Ski and Snowboard Deaths Mount on Colorado Slopes

With two months of skiing left, Colorado has recorded the same number of ski-related deaths as last season.

Of the nine deaths, all since December, four skiers and three snowboarders all ran into trees on intermediate runs from late morning to midafternoon.

“So many of these tragedies had several ingredients,” said Jim Felton, spokesman for Breckenridge Resort. “You find yourself on terrain that you shouldn’t be on, or maybe you are learning without taking a lesson, or maybe you’re tired. You need to make informed decisions on the mountain.”

Skiers and boarders can easily reach speeds of 40 mph on a groomed “blue” intermediate trail, Felton said.

The accidents started Dec. 27 when a 7-year-old boy skied away from his parents at Sunlight and crashed. The same day, a 25-year-old snowboarder died after an accident at Breckenridge.

An 18-year-old man died at Snowmass and a 60-year-old man at Keystone on Jan. 16. Three days later, a 19-year-old snowboarder died after an accident at Keystone. Last week, a 21-year-old woman at Vail and a 41-year-old female snowboarder at Breckenridge died after accidents.

The other deaths happened at Steamboat Resort. On Dec. 16, a 23-year-old man suffocated after falling into deep snow while skiing. Sunday, a 25-year-old skier died after attempting a flip in a ski jumping area.

Jasper Shealy, an engineering professor at Rochester Institute of Technology in New York, has studied skier injuries for more than 25 years. He found that most mishaps happen to young men in their late teens to early 20s who often ski or board fast and on the margins of blue trails bordered by trees.

Sliding into a stand of lodgepole pines is “like diving into a forest of telephone poles,” said Dr. Brian Auld, director of High Country Health Care’s Snake River Clinic at Keystone.

Auld said skiers who hit trees don’t have to be going fast to be injured.

“There was a snowboarder at Keystone recently who was just learning. In fact, it was his first day on the board, so he wasn’t going very fast.” The boarder hit a tree on a blue run and died.