Kai Jones finds his wings again in Girdwood, AK. In the spring of 2024, a year after his crash, he traveled to Alaska to ski with Alex Armstrong and veteran TGR athletes Sage Cattabriga-Alo-sa and Ian McIntosh to chase a near-perfect weather window. Photo: Nic Alegre As Kai progressed through his recovery, one week at a time, he developed a whole new mindset. Surrounded by his family and close friends, he began journaling, meditating and visualizing his return to skiing, doubling down on the fact that yes, this was his choice to make and there was only one clear answer. It’s an age-old story that many pro athletes know: season-ending injury, followed by an existential crisis, a recov-ery and new habits. Kai was thrust into it while his peers were planning to go to prom, get their driver’s licenses and study for the SATs. Not only was it the first real challenge of his career, it was an unmatched life moment of looking inward and growing up fast. No one would have blamed him if he wanted to take a step back from the high-risk path he was hurtling toward. “When the Jones family puts their mind to something, it’s really cool to see what unfolds,” says Dutschi of Kai’s maturity through crisis. “If you look at it as an ethos for life, the Jones brothers didn’t want to follow the East Coast Boston path of prep school, college and a finance job. Kai’s the manifestation of that mentality.” That fall, the moment Kai never thought would come had finally arrived. Returning to the Red Bull APC for his final return-to-sport tests, Kai was ecstatic to hit the mobility and strength numbers his physical therapist had wanted to see. In December 2023, he finally clicked into his skis again. At first, it didn’t feel natural. He was shocked at how hard it felt to ski simple terrain around the resort, but quickly remembered the joy from the sensation of setting an edge, carving a turn and cruising around with his bud-dies—being a kid again on skis. Despite the slow start, Kai surprised himself with his progress. By mid-winter, he was back to building jumps in the backcountry, and stomped his first triple backflip alongside Durtschi and Parkin Costain. Almost a year to the date after his accident, Kai flew up to Alaska to chase a weather window and near-perfect conditions with Canadian skier Alex Armstrong and his two biggest childhood heroes, Sage Cattabriga-Alosa and Ian McIntosh. Returning to Girdwood, he felt that internal fire building again, hungry as ever to push himself. For Kai, this trip was more than just an “I’m back” moment, it was a coming of age. Sage and Ian, now the veterans on the TGR athlete roster, had learned everything they knew about Alaskan freeride skiing from Kai’s uncle Jeremy—where to put your sluff, how to manage your speed, when to stand down. “Mac’s always on about ‘orchestrating the mountain,’” laughs Kai. “But I know he learned that all from Jeremy, so it felt really special to keep that knowledge passed down in the family.” Buoyed by the support of his idols, Kai stepped out into the biggest terrain of his life. The weather held for longer than expected, and the crew flew almost every single day of the multi-week trip, chasing lines first pioneered by TGR athletes in the ’90s. When asked about what he sees as his mentee’s next steps, Durtschi laughs and says, “The next big challenge? Skiing big lines in Alaska—but I guess he just did that. I’m sure Kai is going to keep surprising himself.” In fact, later that spring, Kai raced up and down Mount Shasta with his uncle Jeremy before returning to the Tetons and putting his own tracks on a much-coveted ski mountaineering line—the Grand Teton’s Otter Body route, first skied by legends Doug Coombs and Mark Newcomb in 1997. The route towers high above the val-ley, connecting the east face to a hanging snowfield via a series of rappels. At 18, he became the youngest person to ever ski the line, which is visible through the windows of Jackson’s St. John’s Hospital. “I dreamed of skiing it when I was hurt and to be in a place where I could ski it a year later was unreal,” he says. “I turned the page and started a new chapter.” Kai Jones 085
The Ski Journal Volume 18, Issue 1: Page 85
