Industry veteran, Teresa Hukari, needs your prayers and positive vibes

Teresa Hukari, dealer and consumer services manager for Smith Sport Optics, suffered a severe neck injury (fractures in six neck vertebra) while skiing at Sun Valley on Saturday. Hukari was flown by Life Flight to Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise, Idaho, the best trauma center in the area.

Hukari was immediately rushed into surgery. Following surgery, doctors were optimistic, we were told. While she had no movement except in her right hand following surgery, by Sunday evening Hukari was able to perform tiny shoulder shrugs and apparently has moved her other arm. All very good signs.

The accident was a fluke. Hukari, an accomplished skier, climber, cyclist and paddler, was wearing a helmet and skiing with another Smith employee. We were told that he was skiing 10-feet behind her when she caught an edge and flew off and down into a tree’d ravine. The run was near the ‘I-80 Cat Track’, and apparently Hukari was making beautiful turns on some relatively new K2 boards prior to catching the edge. She hit a tree so that she stopped facing the sky.  

The outpouring of love for Hukari has been immense as word began to spread on Sunday via emails and phone chains. Hukari began her outdoor career as an executive assistant to Mic Mead, then owner of Adventure 16, before becoming vice president of human resources and a member of the retailer’s Executive Management Committee. She left A16 to work for Sally McCoy at Sierra Designs, before moving to Ketchum to work for Smith.

Friends are encouraged to send cards and best wishes to Hukari at the following address:

Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center
208-367-2121
c/o Teresa Hukari
1055 N. Curtis Rd.
Boise, ID 83706

It looks as though Hukari will be in the ICU for some time and she won’t be able to receive flowers until she has been moved to a private room. Please join the SNEWS® team (one of our partners, Michael Hodgson, worked with Hukari while at Adventure 16) and hold Hukari in your prayers, shower her with good juju, see her surrounded by healing white light, or use whatever positive energy you believe in. Hukari has given of herself to so many in the past. Now it is she who needs us.