the outer/wheel side joint shattered and threw the balls everywhere. I was offroading in Moab and trying to get past a very difficult obstacle. I was very stuck, was giving it gentle throttle, it started to move, so I got optimistic and gave it more throttle. = broken axle.

a lot of responders apparently haven't read the OP or my follow-ups, but... I drove 45 miles of legit gnarly offroading and then 70 miles of pavement with the axle broken. The axle was still together, it just didn't have the balls in it to drive the wheel, so it just spun inside the joint. It was fine. I bought a new one from Oreillys and threw it in on the sidewalk. It has more play in it than the OEM one did, which is annoying, but it's fine. I've driven at least 2k miles on the Oreillys one with no issues.