Lucas Merli Talks About the Scariest Rescue of His Life

It was a truly epic trip to Japan – so much snow that if you tried to stand on your feet in the snow, all you did was sink. So much snow that every time you dug a snowpit, you could barely get deeper than the first layer.

When the endless blizzarding finished, Lucas Merli, Ryland Bell, and a talented squad of snowboarders were hitting every air in sight, and that's when Lucas, who hadn't quite spotted his landing off one drop, landed in a stand of trees and smashed his face in beyond recognition.

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This emotional talk is a real-life account of how one group handled things when they went seriously wrong in the backcountry, and we have to say a big thank you to Lucas for letting us share a difficult experience in his life, from which he has thankfully fully recovered.