Photo of the Day 3/15/12, Ben Johnson skiing chute in the backcountry of Snowbird, UT

In March of 2008 Ben Johnson was seriously injured in a Big Mountain competition. I happen to be the next competitor at the top of the mountain who was about to ski at the time of the injury. Essentially he had broken his spine but was able to retain function of his lower body. After an obviously intensive recovery, this photograph was taken almost a year to the date of his injury. I remember clearly Ben saying at some part of the day that can't do everything he wants to cause he has a metal rod holding his back together right now. So we ended up skiing a chute that neither of us had yet to ski in the backcountry of Snowbird. It was difficult to get to, very steep, and had a middle section that you needed to stepped over...all meaning there is no such thing as falling here. I thought to myself and the end of the chute, "what exactly can't you do Ben?"