It’s Friday the 13th, October 2017, 7am. The road is covered with 5cm of fresh snow, temperatures are around freezing point. It’s a windy day as we’re driving towards the Athabasca waterfalls in Jasper National Park. Our mood is awesome as we can’t wait to reach the todays destination.

I personally do not believe in superstition at all. Having this said the 2017 version of Friday the 13th proved something different. We’re close to Jasper at highway section “Disaster Point”. The bridge in front of us is covered with a thin layer of black ice. Wind catches our truck camper, the tires are loosing control. A couple of thousand thoughts are running though my brain as we’re getting closer and closer towards the ditch.

Five seconds later my personal dream of living in North America and Alaska in a truck camper is destroyed. Boom, the dream is gone, destroyed on Highway 16 between Hinton and Jasper.

We’re trying to climb out of our truck, shocked. As the tires got grip again our top heavy camper got too much movement so that the whole truck + camper turned over towards the right side. As we turned overhead our camper got teared apart from the truck. The truck continued sliding and spinning for another 15 meters until we stopped on four wheels again.

A quick look towards the camper was enough to realize that that one is not usable anymore. Everything that we made new in the inside is destroyed. Four days of crafting, boom. Same with the truck – we stored our food in the truck. During the rollover most of the items followed gravity forth and back, including the windows. The interior looked (and smelled) like blueberry and pasta, hellyeah.

People stopped and helped us, someone called the emergency line. RCMP arrived at some point, together with the ambulance and the fire department. Thank you so much for your help guys!

The ambulance brought us the whole way back to Hinton for a few checks in the hospital. I’m sooo thankful that nothing happened with us. We had 3.000kg of material flying around with two human beings as powerless passengers, and nothing happened with us. It’s still a miracle for me – thank you life.

Couchsurfing friends in Hinton offered us some hosting – thank you so much Aylin and Vlad, you guys are awesome. A relative of mine offered to host us in Jasper for some time. We stayed with Dave then for some weeks for our recovery.

That’s how we literally crashed into Jasper.

Jasper is a small cozy city surrounded by the UNESCO World Heritage – the Jasper National Park. It’s a familiar environment here, it feels like living in a village where everybody knows everyone. Elks walking through the city every now and then, the are is surrounded by beautiful mountains.

At some point we started to realize some things. 1) We’re fully alive. 2) Jasper is a beautiful city to ‘crash’ in. 3) We’ve lost our mobility together with a couple of thousand dollars that we invested into the truck & camper. No home, no money, no car. Hellyeah.

What happened next is something that I would like to tell every single human being out there! Literally everyone: NEVER GIVE UP ON YOUR DREAMS! ????

Some dreams might work out different, some dreams might work out in a first run but fail in a long run. Some dreams might not work at all. But sometimes, no matter what circumstances, some dreams can start to become true.

I always had a big dream about skiing. Like skiing a real winter, like every day for half a year. Living in the mountains just for skiing – it just sounded too good to be true.

And it is actually happening. The dream is getting reality. Thanks to the accident, thanks to the black ice, thanks to the amazing people we met in Jasper already things worked out towards a job at Marmot Basin, a UNESCO World Heritage Ski Resort (as it is located in the National Park boundaries haha). As part of the Mountain Safety Department I’m spending 9 hours a day at the hill, maintaining and skiing the resort.

First chair – last call. Every day, for half a year. Thank you life ??❤️

What I’ve learned through this accident: 1) Life is a gift. Be thankful for being alive. 2) Keep on believing in your dreams, they will become reality if you believe in them.

Thanks for reading my story! You’re awesome ❤️