'I almost died': Injured snowboarder Mark McMorris sends first tweet since crash

Mark McMorris recovers in a Vancouver hospital as his mother Cindy looks on. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Instagram-Craig McMorris)

VANCOUVER - Star Canadian snowboarder Mark McMorris says he "almost died" when he crashed going off a jump in the B.C. backcountry last weekend.

The Olympic bronze medallist tweeted Friday for the first time since the accident.

He called the past week the hardest of his life.

"Sorry for the silence," he added. "I almost died and now I'm trying to get better."

He ended the tweet by saying "stories are coming."

A bronze medallist in slopestyle at the 2014 Olympics, McMorris suffered breaks to his jaw and left arm, a ruptured spleen, a stable pelvic fracture, rib fractures and a collapsed left lung.