Ski Safety Blog

Earlier this month, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Health Canada, in cooperation with the firm Black Diamond Equipment, Ltd. of Salt Lake City, Utah, announced a voluntary recall of Avalung backpacks. About 3,500 units have been recalled due to a defect. The air intake tubing can crack under cold temperatures, causing the unit not to function as intended, posing a suffocation hazard.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Health Canada, in cooperation with the firm Black Diamond Equipment, Ltd. of Salt Lake City, Utah, announced a voluntary recall of Avalung backpacks. About 3,500 units have been recalled due to a defect. The air intake tubing can crack under cold temperatures, causing the unit not to function as intended, posing a suffocation hazard.

The company has received one report of an air intake tubing cracking. No injuries have been reported. This recall involves the following Black Diamond 2010 Avalung backpacks These backpacks have an air intake system that the company states extracts air from the snow, allowing the victim of an avalanche to breathe while buried under the snow. The model name and color are printed on the side of the backpack. The PO number is printed on a white label inside the backpack.

For specific models under recall, see: Avalung backbacks recall. For a description of the Avalung, see Avalung Saves Lives.

Posted by Linda Chalat at 10:08 AM | Permalink

The Summit County coroner says a skier is dead after being found in the trees off a run at Keystone ski resort.  Coroner Joanne Richardson said Thursday that Jennifer Agule of Breckenridge was found during sweeping operations at the resort at around 8 p.m. Wednesday. She was found near the intermediate Frenchman run.

The resort said someone called the ski patrol at about that time. Spokesman Ryan Whaley said ski patrollers found Agule shortly afterward and she was taken to Keystone Medical Center.  The coroner said Agule wasn't wearing a helmet and appeared to have suffered severe blunt force trauma.

Posted by Linda Chalat at 9:56 AM | Permalink

Sadly, a 15-year-old Reno boy died last Wednesday when he slid and collided with a tree at Mt. Rose-Ski Tahoe after he removed his snowboard and helmet and began walking down the slope. The boy's uncle has told media outlets that the youngster and a friend thought that the run was icy and that it would be safer to walk down the slope.

The teen was airlifted with severe head injuries to Renown Regional Medical Center following the accident on the ski area's Gold Run on the resort's Slide Mountain side. He was later pronounced dead. The Washoe County Medical Examiner's Office is conducting an autopsy to determine the cause of death.

Posted by Linda Chalat at 4:37 PM | Permalink

The California Mountain Resort Safety Report, prepared by the SnowSport Safety Foundation, found mixed results when it surveyed safety conditions at 25 different resorts.

Representatives of the California Ski Industry Association said safety remains a high priority for a sport with inherent risks. They said the report is likely linked to recent efforts to enact safety regulations at ski resorts by the father of a woman killed in a snowboarding accident in 2006, a position denied by the report's lead author.

Dick Penniman, chief research officer for the SnowSport Safety Foundation, said the report is only meant as an information resource and that his group is not pushing for new laws or regulations at California ski resorts.

Resorts were surveyed anonymously last winter. The report gives them a numerical grade on safety measures to avoid impacts with structures such as lift towers and snowmaking equipment and on efforts to address hazards on the slopes through trail design and maintenance.

Resort operators are now reading Penniman's report and could not comment in detail. The industry views the research as likely associated with efforts by Dan Gregorie, whose 24-year-old daughter Jessica was killed in a snowboarding accident at Alpine Meadows in 2006, to establish ski safety regulations.

A bill backed by Gregorie mandating new safety standards at ski resorts was vetoed by Republican former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last October. The bill would have placed unnecessary burdens on resorts, Schwarzenegger said at the time.

Penniman said the safety survey was his idea and that Gregorie played no role in its planning and preparation.
To see how individual Sierra ski resorts ranked view the California Mountain Resort Safety Report SnowSport Safety Foundation report: www.snowsportsafetyfoundation.org. Click on "Research."

Posted by Linda Chalat at 9:52 AM | Permalink

Typical trends have more ski fatalities, but this year fatal snowboard accidents at ski resorts throughout the country are occurring at a higher rate. The usual trend finds more than twice as many skiers dying in accidents than boarders, according to figures from the National Ski Areas Association.

Though the season still is only half-way over, the following deaths have occurred:

• On Jan. 20, a 26 year old was caught in an avalanche below the "fingers" of Berthoud Pass, Colorado and his body found three days later
• On Jan. 8, a 29-year-old male boarder was found dead at Montana's Whitefish Mountain, apparently after hitting a tree. A 16-year-old male skier died after a Dec. 29 crash at the same resort.
• On Jan. 6, a 25-year-old female boarder, missing for two days, was found dead at Alpine Meadows in California.
• On Dec. 25, a 20-year-old male snowboarder died after falling into a creek when snow collapsed under him at Whistler. Two days later, a 24-year-old male snowboarder died from injuries he sustained after hitting a tree at Mountain High resort in California.
• On Dec. 22, a 15-year-old male boarder died in a crash at Oregon's Mount Hood. Then on Dec. 24, a 23-year-old male boarder collided with a 5-year-old girl at the Hogadon Ski Area in Casper, Wyo. Both the child and boarder died from their injuries.
• On Dec. 20, a 31-year-old male snowboarder died after a crash at Cannon in New Hampshire. A week before, a 19-year-old male skier died when he crashed into rocks along the Zoomer trail.
• On Dec. 18, a 35-year-old male boarder died from injuries received when he leaped off a 40-foot cliff at Wolf Creek Ski Area in Colorado.

Posted by Linda Chalat at 9:49 AM | Permalink

A search for snowboarder Jeff Miller, 26, spanning nearly three days, ended Wednesday when searchers located his body at 10:20 a.m. in the area where Miller was last seen below the "fingers" of Berthoud Pass, according to a press release from the Grand County Sheriff's Office. Cause of death has not yet been confirmed pending a coroner's investigation.

Miller was snowboarding during a powerful winter storm Monday on the pass with friend Nick James, 29, and Miller's German shepherd Beau. James last saw the dog and Miller behind him above a small slide James had triggered, according to Grand County Sheriff Rod Johnson. There's no official word about the dog at this time.

Search teams initially utilized a search and rescue dog as well as a Recco device, which assists rescue teams in locating possible burials. On Wednesday, search and rescue personnel from the Front Range and dozens of volunteers joined the effort.

A large network of friends organized, making sure everyone among them had beacons, probes, snowshoes and boots. Meanwhile, Winter Park restaurants such as Smokin' Moe's and Rise and Shine catered food for them.

Posted by Linda Chalat at 9:47 AM | Permalink

An 18-year-old Cummington, Mass. man died Tuesday after striking a tree while skiing in Wyoming at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. The victim, a freshman at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Ore., was reported missing around 10 p.m. on Tuesday after he was last seen by friends exiting the Aerial Tram atop Rendezvous Mountain at approximately 3 p.m. Officials first treated his disappearance as a missing persons case, but shortly after 10 p.m. 20 members of Jackson Hole Ski Patrol and Teton County Search and Rescue boarded the resort's Aerial Tram to begin a search.

The college freshman was found unresponsive at the bottom of a tree island below Hanging Rock Traverse near Rendezvous Bowl around 1:30 p.m. Wednesday afternoon. He was transported by ski patrol staffers to Teton Village Clinic, where he was pronounced dead. It was not immediately clear whether the victim was wearing a helmet at the time of the accident.

Posted by Linda Chalat at 9:45 AM | Permalink

This week end two tragic deaths of teenagers occurred on New England ski slopes. On Saturday a 16-year-old student and son of a Sugarloaf ski resort employee died after colliding with an object on a black diamond trail at the mountain Saturday afternoon, according to the resort's communications manager.

The skiing accident happened around noon on Hayburner, a black diamond trail at the resort. The teen was wearing a helmet, but there is still a bit of uncertainty exactly with what he collided. Ski patrol responded to the incident, but was unable to revive the skier, the Carrabassett Valley Police Department is investigating the incident.

Then on Sunday an 18-year-old lost control at high speed and hit a tree at the Windham Mountain Ski Resort. The novice skier was not wearing a helmet and suffered extensive head injuries. Troopers say she was treated at the scene by the ski patrol and taken to Columbia Memorial Hospital, where she died.

The accident happened on the Lower Warpath trail mid-morning. The Upper Warpath trail is marked as "more difficult" using the blue square symbol, according to the resort. State police said the young woman was "a novice skier" and lost control on the trail.

Snow conditions at the time of the incident were reported as packed powder/powder and machine groomed, according to a Windham Mountain press release. The last ski-related fatality at Windham Mountain occurred more than 15 years ago.

According to the National Ski Areas Association, an average of 40.6 people have died skiing/snowboarding per year in the past decade. In the 2009/10 season, 38 fatalities occurred nationwide out of 59.8 million skier/snowboarder days reported. Twenty-five of those were skiers and 13 were snowboarders. Nineteen were wearing a helmet at the time of the incident.

Posted by Linda Chalat at 4:36 PM | Permalink

A Northern Michigan woman, the victim of a freak accident on a ski-hill, may be left without a legal remedy. An out of control snowboarder ran into her on the hill causing serious injury to her leg. What happened to the woman on a December ski trip could change her life forever.

On December 17th, an out-of-control snowboarder sliced her leg and she hasn't been able to walk since. The snowboarder's snowboard at Boyne Highlands did severe damage -- first, it broke her brand new ski boot, then it ripped through her pants to her skin, and tore five tendons, two nerves, and cut an artery. As she recovers, she wonders who that person was who ran into her -- and why she doesn't have answers

The snowboarder, who Amy knows only as a 19-year old kid named Andy, went to get help, but that's the last she had heard from him. The woman acknowledges that she agreed to a Release of Liability, which says she skis at her own risk, but she questions the accident report that was filled out.

In an e-mail, Boyne spokesperson says their first priority is to attend to the injured. Contact information is gathered by all parties involved, but in instances where the other party flees the scene or does not provide information, the priority is to attend to the injured and then seek the other party.

In the Ski Area Safety Act of 1962, it says if somebody injures another, they are to inform Ski Patrol and identify themselves, or face a misdemeanor punishment which could mean 30 days in jail.

Posted by Linda Chalat at 4:33 PM | Permalink

A 29-year-old snowboarder died after falling into a tree well last Saturday at Whitefish Mountain Resort, marking the second such fatal accident this ski season. The victim worked as a probation and parole officer for the state of Montana, according to the Flathead County Sheriff's Office.

He had been snowboarding alone but was at the resort with friends, who were unable to locate or contact him. The missing snowboarder had last been seen at the top of the T-Bar 2 lift, so search efforts began there. He was found unconscious in a tree well to the south side of the lift. Rescuers initiated resuscitation efforts and Meyer was transported to Kalispell Regional Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

A 16-year-old male skier was found buried in a tree well at Whitefish Mountain on Dec. 29 and died four days later when taken off life support. He also had been cruising the off-piste trees alone.

Tree well deaths are known as Non-Avalanche Related Snow Immersion Deaths (NARSID). In short, a skier or snowboarder falls upside down in the soft, loose snow at the base of a tree and suffocates. A tree well is a potentially deep pocket of loose snow that forms beneath the overhanging branches of evergreen trees as snow levels rise in the area surrounding the tree. If a person is trapped in a tree well, there is little hope of getting out without the help of someone else. The odds of surviving these situations alone are often low. And some studies show that once a victim struggles to get out, the snow packs in more tightly around the face.

Tree wells can trap skiers and snowboarders as they struggle to get out, according to information from a website put together in collaboration with the Northwest Avalanche Institute, Mount Baker Ski Area, Crystal Mountain and Dr. Robert Cadman, and can lead to suffocation: http://www.treewelldeepsnowsafety.com/

Over the holidays, tree wells claimed the lives of a 29-year-old male snowboarder at China Peak Resort, Calif. and a 32-year-old female snowboarder on a snowcat trip at Retallack Lodge, B.C. A 20-year-old male snowboarder found dead in a creek on Dec. 25 at Whistler Blackcomb was trapped in an inverted position after falling in deep snow. His death is classified also as NARSID.

U.S. tree well fatalities currently stand at three for the 2010-11 season. In many years, NARSID accounts for 10 percent or more of the annual average U.S. ski resort fatalities. Most are skiers, but the snowboarder numbers are climbing.

La Nina winters with their prolific snow across much of the West aid in turning tree wells into death traps.

Skiers and snowboarders can avoid tree wells by staying on groomed runs. But for many, the thrill comes from plunging through powder pillows off piste. Skiing with a partner is the number one way to mitigate risk. Most NARSIDs occur when a skier got separated from ski buddies or skied alone

Posted by Linda Chalat at 4:48 PM | Permalink

An 8-year-old boy from New Zealand was saved from probable serious injury Friday morning when ski patrollers at Snowmass Ski Area used a lift tower pad to break his 25-foot fall from a chairlift. The boy was riding the Village Express six-pack chairlift with his parents shortly before 9:30 a.m. when he started falling out of the chair after loading. His parents were hanging onto the lad as their chair progressed up the hill. An operator of the adjacent Skycab saw the incident unfolding and called the lift operations office to stop the Village Express lift and alert the ski patrol of the situation.

The New Zealand family's chair stopped about 20 feet shy of lift tower seven, with the boy dangling down and his parents holding onto him. Five patrollers scrambled to the lift tower, unhooked the safety pad wrapped around the tower base and positioned the pad under the boy. The parents let go of the boy when the patrol gave the word, and the boy fell about 25 feet onto the pad.

He was taken to Aspen Valley Hospital by a Snowmass Village ambulance crew as a precaution. He was checked and released to his family within a short period.

Posted by Linda Chalat at 3:34 PM | Permalink

A 38-year-old Centennial man was killed Sunday when he skied into a tree at Keystone Ski Resort in Summit County. The skier was wearing a helmet but died of blunt-force trauma to his chest at about 11 a.m., Summit County Coroner Joanne Richardson said. Bender was on an intermediate blue trail called Prospector on North Peak at Keystone.

This skier, Sean Jared Bender, is the fourth skier killed in Colorado this season, two of which died because of avalanches:

Kyle Shellberg, 32, of Golden died Dec. 5 when he was buried for about 20 minutes after he triggered a backcountry slide at Dry Gulch in Clear Creek County.

Ski-patrol director Scott Kay was killed Nov. 22 at Wolf Creek Ski Area during work to reduce the potential for dangerous avalanches in the in-bounds area.

On Dec. 3, a 22-year-old off-duty Aspen Skiing Co. employee, Kiera Tongish of Aspen, died when she struck a tree at the resort.

Bender is the first person killed at Keystone since March 2008, when Michael Howe, 43, of Andover, Kan., skied into a tree, marking the fourth death at the resort that season when a record 17 skiers and snowboarders were killed on Colorado slopes.

Posted by Linda Chalat at 3:47 PM | Permalink

In a bizarre incident in Steamboat Springs, the city manager Jon Roberts was found Sunday, unconscious on a ski slope at Steamboat Ski Area. Test results indicate that Roberts suffered a broken eye socket and three broken ribs, but no spinal cord damage. Roberts remains in critical condition at Denver Health medical center.

The obvious question is how Jon Roberts was hurt. He was found unconscious on the Sitz ski run early Sunday afternoon. He was wearing a helmet and was not found near any trees. The circumstances would point to a hit and run by another skier.

A Steamboat Ski and Resort Corp. spokesman said Wednesday that Steamboat Ski Patrol members have spoken with a witness to the accident. No details of the conversation are being shared with the public. But any other witnesses are urged to call Ski Patrol at Steamboat.

Colorado law, and ski safety acts in most other states, require individuals involved in skier/skier collisions to stop at the scene, render aid and to give their name, local address, permanent address and identification. But do not rely on ski patrol or ski area operators to obtain this information because, as a principle of law, they are under no duty to obtain the information. Although this absence of duty is under challenge, the courts are reluctant to impose an enforceable duty upon ski area operators to obtain identification information from reckless skiers.

Posted by Linda Chalat at 3:57 PM | Permalink

Thursday morning search crews found the body of a snowboarder who went missing from Alpine Meadows Ski Resort on Tuesday afternoon. Searchers spotted her body in a tree well early Thursday, according to authorities. Rescue personnel lowered to the ground from a helicopter confirmed that the body was that of the missing 25-year-old snowboarder, said Placer County Sheriff's Capt.

Though an autopsy will make a final determination, initial indications were that boarder died of injuries she likely sustained by crashing into a tree the day she went missing. The weather - so severe that rescuers for days could not access the area where she was found - also may have played a role in her death. Such conditions make avoiding trees extremely challenging.

The victim was reported missing early Tuesday afternoon after she got separated from her friends, an Alpine Meadows spokeswoman said earlier this week. She reportedly was seen snowboarding away from the resort, past ski-area boundary signs near the top of Wolverine Bowl, a Black Diamond slope. She was found on the back side of the mountain in an area known as the Granite Chief Wilderness and about 400 feet below the Pacific Crest Trail. Following her disappearance, that area has been the scene of 80- to 100 mile-an-hour winds, high avalanche danger and blinding snow.

Posted by Linda Chalat at 3:31 PM | Permalink

A 16-year-old skier from Columbia Falls, Idaho died at a local medical clinic four days after being found unconscious in a tree well. The accident occurred out of bounds Whitefish Mountain Resort. The victim was found last Wednesday unconscious, upside down in a tree well near the T-bar 2 lift line east of Big Mountain's summit, according to a resort spokesman.

Two skiers stopped when they saw a pair of skis sticking out of the snow and began digging the teen out. A licensed nurse who was skiing in the area stopped to help and started administering CPR. A ski patroller arrived on scene and utilized an automated external defibrillator. The victim was unresponsive throughout the rescue effort.

The victim was an exchange student from Germany, attending a local high school. Blizzard conditions were present on the mountain at the time, including heavy snow, steady wind and freezing temperatures. The accident demonstrates the absolute necessity of skiing with others - tree well deaths are becoming far too common.

Posted by Linda Chalat at 3:15 PM | Permalink