Christmas Eve 2010
On Christmas Eve in 2010, the Johnson
family took their children – Elise,
5; Milli, 3; and Logan, 4 months – to
their local hill, Hogadon ski area outside
Casper. With 600 feet of vertical,
Hogadon is a family-oriented ski
hill spread out over 60 acres, with 27
trails, one double chairlift and a magic
carpet for beginners. It’s one of the few
upside-down ski areas in the country,
with the lift at the base of the mountain,
and the lodge and other facilities
at the summit.
Chauncy painfully remembers that
day before Christmas, which had always
been his favorite day of the year.
Kelli had gone with Elise to ski down a
run, leaving Chauncy with their other
two children. What happened next
would forever, and profoundly, change
the lives of two families.
For Kelli, she only remembers small
portions of that afternoon, and thankfully,
she does not remember the instant
that a speeding snowboarder violently
collided with her and Elise. The
snowboarder was a 23-year-old local
man who frequently visited Hogadon.
“I remember going up the chairlift
with Elise, and we were discussing
which run we wanted to go on,” recalled
Kelli during an interview with
Colorado Public Radio (CPR) about the
incident. “I remember starting out that
run with her…she actually was doing so
well that I was having her follow me,”
she said, noting that as a former ski
instructor she was helping Elise transition
from snow plowing to making
turns. “I only remember that I stopped
to help Elise get her ski back on. I remember
up to that point, but I never
saw the snowboarder coming, I never
looked up to see him…I think it all happened
so fast.”
The collision killed Elise and the
snowboarder, and left Kelli with a severe
brain injury and paralyzed arm. It
was an unprecedented tragedy: no one
in the ski industry could recall a skierskier
collision resulting in the death of
two people.
For Chauncy, the memories were especially
profound. During the CPR interview,
he vividly recalled the first news
of the accident from a ski patroller.
“I was told that there was a terrible
collision, and that three were down,”
he said, pausing and reflecting back to
that excruciating moment. “And they
said only one had a pulse.”
Both the snowboarder and Elise
died instantly – the snowboarder from
blunt chest trauma, and Elise from a
broken neck. Chauncy knew the blow
must have been especially violent and
sudden.
“Someone gave me Elise’s shattered
helmet,” he said. “Those moments are
forever imprinted on my mind and my
heart. I live with those memories every
single day.”
As a result of the collision, Kelli was
thrown a considerable distance. Her
#RIDEANOTHERDAY
“Thankfully, these incidents are incredibly rare, but when they
happen, grieving families say, understandably, that they just don’t
want to see something like this happen to anyone else’s child, and
they mean that with genuine sincerity.”
– Tim Hendrickson, Willis MountainGuard
GOTOHOLIDAY / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM 10 January 2018 | snowopsmag.com
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