Billy Poole
Where do I begin? This whole thing still seems surreal to me. I saw Billy the night before the accident. The week before we were out together at the Ugly Sweater Party.
Tuesday, the day of Billy’s death, was an epic bluebird powder day. I was out shooting with photographer Brent Benson, Leo Ahrens and Rob Greener. We skied across the street from Alta in the morning. The snow was so sparkly and blowers. 17" of fresh had blanketed the entire canyon and the sun was shining bright. After an early morning hike session, we headed over to Alta to do a lap in Rocky Point and then Grizzly Gulch. As we headed out the gates and came over and peered into Rocky, it was clear that another film crew had been there and we knew it was the Warren Miller crew based on the size of the bombholes. Leo Ahrens, a 14-year-old athlete that I have coached for Alta and Axis Freeride, did a huge backflip off a cliff back there, and I threw my first lincoln loops on snow off of a cliff (check back for pictures soon). As we hiked out of rocky point, we could see the news helicopters and lifeflight hovering around the area. We knew that something bad had happened, but we weren’t sure of what yet. We prayed it wasn’t a huge avalanche in Rocky, but we all had a bad feeling that it was someone we knew.
As we got to the top of Wolverine and Patsy Marley, my friend Tyler Knowles was hiking out and told us that Billy had been badly injured and been airlifted out. I figured he had broken his leg or hit his head and suffered a concussion. We always hear of athletes getting hurt and beat up in our industry. I had no idea of the bad news that would come later that afternoon.
When I first heard the news that Billy had passed, my heart sank and a huge lump entered my throat. I was utterly speechless. There are no words to express this tragedy. My heart goes out to his family, his girlfriend (and one of my best friends, Cait Phillips), his dog Dylan, and all of his friends near and far.
Billy’s memorial service at Alta was last night. It was held at the Goldminer’s Daughter at Alta, a bar and restaurant right at the base of Alta. I would always run into Billy there around lunchtime on powder days. As I closed my eyes, I could mentally recreate his reverberating laughter. He was always smiling, always so happy to be alive. I made it just in time for the start of the slide show. As I looked at all the amazing images from his life, I started to cry. I had known Billy for 4 years now, and shared some great times with him. We will miss you Billy! RIP
