Cam Fitzpatrick Recounts Brock Crouch’s Near-Fatal Whistler Avalanche

This kind of thing is never an easy story to tell, but Cam Fitzpatrick shared some lessons learned. Kaylee Litle illustration.

Watching a friend get swept away by an avalanche may well be one of the most terrifying things in the world. Especially when it happens mere inches away from you. 

Last month, Cam Fitzpatrick witnessed exactly that, as the cornice he and fellow snowboarder Brock Crouch were standing on collapsed, sending Crouch for 1,000-foot ride. The two were deep in the Whistler backcountry on their first heli trip together shooting for an upcoming film when Crouch was buried.

Crouch and Fitzpatrick had met fellow snowboarders John Jackson, Mark Tremblay, and guide Shin Campos in Canada to finish up a final shoot for Absinthe Films. After a successful first day, the crew returned to a zone to ride some big chutes they had scoped earlier. 

Fitzpatrick recalls the vibes that morning.

“Brock was actually new to the crew and it was his first real backcountry mission," said Fitzpatrick. "He’s only 18 but a super strong individual and amazing snowboarder. That day, it was starting to heat up with the sun out and he didn’t really know what he wanted to ride, so Brock and I started down a ridge we had been scoping, and I actually overshot the entrance a little bit.”

The two have been snowboarding together for years, but neither had spent much time in a helicopter before. So finally getting some real heli time was a whole new game for them. Unlike sled- or human-powered riding, there are different strategies and responsibilities for staying safe in gnarly terrain. 

“You take photos and scope from the air, and then of course you get there and it all looks super different from the top of your line,” said Fitzpatrick.

After overshooting the entrance to his line, Fitzpatrick was forced to unstrap and hike up a little bit. There was some pretty obvious cornice danger, so he made sure to be as far back from the edge as possible. Crouch blindly came around some rocks and stopped directly on top of a huge loaded cornice. Immediately, the whole thing collapsed, freezing Fitzpatrick in place.

“My left foot was less than a foot away from the break," said Fitzpatrick. "The cornice had broken super far back.”

Fitzpatrick helplessly watched his friend fall and disappear over the edge. He immediately yelled “avalanche” into the radio and called for the rest of the crew to come help and go into rescue mode. Meanwhile, their pilot Josh, who had landed down low, fired up the heli and was airborne within seconds to assess.

Fitzpatrick credits his hours spent training in rescue and safety protocol in getting his friend to safety. Max Ritter photo.

Standing on the ridge, Fitzpatrick was hopeful.

“Some part of me had potentially thought Brock made his way out of the slide, because I heard him yell and then heard his board scrape down some rocks." Fitzpatrick said. "So, I looked over the edge but didn’t see him where I was hoping he would be.”

The cornice collapse and resulting avalanche had propagated across the whole face, and all Fitzpatrick could see was one of the biggest debris piles he had ever laid eyes on. Facing what to do next, the crew figured out a way to descend safely and start searching for Crouch. 

“Getting down to him was definitely what took us the longest, because we had to figure out how to ride this gnarly line that now had no more snow on it,” said Fitzpatrick. “Besides, there was a ton of hangfire still waiting to release on anyone below it. Luckily, our pilot was able to scope an alternate line and actually managed to land on the debris pile.”

The pilot got on the radio to say that he saw a snowboard poking out of the snow but wasn’t sure if Crouch was attached or not. So just in case, the crew started their search up high to make sure they didn’t miss anything.

Jackson was the first rider down, and the rest of the crew pinpointed Crouch’s location and started getting shovels and probes out. 

“Luckily, we quickly found out he was buried upright, although he was still under about two feet of snow,” said Fitzpatrick. “I uncovered his head and it was really scary; there were no teeth in his mouth and had his face all banged up.”

Fast digging and muscle memory when it comes to rescue response are important factors to saving lives. Jon Klaczkiewicz photo.

When he was uncovered, Crouch was blue and unconscious, but came to within a few minutes and started complaining about back pain. He had broken vertebrae and seriously smashed his face on rocks during his fall, but was alive. After stabilizing him, the team loaded Crouch on a backboard and into the waiting helicopter, which flew him back to Vancouver and to medical help.

After a week of reflection, Fitzpatrick said the experience was nothing short of humbling. Even with endless hours of training, things can still go wrong. However, that training, especially focusing on rescue drills and victim recovery, are exactly what helped him save a friend’s life. What ultimately ended in only a hospital trip and a season-ending injury could have been much, much worse.