BRECKENRIDGE — For much of the world, the holiday season serves as a time of reflection, a look back at the year that was and, ideally, an appreciation for the blessings bestowed.
For snowboarder Kevin Pearce, the reflection is a bit hazy. The future, though, is looking bright as can be.
Nearly a full year after a New Year’s Eve snowboarding accident in a Park City, Utah, halfpipe that almost killed him, the 23-year-old from Vermont still lacks any memory of the event. The traumatic brain injury Pearce suffered when his head smashed the lip of the 22-foot pipe wall did away with that, along with many of the snowboarding skills that had established him among the world’s elite in the acrobatic discipline.
“I definitely remember that,” Pearce said this weekend of his former stature as a probable member of the U.S. Olympic Team and one of only a handful of riders to beat gold medalist Shaun White in competition last year. “But I have no idea if I am going to continue (competing). I have to decide if I want to continue and not be one of the best in the world. I want to continue snowboarding and have fun with it, but I really don’t know what it’s going to be like to be snowboarding again.”
It will be at least another six months before Pearce rediscovers snowboarding. That’s the prognosis from doctors at Craig Hospital, anyway, where Pearce spent six weeks doing intensive therapy shortly after his accident. He followed up with a four-day annual checkup last week before returning to the snowboarding scene for the first time as a spectator at the Winter Dew Tour in Breckenridge.
There he was greeted with a hero’s welcome by the widespread family of friends and fans who have offered a bottomless well of support. A Facebook page set up by Pearce’s parents has attracted more than 50,000 friends wishing him well. Stickers created by his sponsors at Burton that read “I Ride 4 Kevin” became standard issue at halfpipe contests almost overnight.
At the bottom of the Breck superpipe, Pearce returned the love with high-fives, hugs, autographs and occasional guest appearances on the microphone doing play-by-play for friends in the contest.
“It’s insane to see him out here now,” said close friend Jack Mitrani, who was among the first to rush to Pearce’s side after the accident. “Just the whole spurt of energy you get from him, like, ‘Wow, Kevin’s around.’ He’s back in action, the same old Kevin, laughing, smiling. It’s just insane to have him back.”
Long road back
Mitrani was among those who thought “KP” never would be back. He didn’t see the accident — a violent head-butt of the hard halfpipe lip as Pearce was practicing the dangerous Double Cork 1260 — but he heard screams and ran toward his friend fearing the worst.
“I just started sprinting up the pipe. I didn’t even know it was Kevin right away, but as soon as I saw him, my heart dropped,” Mitrani said. “You knew it was bad. I pretty much thought he was dead.”
With the aid of his friends — an exceptionally close-knit corner of the snowboard community that goes by the entrepreneurial nickname “Frends” — Pearce was taken down the mountain and airlifted to the hospital on the brink of death. He remained comatose for weeks. Yet, less than two months later, he was walking again.
“My first memory is getting on the airplane from Utah to Denver,” Pearce said. “The airplane was really loud and the flight attendants weren’t that nice. But then I spent a month and a half at Craig, and they helped a lot. It was a great spot to be.”
The work accomplished at Craig and the ensuing months of therapy at home in Vermont are evident. Pearce remains sharp and articulate behind a pair of thick, black-framed Buddy Holly glasses with a prism built in to correct his double vision. His balance is still a bit off, but his personality is even more effervescent and extroverted than before.
“Right now the thing you notice most is that he kind of acts a little bit younger,” Mitrani said. “Which is almost better, you know, because he used to be really intimidating and really focused and serious. Now he’s just laughing and smiling and so happy. Every day is just like an appreciation.”
Frends back together
Pearce was especially appreciative of the opportunity to reunite with the seven-man Frends crew at Breckenridge. It was the first time the entire team was together since his accident, which was quickly followed by a comparably harrowing injury to snowboarding Frend Danny Davis, who easily might have been paralyzed after breaking his back and pelvis when he crashed a four-wheeler in January.
Davis, who won the Dew Tour event in Breckenridge last year, was dedicating his season to Pearce and had won an Olympic qualifying contest in Mammoth Lakes, Calif., a week after Pearce’s accident. Now they share the realization of their good fortune to return in reasonably good shape.
“It was a tough season. It was scary,” said Davis, who is back on his snowboard but doesn’t plan to compete this season. “But he’s doing good. I’d love to see him on a snowboard, but that thing takes awhile to heal. He needs another good year of just letting his brain get acclimated. Then I think he’ll be right back at it.”
Until then, Pearce spends his days promoting the use of helmets in the halfpipe — the reason, he says, that he’s still alive — and doing physical therapy at a local gym, traveling with his older brother, Adam, since Kevin still can’t drive. The 26-year-old made the trip back to Colorado as well, savoring the return along with his kid brother.
“I’ve always been with him when he was competing and doing well, so it’s not really any different in that sense. I’ve always supported him,” Adam Pearce said. “He still has a ways to go, but it’s pretty incredible how far he’s come in just 11 months.”
For the younger Pearce, the happiness is understandably coupled with bouts of frustration. Coming to terms with his transition from world-class athlete to spectator has been a challenge. All he can do is attempt to stay positive in the hope that the future will reveal a lesson he can share with the world.
“I’m all right with it, but it’s definitely a big-time challenge,” Pearce said. “If there’s a reason behind this, I don’t know what it is yet. It’s definitely a hard one to deal with because of where I was and where I saw everything going, and now that’s all changed.
“One day I might find out. I just don’t know what it is right now.”
Scott Willoughby: 303-954-1993 or swilloughby@denverpost.com
