no ropes because it's not a climbing area.
It was like a let's climb this quick section of rock so we can
Cliff jump. And when we were going around
the rock, I think we thought it was way more secure than it was.
And I remember being pretty freaked out on the climb up.
But again, I think it was just the insecurity of the rock and
the choss. The actual climbing level of it
wasn't that extreme. Oh my gosh.
So he jumps, barely clears rock below.
How long were you up there? I probably hesitated for
anywhere from like 8 to 15 minutes would be my guess.
Or like maybe 5 to 15. Psyching yourself out.
Yeah, and that, I think that's like one of the things is you
just always have to commit. And I went back.
I it's so funny you say that. Definitely the running start I
remember like backing up on the Cliff ledge so that I could get
the running start. I started running and then just
thinking, hell no, stopping right here.
And that's what made me fall on my side.
So I think I should have committed A or B, just like been
OK with calling search and rescue, to be honest with you,
because they came anyways when I fell off the clue.
Yeah, it's true. Hindsight's always 2020, but.
Take me through what happened. Now you're you're hesitating,
you're at the edge. You're just about to go off.
Totally, and I think just the fear, the gut, that gut feeling
that people talk about the the thing that's like, don't go here
a serial killers there. That's what I felt on the top of
the ledge and it at that point momentum was too late and I
stumbled on my feet and then fell sideways onto my left side
pelvis and it shattered my pelvis.
My heel bounced so I shattered my heel left side my.
This is actually really lucky in hindsight, but essentially the
head of my femur dislocated from my pelvis before my pelvis
shattered. Wow.
Which is good because having a pelvis fracture with the femur
fracture would really suck and I only got like a tiny spiral
crack kind of fracture on the head of my femur.
So and it also saved when the pelvis broke in the parts that
it did. I'm really lucky because the
actual hip socket, they were still good and intact and a lot
of people have to get surgery on those because the cartilage and
the cushioning, they lose it over time.
But luckily I don't have the head of my femurs affected or
the socket for the femurs there. So, so when you're, you're,
you're jumping, what did you hit rock on the way down or did you
just land on like was it Flat Rock?
What was it? Lava rock, like think about
uneven, it's porous, it's black and it's all kind of just in a
pile like together. And I got really lucky because
if I would have fallen to the left or to the right,
potentially could have hit my spine in a different spot.
So it's almost better that my left side body took impact than
my spine or my face or front. But what the weirdest part to me
is I have had, I was kind of a crazy wild child and I grew up
with a marine brother who also rock climbed and got me into
that. He was a guide for a local shop,
Paragon Adventures when I was younger.
So got into climbing. He was working at the desert
right? And I think the confidence was
there, but also just having fun and exploring.
So and it not just with climbing, but with just
everything. So I had a couple accidents
months prior on a long board trying to keep up with some of
my guy friends who were really good at like like going really
fast, bombing on long boards down some of these roads in
Ivins. And let's just say I couldn't
keep up with them and I had bruises, Rd. rash, dislocated my
shoulder, really injured myself. But what's different about that
versus the Cliff accident, to tie it back in, was when I fell,
it was like a dunk. And I didn't have much bruising
or scratches. It was all internal.
So I had internal bleeding. My organs were like kind of
basically slightly cut up from the bones of my pelvis.
Wow. And the other thing is when I
fell, I remember this so distant.
It's weird when you're falling because you think it feels like
forever and like the quickest thing.
I'm trying to find better words for that.
It feels like you're taking forever, but it's also happening
all at once and so quickly. That's a better way to word
that. So when I was falling, I
remember thinking like I need to protect my head.
And so I went like this and my elbow actually hit the lava rock
and this elbow, I still have almost more issues in my pelvis
and not in a bad way, but it it's like that external rotation
because I broke it right where it rotates through the owner
essentially and the owner and radius right in the elbow spiral
fracture that and this wrist. So this whole side basically
just like, and then my left side as well and left heel just kind
of hit the ground and bounced. And then the pelvis is really
what took the impact. And luckily when we were paddle
boarding in earlier that day, we met this really awesome
fisherman and he was in like a tin boat or a small boat.
And we made friends with him, had a really good chat with him.
And he was out in an angle. Because remember, my friends
were in, it's like a sandy beach alcove.
And then there's rocks separating you from the point
that we jumped into this alcove of water with rocks.
So they're all over here. And they said that they
literally heard my bones hit or something hit, and Isabel is the
only one who actually saw it with her own eyes.
They heard you hit the rock. Yeah.
Oh my gosh. So I've I've done Cliff diving
or jumping. Yeah.
I sound like, I'm like, I've done it like twice in my life,
OK. And I I vividly remember I was
in high school actually, and I did it sounds like the.
I remember when I got done thinking to myself, I had time
to think about my death on the way down.
Yes. Yes, that's the best description
of that. So what?
What? So you're, I just can't imagine
what you're thinking from the point where you have this like
moment where you decide I'm not going to jump, but I have to
jump because it's too late. Yeah, like I'm falling now.
Like it's like, OK, gravity is hitting like, yeah.
So once you are on the rocks, do you remember what happened next?
Yeah, and this is where things get really crazy, is one of the
EMT's, maybe a couple of them, but they all thought it was
really weird that I didn't pass out because I didn't.
You you have a full memory of everything that happened.
Yeah, I think the only time my memory got pretty foggy was when
pain meds were brought into the picture later on.
Mixed with like, blood thinners, mixed with way too many things
all at once. But yeah, I think that is the
wildest part of this accident is I was very coherent and to the
point where the guy on the boat, the EMT, he was out in like the
open space because remember, they're hidden.
They heard the noise. Isabel's here and he was there
quicker then I could get off the rocks.
He was like, so. So he heard you hit and knew it
was a body. He saw because they're hidden.
My friends are hidden on the sandy beach alcove rocks, the
microphone. There's a big rock pile.
You have to climb up the slick rock.
And that's another reason why I think we thought we could climb
this boulder is you're climbing a bunch of slick rock.
It's all like a slick rock jungle gym.
And this one didn't seem too different.
And we were like, yeah, we got this.
And it was definitely different. It was insecure rock.
It was a different layer of the sandstone.
Funny thing about the sandstone is different layers are going to
be more porous, different layers are going to just like a diamond
versus an emerald, have more hard scale to them.
So I think when you're climbing up the slick rock and then
you're climbing up the boulder, that layer of sandstone mixed in
with the water of the reservoir, that rock was just not secure
for what we were doing out there for sure.
And then you mix in the confidence of a 17 year old who
really hung out with her brothers too much on top of
ignorance of a 17 year old. Yeah, we got to put it in
perspective. You were in high.
School, Yes, yes, yes. I would not do that now.
And I learned a lot from my accident.
Yeah, because of yeah, these things, essentially.
But yeah, so my friends were hidden on the alcove and the EMT
cruised over because he saw clear visual.
I think he was like probably enjoyed watching Trevor jump and
swim around because he swimmed around the boulders to the
friends on the beach. And then he probably saw me
hesitating fall and it was I. Just can't believe there's an.
EMT there. This is where I had several
things that happened where I'm like, oh, I am really, really
lucky because he came over and as I was wanting to get up, even
just creasing through the hip flexors and the hips, he held me
in C-SPAN and made me lay flat. And with my pelvis shattered the
way it was, it could have caused way more internal bleeding or
severed more. Because essentially what
happened is when my accident first happened, they thought it
would be a full paralysis. And I'm really lucky that when a
lot of the inflammation and swelling went down, six months
later I got the news that it was a partial paralysis, which is
great because you have more ability to heal the nerves and
have them essentially come back to life.
You're the EMT comes to you. I here's here's my question for
you because I I'm I just can't imagine being in this situation
where you are a man, you're laying on a rock like that.
After that just happened, did you realize the extent of your
injury? Was it Were you thinking to
yourself first of all, how did I just survive that?
What were your first thoughts? Well, when I was falling off the
Cliff, I do remember actually saying like, oh or oh, like
front door. And then again, as it's falling,
like you said, you have time to think about your death.
So you're like, OK, well, I kind of like my head.
I'm going to protect that. And then honestly, I think
especially when I was younger, I had a more like nonchalant
joking attitude towards everything.
So when I fell and I didn't pass out, I was like, OK, like, that
was messed up, but I'm probably fine.
And so initially not going into full panic, but also adrenaline
is a crazy, crazy thing. And it was rushing through my
body. And the EMT was great because he
did do a test, nerve test, a paralysis test with the toes,
and they didn't respond to the first Test.
And that I think was like, oh, OK, that that's a little freaky
for me. And then the second test, I was
able to get a wiggle out of my right side toe.
And that was a really good thing because it was mostly my left
side that was really damaged. My right side definitely had
more security because there was not the dislocating of the head
of the femur. But also the right side only had
one big crack. The left side was shattered.
I think the right side only had like one or two.
And I think that's essentially what made more havoc on that
left side. And there's also something on
the bumpy part of your front pelvis, the Asis.
There's a nerve on that. Essentially, a lot of like long
borders or people who get Rd. rash really bad will damage this
nerve. A lot of moms who've had C
sections sometimes can damage this nerve.
But when you cut through that nerve and they had to for my
surgery, you lose full numb from waist to knee on top of your
quad and thigh. So not only like where you're
dealing with the partial paralysis, but you're dealing
with like the actual numbness from other variations of nerve
damage. Oh.
My gosh. So I would say the nervous
system, like when when I fell again, I didn't have as much
bruises, scraping and outer havoc, but the nervous system is
what took the most havoc on that.
Oh my gosh. So how did they get you off the
rock? So EMT held me and I actually
was asking my friend Maddie. It was really funny hearing her
side of the story because it's been 11, almost 12 years, so
long enough that I did want to reach out and kind of piece the
story together, get all the medical together so that I can
tell this more factual. I think when it first happened
again, I was young, learning a lot of information, but BI
didn't know how to maybe communicate the way that I do
now. So telling it now 11 to 12 years
later has been fun, but there have been aspects that I forgot.
But she essentially paddle boarded across the lake while
they waited for the EMTs. Who called EMTs?
I want to say it was my friend Trevor or it was the fisherman.
So you had salt signal out there?
Kind of. It was patchy.
In fact, Maddie did remind me that it's so silly and I
remember doing this that day. But I when I was younger, we
would always go at night to these docks at Gunlock and we
would jump in in the moonlight, like we would sneak out from our
houses and that was the place we would go is the docks at
Gunlock. And for some reason we would
always like hide our outer clothes, like we would wear
swimsuits and jump in, but our phones and everything were under
the dock. And the day we went paddle
boarding, we just did the same thing, not thinking about that.
There's boats on the water. It's daytime and it's actually
way more waves in the water than normal.
So our phones were essentially just right at the baseline of
the lake under the dock getting drenched.
So, so our phones were drenched. She got there and she was like
great wet phones and she called my brother first.
My brother James is only a year older than me, not even I think
he's 11 months older than me. And so she had his phone number
and then she had James call my mom or she called my mom.
And the other thing she told me is she had to call my date
because apparently I had a date that night.
I did not remember that aspect so.
It's like he's like, yeah, OK, right.
Exactly. Like, OK, she fell off a Cliff.
That's that's real. But yeah, that happened.
And then I think it took 30 to 45 minutes for the ambulance.
The road to Gunlock is windy, it's snaky and it's up a Canyon,
and then you end up at the reservoir.
So so OK, Are you on the rock still?
I'm still on the rock. They're just like, don't move
her, yeah. OK, and he's like on it.
And Trevor stayed with me because Trevor and I, I, he's,
he's actually now on the Police Department.
If I butchered that, sorry, Trevor, he's on the police force
for Ivan's, which is essentially the town that I fell off the
Cliff or the bordering town. So that's kind of fun because
he's really good in situations like that.
And so I'm really happy he was there because he stayed with me
and the EMT and he just kept me calm and laughing and oh really?
Yeah. Like he was so on it.
He actually was the person who I let ride in the ambulance with
me to the hospital because and I only got mad at him once when
pain, when the adrenaline started to kick off, I was like
Trevor, you need to be quiet right now.
But back to the main story is I'm on the rocks with EMT and
Trevor. Ambulance finally gets to the
docks and then they get on a tin boat.
I don't know if this was, I don't think it's the fisherman's
boat, but maybe it was. This is where that gets a little
questionable. Or if they had their own little
rescue boat. But it was small and there was a
stretcher on it and there was probably four to five guys.
And OK, I do remember an aspect. I have two fake teeth here.
I was born without my IT teeth and I've since got them fixed.
But at the time I had a flipper retainer that could come out and
I would be a hillbilly with my gap teeth.
And when I fell off a Cliff doing the assessment, they
didn't want me to choke or anything like that.
So I had to take my flipper out. And I just remember when some of
the EMTs came in the ambulance that one of the guys was really
cute and I had my flipper out. That's coming back to me right
now, but it was like five guys. They essentially got me onto the
boat and stabilized me as much as they could to go back across
the lake to the docks, which then I got onto the ambulance
and the main guy on the ambulance in the back, the one
that was distributing everything was actually my sister in law's
father, which is crazy because that's just like a small world
for sure. And that's when I started to
really feel the adrenaline kicking off.
And that's when I was like, Trevor, you need to shut up
right now because your jokes aren't funny.
I'm now feeling the pain. And so they took a pillow
between my legs because really what was causing it when we were
going out that windy Rd. of Gunlock, I could feel like my
bones shifting. And so they took the pillow in
between my knees and duct taped my thighs together and then
finally gave me some pain meds. I've heard that before from
other people that have told me about the incident and the lack
of pain that they felt because the overwhelming adrenaline.
Oh, for sure. So it was almost like a instant
pain reliever. Your body is just saying you're
not going to focus on this. Now I'm going to redirect you to
survival mode. Definitely.
So you're on this boat. Take me now.
You're in the hospital. So yeah, then the ambulance ride
to the hospital. I believe if you guys are
locals, you can Fact Check this one.
I believe it's 45 minutes to the hospital from Gunlock, so it's
another 45 minute drive to the Saint George hospital and we get
there and my pelvis had shattered in a way that was past
capacity for the hospital. Utah is known for their medical
really great with new surgeries and we have really good trauma
unit or trauma teams for burns, essentially accidents like this,
motorcycle accidents. And they were actually just
building a team to come to Saint George at the time with some
bigger doctors that are specifically for the trauma
unit. So before that happened, they
were not fully at capacity for my style of accident.
So I got there and there was a lot going on.
So I don't know if this was negligence or just the chaos of
the full situation, but I just remember thinking like, my
elbow's broken and the nurses kept pulling on my arm to put
Ivs in and they said we already X-rayed it, it's not broken.
I said my elbow is broken. You.
You knew. Instinctively you're I knew,
yeah. And they didn't X-ray that until
I got flown to the next hospital.
But let's before we get there, after a lot of that going down,
I don't know how long I was there.
It was definitely not a full day.
I can confirm that. But we had to get put on a life
flight to take me to the Murray Trauma unit.
I want to say within hours of me ending up at Saint George
Regional Hospital. So now I'm in near Salt Lake
City, the Murray Trauma unit. And it's because they have a
great orthopedic surgeon called Doctor Buttersworth.
His name is Doctor Buttersworth. I love his name and he is the
one who did my pelvic reconstruction surgery.
And really, really awesome because there's not that many
people in the States with the surgery like mine, and they're
males. The other people with the
surgery, like mine, are in Australia.
Oh wow. So essentially they built my
pelvis back, the parts that were shattered with metal plates, But
because I was so young and my pelvis was still developing,
they built it upon the growth plates.
Oh wow, which is amazing. It's pretty miraculous.
And then remember, the head of my femur popped out.
So I'm really lucky because I didn't have to get an actual hip
surgery, but I had pelvic surgery.
So I did have some internal bleeding in the organs from the
bones and then lots of damage to, again, the spinal cord.
Luckily that was able to heal, come back, turn more into a
partial paralysis and I'm really lucky to be on the other side of
that. What was the months and the year
following like? Six months of bed, bed rest.
They tried to put me in essentially an old folks home or
a home where I could have care 24/7 and help because it
basically I needed an at home nurse because I couldn't go to
the bathroom on my own, I couldn't shower on my own.
I wasn't allowed to put weight on my feet or I guess underneath
my feet for six months and then I was healing quicker than they
had anticipated and it was my right side healing quicker.
And that was great because after six months I was able to kind of
transition more into a wheelchair and get access back.
I had already started with the wheelchair for days going to
high school, but with the wheelchair hybrid combo of my
Walker and the Walker I would use mostly to stabilize myself
to put my wheelchair away so I could have some independence my
senior year. A lot of people wanted me to do
online schooling my senior year but it was my last year of high
school so I didn't really want to do that.
And same with being in a rest home or an old folks home or
recovery. I'm like that's not me.
And I did enjoy my PT for some of the time, but I ended up
trading that PT out for a local yoga studio, had a Bikram style
yoga called the Foundation series.
And I got so much recovery because it's a balancing series
And essentially one of my legs needed to relearn how to walk
again because the right side learned a lot quicker than the
left. Because the Walker, I could lean
in the right side, kind of kickstand off the left as that
side heals a little bit more. It took probably, to answer your
question, 10 months to get to the point of my Walker and
probably a full year to be without my Walker on.
And like being able to go hike or be confident with not falling
or a lot of it was you lose muscle memory and your muscles
atrophy when you're sitting for that long.
So a lot of it would be just exhausting just to be standing
or walking through even a day of school, really fatiguing.
But also your muscles would just give out on you because what
your mind thinks you can still do, your muscles no longer can
do. So it was a lot of relearning
muscle memories, connection to the nervous system and muscle
association. What was it like going back to
school? Going back to school was
interesting because I'm a very independent person and in some
ways it was fun because I could get out of classes.
Like, I hate to admit that, but like you could just walk your
way out of town or wheel out of class if you needed to.
But in other ways, I feel like I lost a lot of freedom because I
always needed someone to be helping me, and sometimes people
that I didn't really want to be stuck with would end up pushing
my wheelchair. Very grateful for them.
But you would get trapped. You would get trapped by people
sometimes. And luckily my friends and I had
like, codes for that. And they would come and save me
because one of them was like a guy at school that would like
tink my wheelchair over because he thought it was funny.
But I don't think he realized like, you can't do that to a
paralyzed person. Oh my gosh.
Yeah. So that that was the part that
was hard. And then before my accident, I
had really started getting into rock climbing and it was hard
because a lot of my friends continued on with that and when
they would come visit me in bed rest, I really struggled with
hearing that. I wanted to be happy for them,
but I felt really trapped, especially before I knew what or
if I would get recovery in my legs because they did prep me
within the 1st moments of like you could potentially not walk
again or be able to move your lower extremities again.
So waist down essentially. And that was kind of an unknown
until we hit more of that four month mark where we saw the
inflammation really regressing. And then the six month mark is
when I could put weight back on my feet, both feet.
And that was great because the bedside toilet, I would have to
use a sliding board to even get on.
So it's like a piece of plank someone puts underneath your bum
and you need someone to help you from your bum to the toilet.
Because remember, my left arm was broken.
So I had my arm in like a rig, my left leg in a rig, and then
my pelvis was shattered. So no weight on each side.
What? So what is it like now for you?
Well, I've dedicated my whole life into living a lifestyle for
my fake pelvis, which is anti-inflammatory diet, whatever
that looks like. Everyone has different
biodiversity, so everyone's going to have a different
anti-inflammatory diet. Really watching that fitness,
but really rounded fitness. When you get into one zone of
fitness only and you only build that one type of muscle memory,
you're just creating more injuries.
So injury prevention is something that I really love, a
full well-rounded, working on kinetic chain shoulder to hip
crossbody exercises, but also really studying the nervous
system and recovering the nerves, reassociating them with
the new metal plates. Because now my pelvis is mostly
metal. I have 5 metal plates and so
many pins and screws that I like lost count.
It's it's, it's unreal. OK, go back in time a little
bit. Yeah.
What, what, what was what was your family thinking during
this? When you hit the ground and they
got that first phone call, what was the reaction?
I think they were really scared, especially when they showed up
and the first talk was being paralyzed.
But I think they got more information, more potential,
more possibilities, and that was definitely helpful.
But I tell some of my siblings that I feel like it's almost
more traumatic for them then it was for me because not only did
they have to deal with my recovery, like my dad and mom
and family were essentially like my at home nurses and friends,
they all banded together to create a schedule that someone
could be there with me at certain times.
So that was like really awesome. But I feel like it did affect
them as well financially because, I mean, I took an
ambulance from Gunlock to the Saint George, then I took a life
flight to Murray and then another ambulance.
So it's two ambulances, a lot of money.
Yeah, it adds up. And we definitely had insurance,
but not to the degree of what this accident could anticipate.
Right. Have you been back to where it
happened? I have.
I've been doing that. There I am.
I'm actually a better climber now.
If anything I wanted to learn technique more, understand it.
Yes, always always roping up. Well, OK, I do love bouldering,
but route developing, cleaning the route, checking the landing,
crash pads, climbing shoes, chalk spotters, going to places
that have already been developed or not, places that are 40 feet
with water. And also reservoirs fluctuate in
water. So if you think about that, it's
not really a great place to Cliff jump.
Statistically, Cliff jumping is more dangerous than rock
climbing. So I, I don't Cliff jump, I hate
Cliff jumping and I, I will not be a Cliff jumper.
But yeah, I I do love outdoor recreation in a way that I want
to understand all the rope skills, all the different
variations of climbing, how to do it so I can feel really
confident in those scenarios. Are you afraid of heights?
Kind of I can be in certain situations, but I've worked on
it a lot and that's kind of another reason why I've loved
canyoneering and some of those other rope skill set hobbies.
But when you're up that high, do you, do you feel like there is
like a, like a PTSD thing happening?
Are you nervous? Do you remember?
Do does it trigger things for you?
Yeah, I would say the first four years were really hard to get on
rope. And I would like do this thing
where I would climb up and down, up and down, up and down when I
was lead climbing. And it's funny because that's
more work, more danger, and again, more work than just going
up clipping. And then like, but it was a
mental thing I really had to work through and I really wanted
to work through it because it's weird.
It didn't just affect me when I was on the cliffs or climbing.
It affected me when I was driving a car or getting on a
plane. It's just the fear of because
now your brain goes from being this careless 17 year old who
like kind of built an image upon like going with the flow, it's
whatever. Like being goofy to now I am
racking my brain PTSD style on how you can get injured.
What can go wrong? And in some ways it's been great
because I love prevention now I've gotten my outdoor
wilderness, first responders, just anything like that to get
into preparation. I just love getting educated on
best practices for those scenarios.
Hopefully one day I can do the C spine for someone else because
an EMT essentially did that for me and again, he was an off duty
EMT. So yeah, I would say the PTSD
took some time, but I definitely was aware of what it was and had
words and vocabulary for it, so I could take it through a
process of just staring at it, like right in the face, I would
say. Wow, are you a spiritual person?
I can be but I also don't love dogma where it gets over
spiritual or like blanket statements.
So I would call myself like a neutral spiritual person.
I just think it's so amazing that you lived through that and
all the things that happened during that time, and that's
crazy. So when you're looking back on
this, in that moment that you decided to run, would you have
taken that out if you could? Yeah, I think that knowing my
like connection coordination, I am so good at isolation
coordination, but like doing the two for one motion, like a
dynamic movement where you're running and jumping.
Like I can run, I can jump, but can she run and jump?
And that's something I've trained a lot again since the
situation. But yeah, I think I probably
would have been safer down climbing with the climbing skill
set that I had at the time. But I mean, would you, if you
could go back in time to remove this whole situation from
happening ever? Like.
If you could look back on everything that took place from
the trajectory that it's brought you to today and all the things
you've learned and all the things you've become and all the
things that have you know, would you, if you could go back in
time, would you pull this whole thing out from happening to you?
No, I would not because the way that it's giving me a connection
to the nervous system, it's just a gift that keeps giving to
people. So and that's why I think that
I'll always just continue to be in the personal training world
and teaching yoga and fitness and whatever that capacity is.
Because I think that a lot of times we get told debilitating
things like you can't walk again or you're like, I've heard even
yoga teachers tell students that they'll never touch their toes.
But really I just think it's finding the biodiversity and
finding a recipe that works for you because every injury is so
different and specific. Where you get your insertion
site, Is there scar tissue? Are you adding in passive
stretching, dynamic stretching, but also like plyometrics, bone
density building, like jumping, running, all of that?
I think the recipe of it together is something that I
would not have experienced without the recovery of that.
So yeah, no, I would not. I think when you go through such
tragedy, you have a decision to make, whether you're going to
make it work for you or work against you.
And I think you can make it in your situation.
It's work. You, you did.
You took it and turned it to a positive thing and made it work
for you. And you could have just, you
could have threw in the towel. I think it's interesting how
you're talking about how you, you made the decision to
exercise and the nervous system and all those things.
And I was thinking in that like you, you could have just given
up. You could have just been in the
bed the rest of your life and been like, why me?
Totally. But I feel like it's made you a
stronger person and often that. You're, you nailed it.
Like I just, I want to know all the information because of it
and add a capacity that is above me at that point.
And what I mean by that is not only did I go through all of
this yoga teacher trainings, but I've done personal training
license online. It's a test that everyone can
take a course. You have to do classes or you
can do in person, But I've also went to school for anatomy,
kinesiology through some of those Utah medical programs in
Salt Lake City that are world renowned, and then getting a
massage therapy license as well. Specifically, I worked at a
chiropractic office with injury pain clients, people who were
there under their insurance because of an accident, and even
my clients. Now I don't take on too many so
I can give them more attention. But I love working with people
with injuries or scar tissue or someone's told them they can't
touch their toes. Because I promise you, give me
at least three months and we'll. Are are you ever like let me
tell you my story. You know, I was for a while, but
I did when it blew up a little bit there.
Like I worked with Free People Movement and a couple other big
brands, and I was a part of their great Outdoors month.
And I feel like I had a couple of people kind of reach out and
tell me that they felt like I was exaggerating my story and
paralysis. And I didn't realize how much
that really got to me because I stopped sharing my story as
much. And I think that that's why this
podcast is another reason why I reached out and vice versa is
because I wanted to tell it again without that attachment,
but with actual facts and information and going through
medical documents and. I can't believe anybody would
say that to you. That's, that's, that's
incredible. I think you have a pretty
incredible story. And the fact that you are rock
climbing now and you're able to like you have a hip that's, you
know, your, your pelvis is full of metal and pins and screws and
you're rock climbing and not thinking about how you're going
to fall or the fall that you had.
That blows my mind because I would be up there going yeah,
no, I'm out, you know? And there definitely are days.
I think that's the thing with the mindset, right?
There are days where it's like, yeah, no, I'm not doing this
today. But it's knowing to commit,
right? Just like jumping off the Cliff,
you have to commit. That's the one thing I learned
from my accident. You're either all in or you're
out, because that in between is where you fall off a Cliff.
Yeah, so we can put that on a T-shirt.
Yeah, put that on a T-shirt. What?
Yeah. Holy cow, yeah.
I, I just, I just am so amazed that you, you, you're so mobile
and that like you're like, what's your recovery percentage?
Are you like 90 percent 95? Are you like 80% like where like
to where you should be? I guess I mean what's?
I would say I'm at like 95% and within the last two years even
it's gone from 75% to that 90. Wow.
So that's been great and a lot of it is con tenuously
practicing movement and not one modality, not all yoga, not all
climbing, all or nothing mindset I would say is one of the
biggest killers of getting yourself to a full rounded point
with your fitness and health regimen because it's easy to
over identify with something and it is beautiful to have an
identity and passion towards something.
Like I'm definitely someone, I am a climber, I love teaching
yoga, I'm a yoga teacher. But it's easy to sell yourself
in one modality. Like I like doing weights, cross
training, kinetic, like chain training.
All of it is really important to get to that point of mobility
and just having equal strength to your mobility is huge because
you could be so strong, but lack of mobility or there are times
in my practice I've been to mobile with lack of strength, so
really rounding it out. That's crazy, I don't even like
to rock climb. I.
Just I look at the people at rock climb and I was like, yeah,
no, I'm good. Yeah, I think if my brothers
didn't get me into it and it wasn't something like where I
live, there's so much world class climbing.
It's so hard not to get into climbing.
I think that that's where it's like, OK, well we got to put
this behind us because this is what I wanted to do before and
this is what I want to do after. And I think that was motivating
for me for sure. Have you reached out to anybody
else that's fallen or have you talked to any other people that
have, you know, been in a situation similar to what you've
gone through? My restorative class that I've
been teaching for almost 10 years, I want to say it's been
on the schedule for 9 now. It's all about nervous system
resetting, but also rehabilitation.
Like each class, we work on a segment and we go through it
systematically. I would say that that class has
attracted people with neuropathy, people who didn't
have words for what their neuropathy symptoms were.
People who've had hip surgeries, whether it is the femur and hip
socket or pelvic surgery. People with low back injuries.
Because my low back, my SI joint is fake.
On the left it's a metal pen, the little back dimples that we
all have, and that creates a lot of tension because a lot of
muscles essentially connect there, the ones that move and
lift our knees and hips and that can create a lot of havoc and
back pain essentially. So I would say that the way I've
been able to connect with people that way has been awesome, and
it's been a bounty of people I've been able to connect with
in that sense. But more specifically, I have
had people who've fallen off cliffs reach out to me as well,
or pelvic surgeries, or just shattered their pelvis.
What's that like for you? Sometimes it's been really great
but sometimes I can't relate because they didn't get pins or
screws which not. I don't want to minimize anyone.
All experiences are different, but I just don't relate because
the recovery was different. And I think I'm someone who's
proactive. I don't necessarily need APT to
be making sure I'm doing the exercises.
I'm going to be doing them, learning them, finding them,
researching them. And I think that it's hard for
me to relate to people who want to stay maybe in the dwelling
zone for too long of the debilitating.
Yeah, yeah. Wow, your story is nuts, man.
That's crazy. I can't imagine.
I can't imagine what it was like, what it would be like to
be 17 year olds and 17 years old and go through something like
that and think maybe my life is over.
But you didn't think that. I feel like, I feel like you
used it as a positive and turn it around.
And I'm impressed with how you aren't like angry or blaming or
pointing fingers or anything like that.
I feel like that's totally not normal cause a lot of people I
think would be in that situation.
And I've definitely gotten like lost my patience sometimes with
people more so than with the anger of my accident and just
people when I'm forced into a zone to not be my authentic
self. I would say that's my biggest
reaction zone. Well, I appreciate you coming.
Yeah, thanks for telling us this crazy, amazing story.
And I think you got a long, wonderful, happy climbing career
out of you. Yeah, I'm excited for that.
Awesome. Thank you.