A Boy From Wollochet
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"I'm not afraid of death, I just don't want to be there when it happens."
– Woody Allen
"The value of life is revealed when it confronts death from close quarters."
– Apoorve Dubey
“Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”
(1 Corinthians 15: 54b-55 ESV)
For the next seven years, I would spend the winters with my family on the summit at Alpental Ski Resort. After my dad's tenure as general manager, he went back to working at IBM. He joined the weekend volunteer ski patrol, which he started, which allowed us to have season passes every winter. I have many fond memories of the summit.
One of the cold mornings when I was about ten, I woke up to around ten inches of new snow. My dad and I headed up Chair 2. The plan was to get to the top of the mountain and start to ski down the run called International. We were going to stay high on the ridge, traverse across into the back bowls into the back country, and ski some untouched powder. This run at the time was known as the steepest ski run in the Pacific Northwest. We headed down the top of the slope. The top part of the hill was the steepest. We headed to our left and stayed high on the ridge cutting a new trail, and then we came across a small trail on top of the cliff. My dad went first, and then he looked back at me and hollered, “Keep skiing across this little trail, and do not stop at all.” That was a warning. He probably thought I would catch an edge and start sliding.
He started off onto the trail and I followed. I stayed in his tracks and then accidentally caught the edge of my skis, when I started to fall and began to slide. I tried to stop the sliding, but I kept moving toward the ledge. It happened so fast, I didn't have time to think about the danger. As my dad watched, I slid off the ledge and fell ten stories off the cliff. I remember free falling and hitting several ledges before getting to the bottom. Every time I hit a rock ledge, it knocked the wind out of me. When it was all over, I was at the bottom and simply laid still in the snow. I just put my hands on my head and I realized that my chest hurt. My dad quickly skied down to me, threw off his skis, and fell to his knees in the deep powder and hugged me and held me close to his chest while he cried. As I shut my eyes, he spoke to me quietly through his tears, "I'm really glad you're okay.”
At this point, my dad, as the general manager of the resort, always carried a radio with him. He called out on the radio for those on the ski patrol who were close to us to come to our location. With my dad beside me, they carried me off the mountain and I was brought to the hospital. I had bruised ribs and a concussion. I realized later, and as I was falling off the cliff in the free fall, that something caught me and slowed my fall. As I was in the free fall, I knew that I wasn't alone. There was a presence, and as I watched the brown and grey rock fly by me, something was very close to me. The fall itself was surreal, and I realized that the fall actually slowed down. It felt like something had caught me.
Six years later, in the spring of 1974, I had an encounter with Jesus at a high school Young Life meeting. I was immediately reminded that it was the Lord who saved me that day on the mountain. It was an extremely powerful encounter with God. I will never forget it. A month later, a ski instructor from the resort accidentally went off the same cliff I did and fell to his death. From time to time, I still struggle with survivor's guilt. Why did I live and the other man die? Did I live for some purpose that I was supposed to fulfill? What if I mess up? What if I missed it? After my fall, a young man on the ski patrol at Alpental sketched a picture of the event for me. I've kept it ever since and when I look at it, I am often reminded of the grace of God in my life. As a further reminder, the name of the ski bowl that I fell into was changed to 'Todd's Folly' for a short time.
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About the Book
This is a story about a boy who was raised in the Pacific Northwest who had a childhood that was filled with experiences that could best be characterized as extraordinary. It tells of the childhood memories of a boy who was raised on the waters of Puget Sound, on Wollochet Bay, and whose parents were professional ice skaters. He spent many winters on the summit of Snoqualmie Pass at an incredible place known as Alpental. It tells of his childhood, and of coming of age. Todd tells of his early encounters with God and his coming to faith. A Boy From Wollochet is a powerful memoir of what can happen when a boy encounters the Living God. Through each and every encounter that is penned in these pages, the reader will follow the author, as God pursued him, through the great triumphs and the deep tragedies of his early life. This book is about a love affair between a boy and his God, and what happened when he experienced the miraculous. It is a testimony of a boy who fell in love with the man named Jesus of Nazareth, after his experiences of being saved from certain death. In these pages, be prepared to read about a relationship between father and son, the tragedy of terminal illness, and the power of faith, hope and reconciliation.
About the Author
N. Todd Riggs is an ordained pastor and a licensed clinical social worker. He is the founder and president of Affinity Ministries Inc., a faith-based counseling clinic located in New Brighton, Minnesota. For nearly 40 years, Todd has been mentoring, coaching, and providing counseling and clinical therapy services both in an inpatient and outpatient setting. He has a commitment to serve in short term missions. He has led several medical teams into orphanages in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Estonia, Finland, and Russia. He is a guest adjunct instructor at the Tartu Academy of Theology in Tartu, Estonia. Since 1998, he has mentored and provided pastoral care to a community known as the Minneapolis Band of Brothers. Todd and his wife, Cheryl, have been married for 35 years and live in the Minneapolis area.