He Lost a Ski Mid-Flip. Then He Stuck the Landing.

The clip is only a few seconds long, but it has left skiers replaying it in disbelief.

In the video, a skier launches off a jump at Whistler Blackcomb, spins into a double backflip, loses a ski mid-air, and somehow rides away the landing on one ski.

The skier is Ty Reichert, a 16-year-old freestyle athlete from Squamish and a member of the Whistler Freestyle Performance ski team. The jump happened on the final run of a training day last January 2, during what was supposed to be a relaxed lap with friends.

“They were pumping me up,” Reichert said. “So I decided to throw a dub 10 last lap.”

A dub 10 means two flips combined with three full spins, or 1,080 degrees of rotation, performed off a jump.

The moment everything went wrong

Reichert says he felt confident on the approach, carrying good speed into the jump. The mistake happened immediately after takeoff.

“I took off too early, and my right ski smashed into my left,” he said. “The instant they clapped together, I knew my right ski was gone.”

Mid-air, there was no time to think through options.

“My brain snapped into survival mode,” he said. “Pure instinct.”

He remembers being terrified, convinced he was about to slam. He focused on keeping his vision up and avoiding the disorienting mistakes he had seen cause brutal crashes in other clips.

Then something unexpected happened.

“I came out of my dub 10 perfectly,” he said. “And a little luck.”

Muscle memory takes over

Reichert says there was no conscious adjustment once the ski came off.

“My body just took over,” he said. “Total muscle memory.”

That muscle memory is the result of years of training. Reichert trains on snow four days a week, alongside trampoline sessions, air awareness work, and strength training. In the off-season, that continues on water ramps, airbags, and glaciers. He credits trampoline work and air awareness as a major reason he was able to stay composed mid-air.

Realizing how close it was

The relief did not hit until after he rode away.

“I skied out thinking, holy shit, I’m alive,” he said. “I took the biggest sigh of relief, then fell to the ground just to process what happened.”

His friends were screaming. For Reichert, it instantly registered as one of the wildest moments he has ever had on skis.

Years behind one moment

Reichert learned to ski at age two and spent his early years skiing everything Whistler had to offer. He joined freestyle during COVID closures, progressed through club levels, and now competes nationally. This season, he is set to compete at Canada Cup events in Sun Peaks and Nova Scotia, followed by a NORAM in Whistler.

His focus is Big Air and Slopestyle, with planned tricks this season including a dub 14 and right dub 12.

Behind the viral clip, he says, is a less visible reality. Hours hiking park features, time in the gym, crashes, and real consequences.

“The jumps are sometimes over 50 feet high,” he said. “And when things go wrong, they really go wrong.”

Earlier this year, a crash during glacier training ended with an ambulance ride to the hospital.

“It’s a lot of work,” Reichert said. “But moments like this are why we train.”