I was actually just outside crying what
I’m about to share is really really
personal very emotional for me and it’s
also a very recent it’s something I’m
still coming to deal with so I’ve spent
most of my adult life on the edge
I’ve pushed myself physically and
mentally in some of the most challenging
mountain environments in the world and
for the most part it’s been through
endurance sports I’ve been on five
different national teams in five
different sports I started out in the
national triathlon team national
duathlon team Canadian mountain running
team ultra running team and most
recently in the Canaan ski
mountaineering team and what I’ve as I
moved through sports I’ve moved more and
more into the wild with my adventures
most recently I’d be known for running
hundred mile races and some of the most
challenging mountain environments in the
world so I’ve run 100 miles around Mount
Fuji I finished second in a race there
more recently I’ve run a race called the
hardrock hundred in Silverton Colorado
and it’s a beautiful beautiful part of
the world and these these mountain
ranges the race is 100 miles with 66
thousand feet of elevation gain and loss
so imagine running from Calgary to Lake
Louise while doing 12 Hollings all at an
average elevation higher than any
mountain in Alberta quite a challenging
feet and however that edge wasn’t quite
enough for me so I started taking my
fitness closer and closer to the wild I
sort of moved away from races because
they felt a little bit contrived and I
took my fitness into higher in mountain
higher and higher mountain peaks trying
to push myself wanting to get closer to
the edge so I would try to run up and
down mountains faster than anybody or I
wouldn’t actually that wouldn’t be
enough for me I’d run from home to the
top of the mountain and back and then I
decided I wanted to try to do as many
mountains in a day as possible however
on August 31st the last year I took one
step a little too far over the edge I
was doing something in Rogers Pass
called the Horseshoe Traverse I met up
with two of my friends – the best
mountain runners in the world Nicholas
Dakotah Jones from Squamish and from
Colorado and we were looking to to
basically link up 14 different peaks in
Rogers Pass the fastest previous time
for anybody doing this was three and a
half days being really cocky and a bit
ambitious we decide we were gonna do it
in one day some of these pictures here
give you a sense of what the terrain is
like these are from different eventually
I’ve done I’m the same route with my
girlfriend over the last couple years I
had a pretty good sense what we were
getting into
however we the day started out
beautifully the weather was perfect we
knew that all conditions were in our
favor when you’re going light and fast
in the mountains you want to make sure
that conditions are in your favor we got
up at 6 a.m.
started running by 10 a.m. we’d already
gone over four peaks we were bang on
target we were rolling it was a great
day and we got to this tower here called
the salt cert hour and this altar tower
is relative to what we were looking to
do is pretty benign I actually didn’t
even know it existed on the route I
didn’t even count it as a mountain which
is kind of funny in retrospect and so we
were making our way up here Nick and
Dakota were just in front of me I was
following behind we’re about 200 feet up
in that rock band I’m going to step over
here just to show you we were
approximately up in that area over there
and Nick and Dakota were maybe 50 meters
above me I pulled on a rock and all of a
sudden I heard the rock crack and I felt
it pulling out and it hit me in the face
and I fell backwards and I started
tumbling from ledge to ledge and I was
falling backwards and I wasn’t panicking
I was fully conscious and but I knew I
was gonna die there was no panic because
it was just such a certainty in my mind
I was a dead man and I have a very very
clear image it still makes me shake I’ve
seen the mountains flipped upside down
their horizon behind me and just being
terrified
well not terrify it wasn’t it was just
like she was like wow the mountains are
upside down this is wild and I tumbled
further and further down the mountain
conscious the entire time and suddenly I
found myself down there this is a
picture from the rescue helicopter face
down in a pool of blood having fallen
over 200 feet down a mountain but I was
alive
I push myself up rolled over onto my
back wiggled my toes and I knew had
broken my ankle and it would broken my
hip and I knew that there was a heck of
a lot of blood around me so I told
myself not to panic I had to stay calm
in that moment and Nick and Dakota came
running down towards me and I had an
emergency beacon on me then Nick who you
can see in the picture there funny
enough his hair wasn’t the scariest
thing in that photo Nick being the
incredible mountain athlete that he is
ran up to the previous the mountain
behind us and was able to call search
and rescue and within an hour and a half
search-and-rescue who were luckily doing
a training mission in the area had flown
by it spotted us and because the
conditions were perfect they were able
to get to us then and I was long lined
out of there flown to the Rogers Pass
Visitor Center and I’m just gonna we
have an amazing security network in the
mountains here and it’s free and they do
an amazing job and they put themselves
at risk they put and they’ve saved a
heck of a lot of people and it they do
an incredible job so you know first so
just a big round of applause for the
and we’re lucky to live in a country
where there’s a safety a safety net like
that but just free like it didn’t cost
me anything to do that so there’s no
risk in calling them and so I was flown
to the Rogers Pass Visitor Center where
there was a air ambulance waiting for me
and I’ve had a chance to speak to the
rescuers and they said they’ve never
seen somebody who isn’t as bad a state
as I was who was also still conscious as
I was talking to them and who’s also
alive they’d never dealt with that I was
flown to Kamloops Hospital and I was in
surgery for eight and a half hours I
broke my t8 two t11 spine I broke the
top of my hip you can see the bone has
sheared off so they pinned that I’d
severe lacerations across my entire body
and but I was alive and you know I was
so needed to find my life by movement in
moving fast in the mountains and I got a
lot of satisfaction from that and
competition was my life i defined myself
as somebody who’s competitive my edge
was trying to beat other people do
things faster than other people and I
was very much aware of it that edge was
going to be gone
it was definitely gonna be dulled and
very very likely going to be gone and
that was really really hard for me to
deal with the other thing about doing
endurance sports and things in the
mountains is very often you’re by
yourself and I kind of took pride in
that you know I you know I got I was
very very self-sufficient I was not a
vulnerable person you know I was
conquered mountains I didn’t see it that
way but like you know that could be the
outward impression is you know you get
to conquer these incredible feats it’s
something quite incredible be able to
run hundred miles and be able to run
across more mountains and other people
in a faster time than other people and I
love the joy I love the movement I loved
how it made me feel to do that and I
wasn’t gonna be able to do that anymore
but what happened is so this is the
state but I was named and I was in the
hospital and I was just so vulnerable I
was dependent on the nurses and the
doctors in the hospital to be kept alive
as it was I was relying on machines to
be kept alive on drugs at that point
what I’d have happening to is my body
shut down due to the trauma and the
drugs that I was on my entire digestive
system shut down I couldn’t take in any
food when my body started eating itself
and I was scared I was really really
scared but my family lives around the
world my brother lives in tile
and my father lives in Nigeria my mom
lives in Victoria my girlfriend’s a
medical resident in Calgary and they all
flew to me and they were all there
within a day so I this incredible
support network around me so here’s this
person who’s like solitary and
independent all of a sudden reliant on
all these people around me in this
incredibly vulnerable state and I’m
gonna do something that I wasn’t sure if
I was gonna be able to do because it’s
quite emotional but I kept a journal and
I want to read the first journal entry
but I wrote in and this is a week later
after I’ve been in hospital for a week
eh I was too out of it initially des
starts to start writing so here’s what I
wrote Monday September 5th one week ago
today I was getting ready for work
planning with my most ambitious
endurance feats in the mountains to date
today it’s 1:45 a.m. I can’t sleep from
pain there’s a low humming noise coming
from the machines around around me
people are snoring and breathing in the
slow shallow breaths of people who
cannot sleep due to discomfort I’m one
of those bodies I’m lying here sore
broken and bruised
I have metal rods holding my back and
hip together
I’ve drying scabs across my body I feel
a deep stabbing pain with every gentle
movement and my body is swollen with gas
and swelling fluids strangely despite
the transformation my body and a bit of
fear and trepidation I’m also feeling a
strange sort of simplicity and calm
I feel surrounded by love and caring in
a way I haven’t felt in years I’m
looking forward to simple pleasures like
which provides exquisite relief from the
pain I can’t wait to see the smiling
face of Laura and feel that sorry this
is also kind of hard to read because I
was on a lot of drugs at the time and
feel the familiar comforting hands of my
parents I can’t wait to try and move a
few inches and work towards standing an
activity I used to say I couldn’t live
without my life is being about movement
and that’s been taken away from me yet
strangely I go on life goes on people
around me are happy and by circumstance
I am happy my family’s been brought
together by my accident in a way I
couldn’t have seen in years
so it’s a feeling I didn’t think I could
ever get to feel again I’ve been forced
to face personal demons but I’ve used as
a crutch for far too long or risk losing
people and person I care for most deeply
I’ve had to face my actions actions I’m
not proud of and haven’t been proud of
for far too long it’s a lot to think
about but I’ve had but I have the chance
to heal my body and soul I have a second
some might say third chance to fix
myself and build a life I’m proud of I
can’t wait I will not waste it this is
how I plan on doing that this is how I
found myself here so yeah it’s quite
powerful I mean you have those thoughts
at two o’clock in the morning and one of
the things that happened with the
accident is um my parents for instance
have been estranged for for about 20
years and they came together and by the
time when I was in hospital they were
out having lunch together which is it
was incredible mom my my girlfriend and
I to be honest I mean I had a divorce a
few years ago and I used a lot of these
mountain adventures it was a bit of an
escape you know I’m sure there was like
some deep psychology and running away
from things there running towards things
but you know she took a month out of her
medical school and came and supported me
her her mother actually lives in
Kamloops and she grew up in Kamloops and
so my family got to meet her family and
we had this incredible union and we were
all brought together by this you know
what could have been a horrible tragedy
a horrible accident but instead it it’s
just there’s so much joy and love and
happiness and I felt myself getting
stronger through it and there I was
actually in this orthopedic ward with
two other people the one guy was in a
helicopter crash and the other person
was hit by a semi so this is one burly
room
however the entire time I was there
neither one of them had a single other
visitor it was just so incredibly sad I
can’t imagine how lonely that would be I
mean even with people all around me I
felt loneliness at times just from from
fear and pain it’s it’s a very very
strange feeling and I didn’t have to
worry about that and with that love and
support
I remember my physio coming in one day
and saying I don’t we have to work on
your endurance so you can go to the
bathroom the bathroom was a foot away
from me a week ago I could run hundreds
of miles and now you know they’re
telling me I’m gonna have to work on my
endurance so I can take a single step
but with the love and support of people
around me you know I got to push my edge
my edge had changed at this point it
changed quite dramatically and it
changed instantly for me so I ended up
taking my first step I remember the
first time I got to go outside in a
wheelchair in feeling this cold breeze
across my body and I started crying
because being outside and being feeling
the elements was just so refreshing
hospitals are not a nice place to be
especially not when you’re in a bad
state so getting that air was just so
uplifting and then I also remember the
first time I got to go out and now I’m
hearing previous speeches really brought
this to life you know it’s terrifying to
go in a wheelchair for the first time
like every little bump you really do
feel it and I remember going down the
lip and being terrified for my life and
here’s somebody who I was used to
walking you know like the edge of
mountains and I was terrified of a one
inch lip there’s a real real shift for
me but slowly with the love and support
of people around me I you know I took my
first step so that picture up in the
right-hand corner there fishing we were
fishing in Banff and there’s one of my
first times back out and
it’s actually quite funny story by that
photo it’s a beautiful photo however
what happened is I took a step in the
mud and I got stuck and I couldn’t move
because I couldn’t walk it can I
couldn’t stabilize myself so Laura came
and like helped walk me out of there but
then a month later I was out hiking in
the mountains again been a month and a
half later as backup ski touring two
months later I went out climbing and
then three months later I ran back up my
first mountain and running in those in
Guatemala and the other amazing thing
that happened during that time is I
allowed myself to be vulnerable and
through that vulnerability it allowed me
to you know give back to the people I
love and just really appreciate and just
how much they mean to me and how much
their support helped me through it and
so actually Laura and I got engaged a
couple of months ago which is beautiful
and I mean she gave up a month of her
medical residency to come to support me
my mom moved out from Victoria to come
to live with me in Canmore to help me
rehabilitate myself you get these
incredible connections with people
during that time and the other thing
that happens I I got to slow down for
the first time in my life since I was
about 16 I’ve been a professional
athlete I was forced to slow down and do
things I haven’t done before like I took
up sketching which is amazing so Laura
and I would go and sit beside the
mountains and you get to look at them in
a completely different way and you know
every time I get out and move even
though I’m not moving with the same kind
of efficiency or smoothness I wanted
it’s just I was so wonderful you know
and I’m also just so appreciative I
understand that like it could have been
a centimeter different a different
slightly different way of landing and I
would I wouldn’t be walking I wouldn’t
be able to do what I’m doing I would
still probably still be appreciate the
mountains but I still am able to express
myself through movement which is
incredible incredible feeling for me and
so what’s what I’ve realized is that you
know my edge has changed I’m still
chasing my edge I’m still pushing it and
I’ve actually signed up for the hardrock
hundred again next July so I’m gonna see
what I can do I’m like clearly we won’t
be there to win it like it would have in
the past but just just to see what I’m
actually capable of and see if I can
push my edge a little bit and take a few
steps and the other beauty about it is
I’m sharing it with the friends so I’m
the Pacers I’m gonna go with their Nick
and Dakota who were with me during that
traversal I’m gonna get to share the
experience with them I’m gonna have some
my family they’re Laura’s gonna be down
there and hopefully she’ll be other
share something as well and so I’m
really really looking forward to that
and so I’m getting to explore the edge
not alone anymore but with other people
and the other thing I realized though is
your edge is so much dependent on where
you are in your life your edge is
constantly evolving so I can’t wait to
explore the edge of my wild thank you [Applause]