Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jason Dennen. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Jason, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

I took up skydiving as a way to challenge myself and as a way to relieve stress from a corporate job where I was working 60-70 hours a week for years at a time with very few breaks or vacation time. On my 327th jump I was coming in for a landing and a huge wind gust hit me from behind and picked me up in my harness and slammed me violently forward through a cattle fence and into the side of an airplane hangar going 30 mph. I hit so hard on my left side that 10 of my 12 ribs broke and impacted my heart so violently that my heart was moved from the left side of my body to the right side. I was airlifted to the nearest level one trauma center via a flight for life helicopter for emergency life-saving surgery. The doctors couldn’t believe I lived as they had never performed the surgery, they performed on me previously as no previous patient had made it into the hospital alive with the heart injury that I sustained. After they fixed my heart over the next 8 days, they kept me in a coma to protect me from my injuries and performed numerous surgeries to fix the 20 bones that I broke and 4 organs that I injured in the crash. After waking up from the coma I was not allowed to move for 10 weeks. I laid in the bed and assessed my life. I never thought of all the amazing things that happened in my life or the good things that I did but the things that I didn’t do well in life. I vowed to live the rest of my life concentrating on the things in life that were most important and refocus my life. I also started to discover my new purpose in life which was to help others going through difficult challenges in their lives. I realized I had to go through the toughest challenge in my own life and come back from it before I could help anyone else going through their most difficult time in their lives. With a reinvigorated purpose I realized coming back from this accident wasn’t just for me but for all of the people that could benefit from having an uplifting story and encouraging word from someone who survived an accident that I shouldn’t have survived and came back against all the odds and came back to do something that no one even considered as a possibility. With that new infusion of purpose, I went to work to race in a triathlon again. First, I was told I wouldn’t walk out of the hospital after I told the therapists that was my goal. I was told I would be leaving the hospital in a wheelchair. Five weeks later I walked out of the hospital with the assistance of my crutches. When my doctor told me I would not likely ever run again I signed up for a triathlon to prove his prognosis was incorrect and to show all of the people that helped me in my recovery that miracles do happen and you must have faith and be willing to push yourself beyond what a normal person would consider pushing themselves if I was going to make the extraordinary comeback I was expecting to make. One day short of the 1-year anniversary of the accident I lined up and raced a triathlon and finished it within the time cutoff with no special exceptions, in a driving rainstorm in the worst conditions I have ever raced in while hearing that doctors voice in the back of my head all day saying you will probably never run again. I ran that day for the entire 6.2-mile distance of the running segment of the race after first swimming 1500 meters and biking 30 miles.

Jason, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am a Christian, author, inspirational speaker, skydiver, mountain climber, triathlete and explorer. I describe myself on most days as just a normal everyday guy. I was born and raised in New Jersey and moved to Colorado to explore and test my limits in the wide-open spaces of the west. I was in a skydiving accident that almost took his life. The doctor who performed emergency lifesaving surgery on me stared at my comatose body the day after the surgery in utter disbelief. The doctor told my family that he couldn’t believe I survived all of the traumatic injuries that I had incurred during the accident. He said that no one survives what I just survived. No one. I woke up from a coma that lasted 8 days and required me to undergo multiple surgeries to repair 4 organs and 20 broken bones. My badly broken body required me to stay in the hospital for 3 and a half months, undergo 11 months of rehabilitation and relearn to walk. After being told by my doctor I may never be able to run again, I decided to sign up for a triathlon to test the doctor’s prognosis. Less than 1 year after the accident I completed a triathlon and proved the doctor wrong. The long journey to recovery from the accident allowed me time to reassess the direction of my life and answer the question why was my life spared. This second chance at life revealed to me a new purpose in life. I promised myself that I would share his story and what I learned to help others that are going through difficult hardships in their own lives.

I am on a mission to inspire people by sharing my story of survival and to empower people to get through life’s most difficult hardships by utilizing the lessons they have already learned throughout their lives and by taking advantage of the strength they already possess inside themselves.

I want people to know that one thing we all have in common in life as human beings is that we will all struggle at some point in life and that we are able to overcome those extraordinary hardships. I have written a book called 8 Days Till Sunrise which chronicles my journey from the accident to the recovery process to spreading my message of hope to all of those that are struggling in life or who will struggle in life in the future. I spread the message of hope and provide the below take away lessons which will help you get through that difficult struggle you are living through. Below are just a few lessons that helped me get through my difficult struggle.

A few take aways which helped me overcome my hardship and can help others with their struggles. I’m not listing these items below because I think they will work I list them because I know they will work because I used them throughout my recovery process.
1. Never accept limits other people try to place on you
2. Everyday find a way to make a small improvement as small improvements everyday make for huge improvements
over time
3. Test yourself frequently
4. Build a strong foundation and it will guide you through the storm
5. Fear can either protect you or hold you back from things you are capable of accomplishing

I am often asked to speak to groups about healing and recovery, my enduring faith and the power of connection. My accident forced me to ask the questions that we are often too scared to contemplate: What does it mean to live a good life? What is the value of true connection? Which pursuits leave us feeling hollow? And which imbue our lives with meaning? I encourage others to challenge themselves and answer those same questions.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

I think one of the things that has changed in our society with the invention of the internet and social media is that we have less face to face interactions with people. We have lots of interactions but how many of those turn into a deep interaction where you are willing to bear your soul and inner most doubts and concerns. My strategy for marketing my book is to meet people face to face and open a conversation with them and share the struggles which I overcame and often times puts a person at ease and they will trust me enough to talk about the struggles they are facing. I have met so many people at book signings and simply by sharing our struggles that person I meet knows that they are not alone in their struggles and that the future will be better than their current situation if they work at overcoming their current situation. And they leave with a feeling of hope which is key to overcoming their struggle. Having these amazing interactions is the reason I wrote the book and that reason is to help others that are struggling to overcome those hardhips.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I celebrate a holiday each year that I made up called Back to Life Day. It is a holiday when I celebrate the day I almost died. I celebrate by reliving the events of the day that I almost died and by taking on a physical challenge to disprove the predictions medical professionals made that it would probably not be possible to recover from all my injuries I incurred from my skydiving crash which could potentially limit the activities I had enjoyed throughout my life. The first anniversary was when I raced a triathlon. Other years I climbed smaller less technically demanding mountains and this year the 5th anniversary of the holiday I will take on the the biggest most technically demanding climb I have done since the accident to prove my doctor’s predictions wrong once again by doing something they said would not be possible.

This year I will attempt to climb Ypsilon Mountain in Rocky Mountain National Park. The mountain stands 13,520 feet tall and requires a total vertical gain of 5,000 feet. The route to the summit is gained by climbing an ice/snow couloir that will require me to use an ice axe and crampons that strap onto the bottom of my boots which will allow me to dig into the ice for traction and upward movement. The summit is guarded by an overhanging snow cornice which threatens the entire route as I will race to climb the route before the heat of the day and the highest risk of the sun melting the ice that attaches the cornice to the mountain. A falling cornice creates a wave of ice and snow that can cause an avalanche which potentially could sweep me down the mountain and bury me in a snowy grave.

Why this peak? I have climbed it a few previous times but not in more than 17 years. The last time I climbed the peak I was hit by a small avalanche which almost swept me down the mountain. Once I dug myself out of the small avalanche I then started climbing again and finally reached the summit which was engulfed by a huge electrical storm. I was almost electrocuted as every few seconds the roar of the thunder shook the ground and all of the metal climbing gear that I was wearing was vibrating and humming. I climbed off the summit as quickly as I could to avoid being a lightning rod.

The peak also acts as a memorial for family members that have passed. I built a rock memorial for my brother years ago. My Mom passed away last August and she will join my brother’s memorial right next to him once I climb the mountain and I am on the way down and visit the memorial which resides on the lower flanks of Ypsilon Mountain within the Ypsilon Mountain cirque.

One of the reasons I celebrate the holiday is to test my limits but also to encourage other people to test their limits and to not accept limits that other people try to place on them. I want people to know they are capable of overcoming huge obstacles in their lives and they are strong enough to accomplish great things with the strength that already resides within.    

Contact Info:

• Website: JasonDennen.com
• Instagram: @JWDBoulder
• Facebook: facebook.com/jason.dennen.5