CR Johnson Killed In Tragic Skiing Accident

February 27th, 2010

CR Johnson, one of the world’s leading freeskiing stars, was killed in a skiing accident ion his home mountain, Squaw valley, California on Feb 24. Johnson, a star of many ski films and one of the most progressive skiers of his generation, was skiing a steep rocky chute in an area called Light Towers when he fell.

Johnson was wearing a helmet at the time, but still suffered head injuries after hitting rocks. Fellow pro skier JT Holmes witnessed Johnston’s fall from the Headwall lift and notified ski partrol at the top. The patrol were on the scene in minutes and attempted to revive Johnson, but unfortunately he didn’t respond.
CR, real name Charles Russell Johnson, came to prominence through his segments in films produced by industry heavyweights MSP and Teton Gravity Research. He was a two-time X Games medalist and in recent years CR had started an independent film company with his good friend Tanner Hall.

Johnson has made his way back to the top of skiing after suffering a near death injury in 2005 that left him in a coma for 10 days. In that accident CR suffered head when he was hit in a heavy collision with another skier in Brighton Utah. After recovering from that accident CR’s skiing gradually improved and as shown in the Tanner hall films Believe and The Massive, and Poor Boys Every Day Is A Saturday. He had been filming with Level 1 Productions this past winter and returned to competition scene as well, placing third at the Red Bull Linecatcher event—a big mountain freestyle contest—in Vars, France, on January 13, 2010, in a field of some of the world’s best skiers.

CR grew up in Squaw and his death has hit the close knit community hard and his death has saddened the skiing community world wide He is survived by his parents Lorraine and Russ and his older sister Kahlil.