Only minor damage on the outside of the shell - a couple of minor scuffs, a roughed up goggle buckle, and a damaged goggle strap. I did not remove the liner on the inside to check the foam for crush damage. funny coincidence that The Clash is one of his favorite bands, probably second to Social D. big mario won’t be able to tell you (he cannot remember much from yesterday late morning/early afternoon) and no one else saw it.Here is what I can tell you:
Mario cruised the catwalk around from the top of Lift #1 to Mambo. I dropped down through the steeps and bumps to the top of Mambo and sat down. Mario came by, railed a big toeside and buried the nose of the board in the soft stuff. He sat there for a minute with a big a$$ed grin, shaking the snow from his goggles and helmet, as we have seen many times before. He popped up and started down Mambo again. At that point, he was masked by trees and a roller. I sat there for a minute longer, waiting on ink’ and John. They didn’t show so I popped up and started down after big mario. A few turns down I buried the nose and went down in the middle of the run. Ink’ and John went by at that point.
Ink’, John and I met-up where the trail forks towards Homerun and the base. I looked around for Mario, surprised that we was not there waiting for us. After 80+ days riding with Mario, we would always say something or make a gesture as we passed the other signaling that we were going ride all the way to the bottom.
We rode down to the base. Mario was nowhere to be found. We could see his car, he was not there; he was nowhere. At that point I knew he was in the trees and expected the worst. My mind kept racing, thinking about Ink’s run-in with some trees several years ago where he wound up in the hospital for 12 weeks, then there was Tilledog’s incident with the trees a couple years ago.
Ink’, John, Jeff and Shelly made a lap looking for him; I waited at the bottom. They returned, no one saw him. Ink’, John, Jeff and I made a second lap, looking for tracks headed into the trees, while Shelly waited at the bottom. No sign of Mario. Shelly tried calling Mario for the third time. At that point I decided it was time to walk over and ask Ski Patrol for help. Before I got away, Mario answered his phone, he was out of it. Patrol had found him and brought him down the hill on a snowmobile. Patrol was giving him the once over. He was sore and very disoriented, but able to communicate where he was. I would guess that the total time from when I saw him on the hill last to us walking into the Patrol building was 20 minutes.
Mario’s bp and pulse were fluctuating so Patrol decided to send him down the mountain in an ambulance. He called he when they were a couple of blocks from the hospital. It was obvious that he was himself again.
My guess is that Mario got locked-in on an edge, don;t know which, and launched into the trees. Based on the timing, I think that while I was picking myself up after burying the nose, he was probably directly behind me, 20 feet away, in the trees.
To this point I am still sick to my stomach knowing that he was in the f%&ing trees and I/we could not find him. :(