In February 2004, Nielsen and three of his friends loaded up their snowboards and headed for their weekly run on Teton Pass, which leads into Jackson, Wyo. They parked the car and climbed up the icy staircase to the top of the highest peak — Glory Peak. After resting in the makeshift igloo at the top and taking pictures of the 10,086-foot view, the group began snowboarding down.

“We always snowboard in partners,” Nielsen said. Darren Myler, a senior from Vacaville, Calif., was Nielsen’s partner.

They cruised down the middle of Glory Bowl, while Dart Driggs, a senior from Irving, Texas, and Garrett Sessions, a former BYU-Idaho student, rode along the side of the bowl.

“The snow was perfect that day. I was cruising,” Nielsen said. However, just ahead of him was a cliff. “At first I thought I could take the cliff like a jump, but as I got closer I realized it wouldn’t be safe. I tried to stop, but I was going way too fast,” he said.

The snow beneath Nielsen slid off the cliff and he fell. His body crushed against a rock before he fell over the 20-foot cliff unconscious.

“After I hit the rock, everything was like a black dream,” he said.

Myler saw Nielsen fall. He hurried down around the cliff to find Nielsen, who had tumbled further down and then been buried by the snow. Myler tried not to panic as he surveyed the snow.

“I must have twitched or something and some snow shifted. Myler saw it and ran over and started unbarring me,” Nielsen said. “I was covered in blood.”

Nielsen had broken four ribs. His lungs began filling up with water immediately. “One was completely full and the other was about halfway full,” Nielsen said.

Myler radioed for Driggs and Sessions with walkie-talkies they always take with them. Driggs left to find help, and Sessions tried to help Nielsen.

“I wasn’t breathing right, and I’m pretty sure I wasn’t breathing at all at first,” Nielsen said. Sessions took Nielsen’s snowboard off, made sure he was laying flat and made sure he was breathing.

“Then they gave me a Priesthood blessing — right there in the snow,” Nielsen said.

And then, they waited.

Driggs made it to the bottom of the peak and stopped the first car that drove by. They called 911. Search and Rescue was sent out and Driggs radioed the news to the others.

Nielsen began regaining consciousness. Sessions and Myler took turns talking to him. “I had bit my tongue so hard, though, that I couldn’t really talk,” Nielsen said.

Because Nielsen’s lungs were nearly full of water, he struggled to breath. Hyperthermia began setting in. Myler and Sessions covered Nielsen with their own coats and kept a lookout for the Search and Rescue team. They knew that every minute was harder for Nielsen.

The helicopter landed at the top of Glory Peak and a Search and Rescue crew skied down with a stretcher.

The crew gave Nielsen oxygen immediately, then loaded him on the stretcher and took him to St. John’s Medical Center in Jackson, Wyo.

“I spent three long days in intensive care, while they drained my lungs and monitored my health,” Nielsen said. Then Nielsen was back home, although not quite back to normal.

“My lungs hurt pretty bad — I couldn’t really do anything physical.” Nielsen didn’t snowboard the rest of the year.

But he was back on the slopes — including Teton Pass — the following season. In fact, on Jan. 5, Nielsen and Driggs snowboarded right past the place of his accident.

“I got real lucky that day,” Nielsen said. “There are several times I could have easily died. The accident proved to me that I am not immortal, and I need to be careful.”

Nielsen said he knows that being prepared and being faithful in the gospel is what saved his life that day.

“We had radios, beacons, shovels, probes and the priesthood — everything you need to stay safe,” he said.

Injury and death are not uncommon in back-country skiing and snowboarding. Nielsen said preparedness should never be compromised.