I had been in Switzerland for nearly two months when I crossed paths with Jeremy, so we made a plan for me to show he and his family around the resort of Champery.

Conditions were great, a true mix of powder, ice, sun, and fog, but mostly powder. That day I decided to ride with just one camera body and lens… no heavy camera bag to slow us down.

Just before lunch, we identified a small knoll where a short hike would unlock some untouched lines, so as Jeremy led the family to the goods, something told me to run ahead get set up for this shot… knowing that the foggy conditions would reduce distraction in this frame, and help tell the story I wanted to tell.

I bagged this photo without slowing the famlily down, and we took a few more runs and broke for lunch.

One or two runs after lunch, I broke my left scapula (shoulder blade) while doing a carve high on the wall of a steep gully.

It didn’t actually hurt at the time, but I couldn’t really use that arm, so I finished the day of shooting and riding one handed, just gripping my jacket with my left hand to stabilize the injury.

When I got off the hill, the pain set in, and it was bad. I visited the doctor, and he told me the news, my season was over.

This photo, along with the rest of the ones I shot that winter were submitted to the magazines that spring, and many offered to run the shot inside their magazines, but I thought the photo was so beautiful and symbolic of ‘family goals’ that I politely withheld the photograph, because I thought it was worthy of a magazine cover.

Years passed, and I’m glad I held out, because an obscure Japanese magazine saw the image’s potential, and reached out because they wanted to run it on the cover - which in my opinion, is the highest honor a photographer can recieve