From a Life-Altering Accident to Skiing Alaska's Biggest Lines with Kai Jones

0:02Kai Jones is one of the most talented backcountry skiers in the U.S. At just 19 years old, he's already skied some of the world's most impressive lines. For Kai, free skiing is in his blood. His dad and his uncles are dedicated snow athletes and filmmakers, and he's been adventuring in the mountains for as long as he can remember. When he was 13, Kai became a sponsored professional athlete. But even though he experienced a ton of success throughout his adolescence, Kai has also encountered some serious setbacks. In early 2023, he broke both of his legs skiing off a vertical drop in the backcountry.

0:39The accident forced him into a wheelchair for several months, and he wondered if he'd ever have a ski career again. The outcome was definitely undetermined. And the home help doctor came in and said I'd never ski at the same level again. So there's definitely some low points. But like I knew in my heart that I was going to like do everything to get back to my sport. Today, Kai is back to skiing and he's breaking the mold of what's possible in the mountains. Last year, he came out with some incredible films that highlight the direction his skiing has taken. More remote, more ambitious and more intentional.

1:18all. I'm Shelby Stanger, and this is Wild Ideas Worth Living, an REI Co-op Studios production presented by Capital One and the REI Co-op MasterCard.

1:32Kai Jones, welcome to Wild Ideas Worth Living. I'm really excited to chat with you. Where are you right now? Right now, I'm back home in Teton Valley. We're like 30 minutes from Grand Targhee in about 40 minutes from Jackson Hole. And Jackson Hole is known as one of the best locations for big mountain skiing. What makes the skiing there so great? The terrain starts very flat. And then as you get higher and higher up the mountain, it gets steep and it gets rockier. And you basically like work your way up when you're a kid to the tram to get to the top of the mountain to ski the most technical terrain.

2:14And then outside of the resort boundaries, there is tons of incredible terrain in the backcountry there. And that definitely like helped make me the skier I am today. And it's been incredible to like grow up and be around all that terrain. What do you love about skiing? I mean, you do it probably like over half the year, right? Yeah, pretty much. Pretty much. Cause we have a long winter here in Jackson and I ended up doing a couple trips in the summer so we got a lot of time on snow for sure um but yeah it's it's hard to say there's so many things i love about it um like first and foremost it's just that like free spirited like out in the mountains like it's the most like connected and grounded i feel and then i also like love the lessons it teaches you about like hardship getting up when you fall down and trying again it's like it's it's the whole process it's everything it's those like nerves and jitters at the top before you're about to drop in to the like relief and excitement when you like accomplish it.

3:16I think those are like, like things that have been instilled in me that skiing's taught me. And I think that's what I love about it. And that's what keeps me coming back. The whole process is just so like inspiring and so much fun. That's incredible. So when I saw you this summer, we were at the Telluride Mountain Film Festival, and there was a line wrapped around the theater to see you, to shake your hand, to say hi. It was absolutely wild. You had the most fans out of anybody at that whole film festival. It was incredible. That actually was a crazy experience. I was like one of the coolest interactions I've ever had with any of my fans.

3:53Telluride Mountain Film is one of the more prestigious film festivals out there. We were super thankful to get our film in there, falling into place. We ended up showing the film at the high school all the kids showed up for it and I think like everyone was just like so stoked on the film the message like what it meant and I remember we did this like little Q &A and like people were getting pretty fired up and then the principal went up on stage and was like hey like if you want to meet Kai or get something signed like come to the front door and I was like oh this could be crazy. So we like roll around like the backstage and then the, like the security people at the school were like, this is like mayhem.

4:36Like, I don't know, like how we're even going to like get you to the table. So then they like brought in their backup and two cops escorted me to the front door. And then I sat there for probably like an hour to two hours signing like Like everything from phone cases to skateboards to like foreheads and arms. It was just like the most ridiculous thing I'd ever like witnessed and been a part of. And I was like, wow, this is this is amazing. Kai was thrilled to see so many people connect with his work. A lot of these kids idolize him. He's only 19, but Kai's already had the kind of skiing career that people dream about.

5:21For Kai, that dream began at an incredibly young age.

5:28Do you remember when you were going to make skiing more than a hobby? Oh, I honestly have no idea. I might have been around like seven. That's younger than my nephews. That's a really young age to sort of be so inspired that you're like, yeah, I'm going to be this when I grow up. yeah I definitely is really young but I think one of the like biggest things my parents instilled in me was to like just be a dreamer and shoot for the stars and um like yeah looking back at it now like being seven and being like I'm gonna be a pro skier is kind of crazy but um at the time it just like made sense and like skiing was my everything and have opportunity to get at it pretty young but But I think all that is relative.

6:17The biggest thing is just like having that passion. And I knew I had that passion at a young age. And that's what drove it more than anything, more than any of the like wants or getting in these films or anything. Like I'd be doing the same stuff I'm doing today without cameras and without like social media or any like fame or money per se. Like I just love, I love skiing. I'm a skier at heart, and that's never changed since the first day I ever got on snow. Your family was also very involved in winter sports. Yeah, my dad and my uncle Steve started Teton Gravity Research, which is a production company that aims to showcase the best really action sports riders in the world, going to the farthest edges of the world, doing crazy things.

7:07And then my uncle Jeremy was one of the best pro snowboarders of all time. And he started Jones Snowboards as well, which is super successful and protect our winners. So he's been a huge inspiration. And growing up in that was just incredibly inspiring. I was around like a lot of the best athletes in the world and got to see how they operated and how they worked to maintain themselves and get to where they are now. so it really inspired me and showed me that there could be something more with skiing was there ever any pressure like just because of like who your parents were who your family was who your uncle was i would say like for me um like i kind of talked about earlier like i just love skiing and i was gonna like go down that road no matter what and my my parents never like forced skiing on me.

8:05They never told me I had to go skiing. Like, they just shared their passion with me, and I fell in love with it real quick. When Kai was just 11 years old, he was featured in Far Out, a ski film produced by Teton Gravity Research, also known as TGR. In the film, Kai skis a legendary double black diamond run in Jackson Hole called Corbett's Cool War. If you're not a skier, here's the quick translation. Corbett's is basically Jackson Hole's rite of passage. It's the line people travel to see, stand above, and maybe eventually ski down. It's a steep, narrow chute that starts with a drop that can be around 10 to 20 feet, depending on conditions.

8:48And once you're in, you're locked into an extremely steep pitch with no real easy exit. That clip of 11-year-old Kai skiing Corbett's took off on YouTube, and it became a breakout moment for him.

9:06i want to talk about that movie you're 11 years old was that the first big riskiest line you'd skied at that point yeah so um tgr was planning to do this like big shoot and they had a contract with jackson to um to make a project at the resort and um they were kind of like spinning a couple ideas around and one of them was like this like kai jones tim dirci segment and the whole crew was really stoked on that because they'd like kind of seen what I had been up to that whole season and had some like good cop results to back it up and then over spring break which is a pretty short window me and Tim just skied all around Jackson and Tim towed me into a bunch of famous lines out there the most memorable being smart bastard which was like a 40 foot cliff by far the biggest cliff I'd ever hit.

9:58And, um, and we had just had like a cool concept and a good vibe and it ended up doing super well when we released it digitally. And that was like the start of my entire career. And I think like, yeah, if anything would have like happened differently with that segment, who knows like where I'd be at today, that kind of like really like set things off and it going so big really helped me like stay in the mix and be able to like get sponsors and film another year and then film the next year. You just said you got towed into a 40 foot cliff. What does that mean? Yeah. So, um, when I talk about towing in, uh, it's more like in a mentorship role.

10:37So that year I was skiing with Tim Durchey, who's one of the best, uh, skiers to do it. And, um, I was lucky enough to have him really take me under his wing and um when we went and hit this big 40 foot cliff um he just talked me through it he showed me where to turn where to take off and really just like mentored me and gave me all the tools to be successful on the line and um yeah it was a really good experience to do that with him and yeah that was the start of it all

11:21A couple of years after Kai Jones exploded onto the ski scene, he signed with Red Bull. He was 13 years old at the time, which was extremely young to become a professional free skier. But it was clear that Kai had the grit and dedication necessary for the sport. These qualities came in handy a few years later when Kai suffered a serious injury in the backcountry.

11:48not long ago you know it was really not long ago you had this major accident in wyoming are you okay telling us what happened yeah so january 1st 2023 i'll never forget that day because it was like one of the best days of my skiing career it was really good conditions and i just remember like like it was the first day filming i just felt so on and ready to go for the winter and that like set the pace for the whole season and then we ended up exploring pretty deep like south wyoming and we found this insane zone called the cathedral and to this day the line that i skied there was the highlight of my entire career i skied this thousand foot straight line shoot it was like at the widest 10 feet and at the skinniest probably four feet wide by far the gnarliest thing had ever done and just I can't even describe the the feelings I had after it like I just like felt invincible felt like a superhero and then I went back up to go hit this other little chute I rappelled into it skied this chute had like a mandatory air at the bottom of it and I took too much speed off of it probably overshot it by like 10 15 feet and then I sublux my shoulder a sublux is when you dislocate your shoulder but it naturally like pops back into place when you readjust your body and I ended up having to take two weeks off not really doing like any PT for it I just like stayed home and worked on school and I definitely like let my legs atrophy because I spent two weeks sitting on the couch doing homework um and just like not maintaining and then yeah first day on march 7th i was back on snow we went out to this zone that i'd skied a bunch and um i skied this one line it felt like pretty good i was having like a little bit of like knee pain but nothing too concerning i was still gonna go ski and then earlier that year i'd skied this line in the same zone and i wanted to go get redemption on it so I'm getting ready for the line and I was weirdly like not nervous for this line which I think is a super bad thing like your your nerves and your fear are your body's way of like checking in and reminding you that like what you're doing has consequences and there's actually like some cool studies about like how fear having fear and responding to fear increases your odds of success in sport because your body understands the risk and again yeah I was weirdly like not scared of this this line and really like didn't think twice about it called my 10 count 10 seconds 3 2 1 dropping I hit the cliff and then instantly on the landing both my legs just completely break and I ended up tumbling another 300 feet tearing my medial and my lateral meniscus and I was like so done like that like I like could not move um we called search and rescue because there's no getting me out without a helicopter because we were deep in the back country.

15:04So search and rescue came and airlifted me to, um, to the parking lot where an ambulance met me, got ripped to, uh, the Jackson hole hospital, got a surgery that night. They put four screws in each of my legs on my tibia tubercle. And, um, after that, like I'm waking up from the surgery and I'm just like, wow like like my life just changed like that like I never like could have seen that coming or like I didn't even know I could get hurt like that and um in the hospital they were like all right you'll probably be here for like five days and we'll get you home five days go by and my condition only worsens and we realized that I hadn't got a blood draw since my surgery which is pretty concerning so we do the blood draw and then the calvary showed up they were like you're nearly critical anemic critical anemic is when you're dying your body starts shutting down and I was like right on that brink so they like loaded me up into like all these machines and did all these scans and stuck tubes down my throat to see if like I had like any stomach thing and then um they kind of like checked some boxes and made sure everything was looking good and luckily there was no internal bleeding but I still was really low on my blood count so I had to do a blood transfusion and after that um that like really like helped me um get back up and like kind of like get back to life and after another five days after the blood transfusion 10 days into my stay at the hospital I was able to get out and that was just like the craziest whirlwind And like, like it literally was like out of a, like, like movie, like all the stuff that was happening was just like so ridiculous.

16:52And it was just so heartbreaking and got back home, got the call that my meniscuses were torn. So then later that month had to get meniscus surgery. And then I spent three months in a wheelchair, was able to like get back up on my feet and start walking. but I was like barely able to move, barely able to be myself.

17:23How did you get through that time in the hospital? Like, was there a time where you're like, I don't know if I'm going to be able to ski again or did you kind of know, like, I'm going to recover? Well, yeah, I mean, I was obviously like pretty motivated, but at that point in the hospital and especially like being critical anemic, Like I could barely get thoughts out. I just was trying to like get through the day and like eat food and sleep. And I was like all juiced up on crazy pain medication. So that period was kind of a blur. I got home and that was like, honestly, the lowest point. My friends had all like moved my bed downstairs because I obviously like couldn't go up the stairs and it like just finally like sunk in on me that this was like going to be a big deal.

18:06And the outcome was definitely undetermined. And then the home help doctor came in and said I'd never ski at the same level again. And there's like all these things coming at me. So there's definitely some low points. But I knew in my heart that I was going to like do everything to get back to my sport. And I feel so thankful to have done so. And I think in hindsight, like the whole experience was so good for me to like show me how to like recover and pace my body. Because I want to be skiing for a long time. And I obviously love sending cliffs. But I now like know and have the experience that I need to like pace myself and make sure that I'm making smart decisions out there.

18:46And it's good that that happened at that age. And now I can like start preserving myself and keeping it going for as long as I can. What are some of the tools you use to get you through your recovery? And I'm curious about the mental tools you used and the physical tools. It just it took it took months of recovery. I moved to L.A. and worked with the Red Bull trainers. And then on the mental side of things, um, I was working with a sports psychologist and, uh, she was incredible. She worked for Red Bull and I think that was the most like valuable resource for like the mental component of my recovery because it allowed me to avoid PTSD because I was like working through my problems on a week to week basis.

19:31I wasn't like letting things boil up and like stay inside of me. I was just like, like getting it out, working through those problems in real time. And like, I think without that, I would have had a much harder time returning to sport. Is there anything you could share with us that maybe would help like an everyday athlete that you used that she taught you? um yeah let me think I mean like yeah again like the biggest thing is just like using your network and the people around you to help you get through a hard experience like people want to be there for you and that took me a second to realize and really leaning on my friends and my family and my pts and trainers and everyone in the whole process helped me get through it and I would have not came back if it wasn't for every one of them so if you're struggling to have a motivation to go to the gym like go hit up your friend and be like hey will you go to the gym with me like I guarantee you they're gonna say yes and help you through it and I definitely like tapped into that pretty hard and that's what helped me a lot I just had a good group of people around me that would come over and visit and play cards and board games with me if it wasn't for those guys it would have been a much harder experience.

20:45So really thankful for everyone that came and visited me at my house and brought me like Legos or played chess with me or anything along the way. You're such a happy, positive guy. It's really cool. What was that like the first time you put skis back on after your accident? Yeah, it's a funny thing because like I think a lot of people would think that like that was the moment, that was the relief, But that was like another one of those like lower points in my recovery because I got back on snow and I didn't feel as good as I wanted to. So it was like kind of like this big reality shock, like, oh, I've got a lot more gym work to do.

21:26And that just put it into perspective and made the situation a lot harder to grasp. But again, like all the things that happened to me over the past like two years to get me to where I was last year and going into this year, they happened for a reason. And they have made me who I am today. So I don't like take any of that for granted. And it just was a reality of my situation. And obviously, I would have loved for my day one on snow to be like, oh, we're back. It's sick. But that wasn't the case, and it took a lot longer than that, but made the end outcome of my winter last year that much more rewarding.

22:08In 2024, about a year after his injury, Kai took a trip to Alaska where he skied some of the most exhilarating lines of his life. The steep, exposed terrain demanded full commitment from the first turn. Even though Kai wasn't back to 100%, he was just happy to be skiing big mountains again. He even threw a backflip midline like it was second nature. Luckily, the moment was captured on camera for a new film with Red Bull titled Origin.

22:41So a year later, you skied one of the best lines you've skied in Alaska. Tell me about that line, what it was like, what it felt like. yeah so that year even though I was like having a tough year we went up to Girdwood Alaska and we actually scored incredible conditions and because the terrain was like steep and the the powder was super good um my knees felt like pretty good in that terrain because all the cliffs I were hitting had low impact landings and the snow was just so stellar and up in Alaska you're kind of like controlling free fall. So there wasn't a lot of pressure on my knees, like I was experiencing back home at the resorts.

23:22And, um, a year to the day after I found this like really sick line and it was this like pyramid looking peak and it had two cliff bands below it. And I remember like having like a little bit of anxiety that it was like, it had been a year and I was like, all right, like, let's, let's not like mess up again. And it was a taste because yeah, I still obviously had to hit like recovery and stuff after that. But like, that was the first moment where I like tasted where I want to be going with my skiing and also just being back and being myself again. These lines are huge. And it's not like you can practice them before you actually go ski them.

24:03So do you have a sense before you drop in that you'll be able to actually ski them? Yeah. I mean, I'd say there's like a bit of a mix, but I'd say my like internal compass is I'll get to a zone and you don't know what the zone is until you're there. So, um, when we get to an area, I'll see a line that inspires me. And for the most part, like I'll study it, I'll get to the top. I'll be able to understand it and read it and then go for it. And there's nerves associated with that, but I know I can do it because of all my training. But there are times where I will get to the top of a line and I won't feel comfortable.

24:39And instead of being nervous, I'll be scared. And the second you're scared, that's like when I know like, okay, like this isn't worth it. Like let's come back another day. So that's kind of how I make decisions out in the mountains. And it's just like really listening to your body and your mind. What's the difference between feeling nervous and feeling scared. Being nervous is just those natural like butterflies where you're where you're like breathing. You're like, oh, this is going to be crazy. And then being scared is like one of those like thoughts of like the consequences and things going wrong could occur.

25:14And that's when I usually will like pull back from a line.

25:23last year kai had one of his best seasons yet he became the youngest person to ski the otter route in the grand tetons he was awarded a wild card for the fis free ride world championships and he filmed multiple ski movies to check out videos of his backcountry adventures and to see what he's up to next, check out Kai on Instagram at KaiJonesSki. That's K-A-I-J-O-N-E-S-S-K-I.

25:54Wild Ideas Worth Living is part of the REI Podcast Network. It's hosted by me, Shelby Stanger, produced by Annie Fassler, Sylvia Thomas, and Sam Pierce-Nitzberg of Puddle Creative. Our senior producer is Jenny Barber. Our executive producers are Paolo Motula and Joe Crosby. Thanks again to our partner, Capital One and the REI Co-op MasterCard. As always, we love it when you follow the show, take time to rate it, and write a review wherever you listen. And remember, some of the best adventures happen when you follow your wildest ideas.

26:39Thank you.