Fourth Colorado Ski Death of the Season
A 14-year-old girl died from injuries suffered in a ski accident Tuesday at Purgatory at Durango Mountain Resort. She was skiing on the backside at DMR with her friends on an intermediate run, when she hit a tree and suffered an injury to her liver. The unconscious girl was airlifted to Mercy.
The young girl was taken to the top of Chairlift 1 and flown to Mercy Regional Medical Center where she died Tuesday, said La Plata County coroner Carol Huser. She was skiing with a school group from Bayfield, Colorado.
In November, a 14-year-old died after hitting a tree in a Breckenridge run and in December, a 22-year-old University of Colorado student died when he fell head-first into deep snow at Wolf Creek Ski Area. The cause of death was suffocation and hypothermia.
On Wednesday, a 23-year-old ski instructor from Cedar, Mich., was found dead in a tree well beneath 2 feet of snow at the Steamboat ski area. The victim was an instructor at Arapahoe Basin Ski and Snowboard area.