Colorado Tragedy Underscores Safety

After a dry and barren December, more than 100 inches of snow has fallen on Breckenridge Ski Resort in Colorado.

But the tears rolling down residents’ cheeks are not those of joy.

The town is in mourning after the tragic deaths last week of Grant Martin, 16, a popular star of the local ski team, and Bob Redman, 63, an avid snowboarder who worked at a local art gallery and funded a program to introduce poor children to the slopes.

They died after colliding last Saturday on a ski run called Doublejack.

Martin had flown off a jump he had negotiated hundreds of times, but this time Redman was standing at the landing point.

The collision was so violent that Martin, who was wearing a helmet, was left in a heap--unconscious and without a pulse or respiration when help arrived.

Redman, suffering from severe internal injuries, was rushed to Vail Valley Medical Center, where he died during surgery.

Barbara Jennings, spokeswoman for Colorado Ski Country USA, a marketing group that represents all but one resort in Colorado, said there are no records of two people dying in the same collision on any of Colorado’s ski slopes.

“And I’ve never heard of anything like that happening anywhere before,” she added.

Less than a week earlier, a 24-year-old skier visiting Breckenridge from Seattle was killed during another collision with a snowboarder. It was the fourth accident-related death on Colorado slopes this year. The other involved a skier hitting a tree at Keystone.

That three of the deaths occurred at Breckenridge, and that two of the victims were widely known and well liked was hard for the community to swallow.

An emotional tribute to Martin was held Monday at the site of the collision, and attended mostly by close friends and teammates and coaches of the Team Breckenridge ski team.

About the same time, friends of Redman gathered to console one another at the Village Gallery, where he had worked for 11 years.

That all three of the Breckenridge deaths involved people running into each other brought up all sorts of questions.

Notable among those were whether the resort was doing enough to ensure the safety of its customers, whether too many people are allowed on the slopes, and whether the ski patrol is actively enforcing the mountain’s “responsibility code” that skiers and boarders are supposed to abide by.

That code, basically, involves skiing within your limits, maintaining control and traveling at safe speeds down the slopes. Every resort has such a code. Some enforce it more strongly than others, expelling those who fail to abide by it.

Jim Felton, spokesman for Breckenridge, said he has been “besieged” by reporters trying to get answers to the aforementioned questions.

He answers:

* That there were only about 10,000 people--or about 60% capacity--on the mountain at the time of the collision and that it happened at 11:30 a.m., when many of them were off the slopes having lunch.

“And it happened at Peak 10, which is our least utilized part of the mountain.”

* That the snow conditions were ideal: “It was sunny, clear and there was no ice; it was one of those beautiful winter days Colorado is famous for.”

Asked, then, if either Martin or Redman was in violation of the responsibility code, Felton said he didn’t want to say that either was at fault.

However, when it was pointed out that the skier probably shouldn’t have been trying to negotiate a jump at high speed without knowing what was below, and that the snowboarder probably shouldn’t have been standing beneath a jump he knew was there, Felton replied, “Bingo.”

Thus, this seems to be a case of two people being in the wrong place at the wrong time. If Martin was traveling too fast and skiing irresponsibly, his death should serve as a reality check for others who often do so and get away with it.

And if Redman was somewhere he should not have been, his death should serve as a reminder for people on the slopes to be constantly aware of where they are and of their surroundings.

“This is a natural environment,” Felton said. “This is the Rockies in mid-winter, and physical laws come into play: gravity, terrain changes and changing snow conditions. They demand the full attention of your mental and physical faculties at all times.

“The bottom line is that there is some inherent risk to this sport, as there is to any sport.”

ROCKY MOUNTAIN LOWS

Lucie Hanusova, a top cross-country skier for the University of Colorado, was killed in a snowmobile crash in Yellowstone National Park. The ski team was staying in West Yellowstone, Mont., after a portion of its meet in Park City, Utah, had been canceled because of lack of snow.

Hanusova and teammate Casey Ward, both 22, were cruising through the white wilderness when the snowmobile, with Hanusova at the controls, suddenly and inexplicably veered off the trail and smashed into a tree, according to the Rocky Mountain News. Ward suffered a broken leg and broken jaw.

OUT WEST . . .

In California, there has been only one accidental death on the slopes. A skier was killed, presumably after a collision with a tree.

Benny Chi Pang Chow of Berkeley was found dead alongside an advanced ski run at Northstar-at-Tahoe on Jan. 10. There were no witnesses to the apparent accident, but an autopsy revealed that the 45-year-old died from severe chest trauma and a ruptured aorta.

NO RUSH FOR HELMETS

The recent tragedy at Breckenridge occurred about a year after Michael Kennedy and Sonny Bono died after hitting trees in separate incidents at separate resorts.

Because they were celebrities, their deaths were well publicized and led to a movement to get more skiers and boarders to wear helmets.

How is that movement going? Sort of like a snowball rolling uphill. Only about 5% of skiers and snowboarders are expected to wear helmets this season.

Nationwide, Americans bought 242,632 ski and snowboard helmets last season, more than a 200% increase over the previous season.

ON THE LIGHTER SIDE

* There’s plenty of new snow in the West. You just have to look north and east to find it. Mammoth Mountain, which has a three- to six-foot base, has eight to 10 inches of fresh powder from the latest storm, and nearby June Mountain has six to eight inches.

The Tahoe area has been getting inundated--at first with wet, sticky snow and more recently by more than a foot of light powder. Colorado resorts have been receiving their first substantial blizzards of the season. Telluride, for example, boasted Thursday of getting 22 inches in 48 hours with more expected.

* MTV will be at Snow Summit in Big Bear today through Sunday, filming what eventually will be a six-hour special titled “MTV Snowed In.”

The camera crews will have to be creative as there is no real snow on the slopes. The program will be shown Feb. 6 at noon and again Feb. 7.

Performing on stage will be Sugar Ray, Outkast and 98 Degrees. Performing on the slopes will be professional snowboarders in BoarderCross and Big Air competition. A wrestling extravaganza (featuring top wrestlers from World Championship Wrestling) is also on tap. Details: (310) 752-8707.

* The annual Playboy WinterFest has kicked off its 1999 season at Mammoth Mountain and will be in progress at the Eastern Sierra resort today through Sunday.

“Ski With a Playmate” is one of the most popular attractions, but there will also be ski and snowboard competitions, raffles, afternoon apres-ski parties and other festivities.

WinterFest will be at Snow Summit in Big Bear Lake Jan. 29-31.

* Olympic moguls champion Jonny Moseley and aerials gold medalists Nikki Stone and Eric Bergoust headline a field of the world’s top freestyle skiers competing in a World Cup event this weekend at Heavenly Ski Resort in South Lake Tahoe.

It will be the first time a World Cup event has been held at Heavenly in more than 20 years. The acro (ballet) finals are tonight at 6; the moguls finals are Saturday at 2 and the aerials finals are Sunday at 3. Details: (702) 586-7000.