In memoriam
1. Benjamin Hawk, 20, of Portland, Oregon, died Dec. 10, 2006, at Keystone Resort. The Oklahoma college student died after losing control and hitting a tree while skiing on Spring Dipper, an intermediate run. He died of a severe head injury. He was not wearing a helmet. 2. Nicholas Blake Davidson, 25, of Snowmass
Village, died Dec. 21, 2006, of asphyxia in an avalanche at Aspen Snowmass. Davidson was skiing in the Lower Ladder section of the Hanging Valley Wall. He was jumping off cliffs when the avalanche occurred. The Ladder area is within the Snowmass Ski Area boundary, but it was closed at the time of the accident, according to an Aspen Skiing Co. spokesman.
3. William McDonnell, 21, of Abita Springs, Louisiana, died on Jan. 9, 2007, from blunt-force trauma resulting in multiple skull fractures
from a ski accident on Park Lane run at Breckenridge. He was not wearing a helmet.
4. Asher Crank, 17, of
Crested Butte, died Jan. 14, 2007, after crashing on Copper Mountain Resort the day before while warming up for a competition. He fell about 30 feet after going off a jump in the terrain park, landing on his head. He was wearing a helmet.
5. Pieter Stolk, 56, of Rot-
terdam, Netherlands, died Jan. 28, 2007, after an accident on an unknown run at Keystone Resort. Evidence suggested Stolk hit a bump, lost control and was airborne for about 2 feet before hitting a tree with his left side. He died of internal injuries. There were no witnesses. Stolk, a civil engineer, was vacationing in Colorado. It is unknown if he was wearing a helmet.
6. Chris Bove, 35, died Feb. Aspen Highlands. He was 11, 2007, of multiple bluntforce trauma injuries to the abdomen suffered while skiing on an unknown run at Snowmass Ski Area. He was wearing a helmet. Bove had been an instructor at Challenge Aspen since 1998.
7. Logan Bastedo, 18, of Charlotte, North Carolina, died March 13, 2007, from massive internal injuries after colliding with a tree on Duke’s Run, an intermediate trail at Breckenridge Ski Resort. The teen had arrived to the county with a church group, and may have taken a lesson but was an inexperienced skier. Witnesses reported that he was skiing very fast before the collision. He was not wearing a helmet. 8. Wilhelmus Verdonck,
51, of Holland, died on April 1, 2007, after skiing into a tree on Deep Temerity at
wearing a helmet.
9. James Somrak, 61,
of Gunnison, died April 26, 2007, after an accident on March 17 on an unknown run. It is unknown whether he was wearing a helmet.
10. Mitchell Maltsberger,
15, of Oologah, Oklahoma, died Dec. 28, 2007, after hitting a tree while trying to turn a corner on a ski run at Wolf Creek Ski Area. He was wearing a helmet.
11. Benjamin Trichler, 11, of the United Kingdom, died Jan. 3, 2008, after crashing into a tree on the blue intermediate trail, Bonanza, on Peak 9 of Breckenridge. He was wearing a skateboard helmet. 12. Logan Jameson, 19, of Durango, died Jan. 6, 2008, of a head injury after skiing off a cliff on the Purgatory run at Purgatory Resort and suffocating. It is unknown whether he was wearing a helmet.
13. Mark Joseph Stout,
45, of Ottsville, Pennsylvania, died Jan. 15, 2008, of suffocation after falling into a tree well on the Cowboy Coffee intermediate run at Steamboat Ski Resort. He was wearing a helmet.
14. James McLean, 33,
of Leawood, Kansas, died Jan. 20, 2008, on an intermediate run in the Park Lane Terrain Park at Breckenridge Ski Resort. Witnesses said he went airborne and landed on his head, suffering a fractured neck. McLean, a doctor, was wearing a helmet. Family members said McLean was an intermediate-level snowboarder who had been riding for seven years.
15. Jared Daniel, 22, of Auburn, Massachusetts, died Jan. 25, 2008, after falling headfirst into a tree well on Snooze Bar, an intermedi-
In memoriam ate run at Steamboat. It was the second snow-immersion death at the ski area in 10 days that year. A friend snowboarding with Daniel was unable to pull him out on his own, and it took about 15 minutes before the friend and others who stopped to help were able to free Daniel. He was wearing a helmet.
16. Michael Gruber,
40, of Dillon, died Jan. 31, 2008, of a head injury received while skiing the day before at Arapahoe Basin. It is unknown whether he was wearing a helmet. The ski run where the injury occurred is unknown.
17. John McWethy, 61, of
Boulder, died Feb. 6, 2008. McWethy lost control on Keystone’s intermediate Porcupine trail and slid chest first into a tree. Witnesses said he was skiing fast when he missed a turn and lost control. He was wearing a helmet. McWethy was a retired national security correspondent for ABC News. He joined ABC News in 1979 as chief Pentagon correspondent, covering the Iran hostage crisis and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. He reported for “World News Tonight With Peter Jennings,” “Good Morning America,” “Nightline” and other ABC News broadcasts.
18. John Dobbie, 67, of
Downers Grove, Illinois, died Feb. 12, 2008, from a head injury suffered on Feb. 1 at Crested Butte on an unknown run. He was not wearing a helmet.
19. Brian Irvin, 33, of
Mesa, Arizona, was racing a friend down Telluride’s intermediate Marmot run when he lost balance and sailed out of a stand of trees. Irvin was not wearing a helmet and died on the mountain from head injuries. He was a Southwest Airlines pilot, who left behind a pregnant wife and 1-yearold child.
20. Robert Guthrie, 68, of
Silverthorne, died on Feb. 15, 2008. Guthrie, coordinator and lead guide of Arapahoe Basin’s Over the Hill Gang, International ski program, was leading a group of expert
skiers through the trees at Arapahoe Basin when he sustained a massive brain injury after a fall on Monday, Feb. 11. He never regained consciousness. It’s not known whether he was wearing a helmet. Guthrie worked to create the Swan Mountain Recreational Path, and was co-coordinator of the Summit Biking Group. He was a congregant of Lord of the Mountains Lutheran Church in Dillon and president of the church council, as well as a spinning instructor at the Silverthorne Recreational Center.
21. Kenneth Joyce, 13,
of Glastonbury, Connecticut, died Feb. 19, 2008, at Keystone. Joyce was found near some trees with chest trauma. He was wearing a helmet. His cause of death was bluntforce trauma to the chest due to skiing into a tree. Joyce was visiting the resort with his family.
22. John Bosman, 46, of
Orlando, Florida, died Feb. 27, 2008, after suffering head injuries near the junction of the West Ridge and Cascade runs at Eldora Mountain Resort. West Ridge is a double-black-diamond run, and Cascade is a single-black-diamond run. He was not wearing a helmet. It appeared that he caught his skis on an unexposed rock, causing him to fall at a high rate of speed.
23. Gabrielle Hutter, 39, of Centennial, died March 1, 2008, of blunt-force trauma to the head after a collision with a tree while skiing on the lower Mary Jane trail at Winter Park. Hutter was not wearing a helmet. 24. Jennifer Ash, 28, of
Indianapolis, Indiana, died March 23, 2008, eight days after she was injured in a snowboarding accident at Keystone. She fell on Ina’s Way, a beginner run, and originally Ash and her friends believed she had minor injuries. But the hospital discovered Ash had suffered indirect trauma that damaged arteries in her spine and eventually caused a fatal stroke. Ash was a pharmacist from Indianapolis.
25. Michael Howe, 43, of
Andover, Kansas, died March 30, 2008, after striking a tree on Frenchman, an intermedi-
ate trail at Keystone. Howe was trying to stop when he struck the tree with his head and chest. He was wearing a helmet.
26. Wallace Westfeldt,
22, of Aspen, fell to his death in the Tonar Bowl near Aspen Highlands on April 4, 2008. Westfeldt, a world-class freeride snowboarder, was part of a Skico-sponsored backcountry film shoot by Futuristic Film, a Denver-based production company, when the accident occurred. Westfeldt died after dropping a cliff and landing on his back in firm snow. He had suffered broken bones and died of internal bleeding. He was wearing a helmet.
27. Martin Fierro, 32, of Lakewood, died April 5, 2008, of internal bleeding and massive chest injuries from blunt-force trauma after colliding with a tree at Vail Mountain. He was wearing helmet. He was skiing with a friend in the trees on a blue run in the Wuides. 28. Adam Delaney, 28, of Englewood, died Dec. 13, 2008, after hitting a tree while snowboarding on the Prospector Run at Keystone. He suffered a closed head injury and skull fractures. He was not wearing a helmet. 29. Cory Brettman, 52, of Old Snowmass, died Dec. 14, 2008. Brettman was caught in an avalanche while skiing alone in the Power Line area outside of the Aspen Mountain ski area. He was a ski patroller at Aspen Mountain from 1981 until 2006. He was wearing a helmet. 30. William “Billy” Khourie III, 22, of Elk City,
Oklahoma, died Jan. 7, 2009, after suffering a fatal head injury when he struck a wooden post at the bottom of Frosty’s Freeway, an advanced-intermediate trail at Breckenridge. He was declared brain-dead the next day. He was not wearing a helmet. Khourie was a senior at the University of Oklahoma.
31. June Kang, 65, of Ar-
rowhead, died Jan. 16, 2009, after suffering major chest injuries after falling and hitting
a hydrant. The accident occurred on Golden Bear run at Beaver Creek, an intermediate run. She was wearing a helmet. Neighbors said Kang loved golfing, cooking, skiing and her family.
32. David Gilletti, 54, of Ledyard, Connecticut, died March 2, 2009, after skiing into a tree just off Stella, an intermediate run in the Prospect Bowl area of Telluride. He suffered trauma to his chest. It is unknown if he was wearing a helmet. Gilletti was an engineer and left behind a wife and two grown daughters. 33. Chris Polk, 30, of
Glenwood Springs, residing in Aspen, died March 5, 2009, after he collided with a tree at Buttermilk ski area. He sustained multiple injuries, including blunt-force trauma to his head, chest and abdomen, and was not wearing a helmet at the time. Polk was a snowboard instructor at Aspen Skiing Co. “Chris absolutely lived for snowboarding. His love for the sport was infectious, and he was universally loved by everyone who worked with him. He was an all-around mountain guy and was always on the last lift up the mountain at the end of the day. He will be dearly missed,” said Mark Wilkinson, Buttermilk snowboard coordinator.
34. Haley Rose Gans, 14,
of Colorado Springs, died Nov. 20, 2009, after a ski accident resulted in bluntforce trauma to the chest. She was reportedly skiing very fast and into a tree. She was wearing a helmet.
35. Alex Singer, 22, of
Chappaqua, New York, died Dec. 9, 2009, after falling into a tree well at Wolf Creek. It is unknown whether he was wearing a helmet. Singer was an avid skier, and was training to work on ski patrol at Copper Mountain. He was a senior studying ecology and evolu-
tionary biology at the University of Colorado-Boulder.
36. Michael Crim, 41, of Temple Terrace, Florida, died Dec. 24, 2009, after missing a turn from Breckenridge’s intermediate Angel’s Rest trail at the Monte Cristo trail and skiing into a tree. Crim was not wearing a helmet and died from trauma to his head and pelvis. 37. Madeline Milner, 14, of Bayfield, died Jan. 5, 2010, after hitting a tree on an intermediate run at Purgatory. She was wearing a helmet. 38. Grace Lynn McNeil,
23, of Dillon, died Jan. 6, 2010, of suffocation after falling into a tree well at Steamboat. Patrollers found the woman’s body the next day at the base of Chute 3, a double-black-diamond run in the Christmas Tree Bowl area. McNeil was found with about 2 feet of snow over her head in a tree well off the side of the run, and she was at a downward angle with her head lower than her feet. She was wearing a helmet. McNeil was a ski instructor at Arapahoe Basin.
39. Randy Schnicker, 56, of Denver, died Jan. 17, 2010, after hitting a tree on an unknown run at Copper Mountain. He was wearing a helmet. 40. Ericka Schriefer, 24, of Fort Collins, died Jan. 31, 2010. She was found in cardiac arrest on Copper’s black Formidable trail, near some trees. She suffered head and neck fractures. Schriefer was wearing a helmet. 41. Kevin Green, 51, of Lewis, died Feb. 1, 2010, after colliding with a rope at the main access portal to Prospect Bowl at Telluride. The fall, or the collision, fractured Green’s skull near the base of his brain and killed him instantly. The longtime local was one of the region’s pioneering skiers. 42. Todd M. Dunkel, 27, of Federal Heights, died April 14, 2010. He was found by Breckenridge ski patrollers as they were doing their final sweep of the mountain. He was located at the intersection
In memoriam of 4’Oclock and Saw Mill ski runs – both intermediate trails on Peak 8. Ski patrollers tried to revive Dunkel before determining he was deceased.
43. Scott Kay, 41, ski
patrol director at Wolf Creek, died Nov. 22, 2010, in an avalanche while doing mitigation work at the ski area. When Kay did not respond to radio contact, fellow ski patrollers responded to find him. They located him with avalanche beacons and probes. They dug him out of about 4 feet of snow. Kay was a husband and father of two young children.
44. Kiera Tongish, 22, of
Aspen, died Dec. 3, 2010, after a skiing accident at Snowmass, apparently caused after she lost control on the upper third of the Grey Wolf trail, before striking a tree on the intermediate run. She was wearing a helmet. Kiera was an Aspen Skico employee.
45. Christian “Chris” David Rea, 35, from Tucson,
Arizona, died Dec. 18, 2010, after snowboarding off a cliff at Wolf Creek. He was snowboarding with two friends in the closed waterfall area at Wolf Creek when he jumped off a 40-50 foot precipice. The location was closed by two ropes due to the area’s danger. Upon landing in the creek bed at the base of the waterfall, Rea lost balance and fell head first, hyperextending his neck backward, rupturing an artery in the neck responsible for supplying blood to the brain stem. It is unknown if he was wearing a helmet.
46. James Wilson, 59,
of Colorado Springs, died of blunt-force trauma on Dec. 21, 2010. The accident happened in a gladed area adjacent to Goshawk, an expert trail at Beaver Creek Resort. He was wearing a helmet.
47. John Greene, 77, of Carbondale, died Dec. 27, 2010, on an unknown run at Aspen Mountain. He suffered a cervical spine injury while skiing; he was wearing a helmet.
48. Sean Bender, 38, of
Centennial, Florida, died Jan. 2, 2011, of blunt-force trauma to the chest after skiing into a tree on Prospector, an intermediate run at Keystone. He was wearing a helmet. He left behind a wife and a 9-monthold daughter.
49. Thomas Berglund,
77, of Kalamazoo, Michigan, died Jan. 18, 2011, after struggling to get out of deep snow on the side of the lower Green Cabin trail at Snowmass. He suffered cardiac arrest. Ski patrollers tried to help him but he couldn’t be resuscitated at the hospital. Berglund reportedly told a passerby that he’d been forced off the slope by a “kid.”
50. Jennifer Agule, 22, of
Breckenridge, died Jan. 26, 2011, after colliding with a tree while skiing alone at Keystone on the Frenchman run. Agule was not wearing a helmet at the time of the accident.
51. Scotty Goodale, 35, of
Boulder, died Feb. 6, 2011, at Eldora Mountain Resort. Goodale was snowboarding in a closed area inside the resort with four friends when he hit a tree, dying of bluntforce trauma.
52. Joe Lubar, 21, of Mil-
waukee, Wisconsin, died Feb. 11, 2011, two weeks after he was injured in a skiing accident at Copper. Lubar was skiing above tree line on a double-black-diamond, Schaefer’s run, when he lost control and tumbled over some rocks, suffering traumatic brain injuries. He was wearing a helmet. He was a junior at University of Denver majoring in economics.
53. Brandon John Zukoff, 26,
of Snowmass Village, died Feb. 21, 2011, in an avalanche in the backcountry outside Snowmass. Zukoff died when he triggered, and was then caught in, an avalanche as he skied down Sand’s Chute off the west side of the ski area.
Two companions — one who skied safely down the chute first and one who picked a new route down after the slide caught Zukoff — located and dug out their friend and determined he was dead. He was wearing a helmet. Zukoff was an avid skier and outdoor enthusiast who played college football.
elsen Hill 13 years prior in order to install an alpine slide. During the winter, that area was supposed to be closed to skiers and was roped off at the bottom and sides but not at the top. In 2014, a lawsuit against the city of Steamboat Springs (owner of the ski hill) filed by Cooper’s mother was settled.
1986, Wade continued to be active as a paraplegic cyclist and sit-skier. It’s not known where Wade crashed. He was wearing a helmet.
54. Michael Bettley, 32,
58. Danielle Busboom,
Westbrook, Connecticut, died Nov. 18, 2011, after hitting a tree and suffering massive internal injuries at Breckenridge. Massini, a CU-Boulder student, was wearing a helmet, but the coroner’s report said his torso hit the tree. The trail he was on, Northstar, is considered an intermediate run.
of Redford Township, Michigan, died on Feb. 23, 2011, after a bad fall on Larkspur, an intermediate run at Arapahoe Basin. A firefighter, Bettley died of bluntforce trauma to the chest after he apparently lost control while moving at a high rate of speed and tumbled several times. He was not wearing a helmet.
55. James E. Juckett,
73, of Bath, Pennsylvania, died March 11, 2011, after colliding with a fellow skier on the Log Deck run at Snowmass. Juckett and the man he collided with knew each other and had been skiing in the same group. The other man was not injured and skied away under his own power. Neither skier was wearing a helmet.
56. Richard Cullinan, 18,
of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, died March 14, 2011, on his first run of the day, warming up on Red Tail, an intermediate run at Beaver Creek. Cullinan, who was described as an excellent skier, caught an edge and fell. He careened into a tree and suffered a major head injury. Cullinan was wearing a helmet.
57. Cooper Larsh, 19, of
Boulder, died March 17, 2011. Larsh was skiing Howelsen Hill Ski Area for the first time when he skied through a 20-foot opening between a wooden fence and a shed at the top of the Town View ski run. Soon after, Larsh skied over a retaining wall for the alpine slide, double ejecting from his skis. He fell headfirst into the snow and suffocated. Steamboat Springs closed part of the Town View ski run on How-
21, of Ayr, Nebraska, died March 23, 2011. Busboom and friends were skiing on Hot Dog Alley, an intermediate run at Eldora Mountain, when she veered off into an area with trees and hit one. She was not wearing a helmet.
59. Louis Alten, 39, of
Houston, Texas, died of “multiple blunt-force injuries” when he struck a tree adjacent to the trail Roundhouse, an intermediate run at Mary Jane at Winter Park. He was wearing a helmet.
60. Adam Dennis, 38, of
Aspen, died on April 4, 2011, in a backcountry avalanche on Desolation Row between Maroon and Tonar Bowls on the west side of Highlands Ridge. Dennis was buried and then located by the other four people in his party. He couldn’t be revived by resuscitation efforts. Dennis was a self-employed photographer and worked in the hospitality business. “He was just the best person in the world. He was full of life, full of spirit,” said friend Tim O’Connell. He was wearing a helmet.
61. Tyler Safarriye, 11,
of Alpharetta, Georgia, died April 8, 2011, after colliding with two other skiers on White Rabbit, an intermediate run at Winter Park.The accident involved an instructor and student in the disabled ski program riding on sit-ski devices. He was wearing a helmet.
62. Jack Michael Wade,
51, of Golden, died on March 26, 2011, when he crashed on his sit-ski at Arapahoe Basin. After a traffic accident left him a paraplegic in
63. Evan Massini, 20, of
64. Charles Tuft, 62, of Vail,
died Nov. 18, 2011, after a ski accident on Vail Mountain’s opening day. Tuft apparently lost control when he went off an embankment and suffered bodily trauma. He was wearing a helmet. Tuft was a longtime local doctor.
65. Gregory Schulz, 50, died on Jan. 6, 2012, of closed head and chest injuries from blunt-force trauma following a collision with a tree after skiing off a catwalk on an unknown run at Vail Mountain. He was wearing a helmet. 66. Sydney Owens, 25,
of San Antonio, Texas, died Jan. 14, 2012, of blunt-force trauma after falling and sliding 1,500 feet after potential equipment failure. Owens was accompanied by friends and skiing “Riff Run” as part of a guided ski tour by Silverton Mountain employees. She was wearing a helmet. Owens attended the University of Virginia.
67. Gabriel Hilliard, 30, of Aspen, died on Jan. 18, 2012. Hilliard was snowboarding on Canopy Cruiser at Highlands when he struck a tree, continued down the slope, struck another tree and was impaled by a branch on the left side of his chest. He was apparently riding alone at the time of the accident, with a helmet.
In memoriam 68. Keith Ames, 43, died
Jan. 18, 2012, in an avalanche on Burnt Mountain. Ames was skiing out-of-bounds just east of the Snowmass ski-area boundary with two acquaintances. He was caught in a slide that was 50- to 60-feet long and 20-feet wide. The other skiers were a few hundred feet lower on the slope when the slide occurred and hiked up to dig him out. Ames was declared dead at the scene after attempts by bystanders and the Snowmass Ski Patrol to revive him were unsuccessful. Avalanche experts said he was caught in a “terrain trap.”
69. Taft Conlin, 13, died
Jan. 22, 2012, in an in-bounds avalanche on the Prima Cornice run at Vail Mountain. Conlin and his friends accessed Prima Cornice trail through the lower gate, which was open. The run’s upper gate was closed following the first big storm of a snow-starved season. Conlin and a friend sidestepped about 120 feet to a cliff above the lower gate. The avalanche swept them away and Conlin was killed. The Vail Ski Patrol found his body wrapped around a tree. A wrongful death lawsuit against Vail Resorts, filed by Taft’s parents, is still pending.
70. Christopher Norris, 28, of Evergreen, died Jan. 22, 2012, of suffocation from an inbounds avalanche that buried him about 2 feet while skiing in the Trestle trees at Winter Park. He was not wearing a helmet. The Norris family filed a lawsuit against Winter Park, and in 2016, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that avalanches are an inherent risk of skiing, ending a contentious debate over a ski area’s liability when a skier is killed by avalanche inside a resort boundary.
71. Aaron Easter, 31, of
Champaign, Illinois, died Jan. 24, 2012, after a snowboarding accident at Steamboat.
Easter impacted the ground “very hard” and twisted his neck causing a severe carotid artery injury, which led to a heart attack and an anoxic brain injury caused by a lack of oxygen to the brain. The impact broke one of Easter’s ribs, caused whiplash and bruised his lung. Easter was riding alone and was found unresponsive at the intersection of the intermediate Quickdraw and Buckshot trails in the Sunshine Bowl area. He was wearing a helmet.
72. Vesselin Vlassev, 54,
of Westminster, died Jan. 25, 2012. He was found dead on Keystone’s Jacques St. James ski trail by a passing skier. He was found without a helmet.
73. Odo Lessacher, 58,
of Griffin, Georgia, died Feb. 5, 2012, of blunt-force trauma to the chest and internal bleeding at Keystone. He was found in the trees at the intersection of Alamo and Prospector (both intermediate runs). He was not wearing a helmet.
75. William Emberton, 72,
of Stonington, Connecticut, died Feb. 9, 2012, from a broken neck and a brain injury. He was found face-down in the snow on the expert-level Geronimo Trail at Keystone Resort two days earlier. He was wearing a helmet. Bill spent more than 40 years in the computer industry and had a lifelong love of the water and was an early member of the Stonington Harbor Yacht Club, according to his obituary.
76. Nathaneal Soules, 38, died Feb. 13, 2012, in an avalanche in Telluride’s Lower Bear Creek in an area known as The Fingers. Soules had deployed his avalanche airbag but was buried under approximately 4 feet of snow. It appeared that his death was the result of massive trauma rather than asphyxiation. Soules was a local who had worked as a real estate broker and for Telluride Ski & Golf Co. in his many years in Telluride. He left behind a wife and son. 77. Hanna Rudolph, 15, of Wellesley, Massachusetts, died Feb. 19, 2012, after colliding with a tree on the black-diamond CDL run at Copper. She was wearing a helmet.
78. Joshua Allen, 24, of Tampa, Florida, died Feb. 26, 2012. He was found in the trees of the Elk Run underneath the Outback lift at Keystone and airlifted to St. Anthony Summit Medical Center, where he later died of massive facial injuries and brain trauma. He was wearing a helmet.
82. Matthew Bowers, 36,
79. Patrick Sievert, 18, of
of Hesston, Kansas, died March 24, 2012, after crashing into a tree at Wolf Creek. The novice skier was a student at Kansas State University. He was not wearing a helmet.
Pewaukee, Wisconsin, died March 8, 2012, after veering off Andy’s Encore, an intermediate trail at Copper, and striking a valve shed used for snowmaking. He was wearing a helmet.
80. Joseph Shematek,
71, of Windsor, died March 11, 2012, after an incident while skiing in Patrol Bowl, an expert run at Loveland, the day before.
81. Truitt Hunter, 23, of
Castle Rock, died March 12, 2012, after hitting a tree while skiing at Keystone. Witnesses reported seeing Truitt on the intermediate run Spring Dipper trail when he caught a ski edge and veered into a tree. He was not wearing a helmet.
of Greenville, Texas, died March 14, 2012. Bowers was on Lower Gallowich, an intermediate trail at Crested Butte, when he hit a tree at what witnesses said was a high rate of speed. He was not wearing a helmet.
83. Garrett Spencer, 19,
84. Patsy Hileman, 49, of Snowmass Village and a 26-year veteran of the mountain’s ski patrol, died Dec. 30, 2012, after a small in-bounds slide swept her off a cliff. She was skiing alone in the permanently closed Ship’s Prow Glades area of Snowmass, adjacent to Upper Ladder, when the incident occurred. When she failed to check in with the patrol as scheduled, a search was initiated. Her body was located about 25 minutes later and she was pronounced dead at the scene.
74. John Sadl, 37, of St. Louis, Missouri, died Feb. 7, 2012, after a ski accident on the black diamond Berries trail on the frontside of Vail. He was wearing a helmet.
Colorado ski country
In memoriam 85. Tristan Bartlet, 13, of Houston, Texas, died Jan. 4, 2013, after striking a tree on Copper’s beginner trail Vein Glory. He was not wearing a helmet. 86. Doae Oh, 20, of Austin,
Texas, died Jan. 9, 2013, after she lost control and struck a tree on Frenchman, an intermediate run at Keystone Resort. She was not wearing a helmet.
87. Jack Hummel, 70, of
Pagosa Springs, died Jan. 9, 2013, of extensive internal injuries to his chest, lungs and rib cage after skiing into a tree at Wolf Creek. He was wearing a helmet.
88. Natalie “Nancy” Egleston, 48, of Ardmore,
Pennsylvania, died on Feb. 4, 2013, from a traumatic brain injury after she was hit by another female skier at Aspen. The incident occurred on Spar Gulch just below where Jackpot exits. Egleston was wearing a helmet. There was an investigation into the incident, but no charges were filed.
89. Robert Redmond, 45,
of Virginia, died Feb. 13, 2013. Redmond was descending Breckenridge’s intermediate Columbia run on Peak 8 when he lost control and collided with a tree. He died three days later at a hospital. He was wearing a helmet.
90. Arthur M. Glaz, 27, of
Palos Hills, Illinois, died Feb. 18, 2013, after a collision with a tree on the intermediate trail Porcupine at Keystone. He was wearing a helmet. Glaz was an Air Force lieutenant stationed in New Mexico.
91. David Schreitmueller,
42, of Kensington, Maryland, died March 22, 2013, after hitting a tree on the Coney Glade run at Snowmass. He was wearing a helmet. Schreitmueller was at Snowmass
to compete in the NASTAR National Championships but was not on the course at the time of the incident.
92. Scott Harlow, 57, of
Norwood, died on Dec. 11, 2013, on the Pick’N Gad ski run at Telluride, after colliding with a tree. He was not wearing a helmet.
93. Sean Teater, 19, of
Fort Collins, died Dec. 21, 2013, of bluntforce trauma to the head from a hard fall on Butch’s Breezeway, a blue run at Winter Park. Teater was a fairly new snowboarder and had been snowboarding without a helmet earlier in the day and had fallen several times. He chose to wear a helmet after lunch and had become separated from his friends at the time of the accident.
94. Tony Seibert, 24, of
Vail, died Jan. 6, 2014, in an avalanche in the East Vail Chutes, outside of Vail Mountain ski area boundaries. The avalanche was triggered as Seibert and three other “sidecountry riders” descended the chutes. The four were all carrying avalanche safety equipment and were all familiar with the terrain in the East Vail Chutes. CAIC danger rating that day showed considerable risk in the area. Seibert was Vail Mountain founder Pete Seibert’s grandson.
95. Jonathan Stuart, 56,
of Aspen, died on Jan. 11, 2014, after colliding with a tree on the lower Bellisimo, an intermediate run, on Aspen Mountain. Stuart was wearing a helmet. He had two children, Hallie and Jeffrey, and a wife, Stacey. He worked as a private chef for several Aspen families.
96. Gary R. Parker, 64, of
St. Louis, Missouri, died Feb.
7, 2014, skiing an intermediate run in Beaver Creek’s Larkspur Bowl.The oil tycoon was found unresponsive with trauma injuries and died after transfer to Denver.
97. Adam Heller, 46, Feb.
8, 2014, died after striking a tree while skiing between Porcupine and Bighorn, intermediate trails, at Keystone. Ski Patrol performed advanced life support prior to transporting the patient to the Keystone Medical Center where advanced life support was continued. Medical personnel were unsuccessful in resuscitating Heller. He was wearing a helmet.
98. Jonathan Belle, 22, of
Denver, died March 10, 2014, after snowboarding into a tree on Vein Glory, a beginner trail at Copper. Belle was not wearing a helmet.
99. Uwe Breitkreuz, 54, of Germany, died March 18, 2014, of hemorrhagic shock due to pelvic trauma after hitting a tree on Gunner’s View, an intermediate run at Snowmass. He was wearing a helmet. 100. Lee Hurley, 60, of
Charlotte, North Carolina, died March 24, 2014, of blunt-force trauma after hitting a tree on an unknown intermediate run at Keystone. He was visiting Summit County on a ski vacation with his family. Ski patrol responded and took him to the clinic but he did not survive the injuries. It is unknown whether he was wearing a helmet.
101. Paul Cohen, 45, of
Cincinnati, Ohio, died March 28, 2014, from injuries he suffered after colliding with another skier and then hitting a tree on an unknown run at Snowmass. He suffered severe brain trauma, despite wearing a helmet, and fell into a coma. He was transported to a hospital but never regained consciousness. Cohen was a neurosurgeon with the Mayfield Clinic in Cincinnati.
102. Jeffrey Beadle, 47,
of Snowmass Village, died April 3, 2014, of multiple chest injuries suffered while skiing the Cirque Headwall on Snowmass. Beadle, originally from Centralia, Illinois, worked as a lift operator at
Aspen ski resort. He was wearing a helmet.
103. Robert Miles, 22, of
Boulder, died Dec. 8, 2014. The University of Colorado student apparently struck a tree while skiing on the Jolly Jug run at Eldora Mountain Resort. He was wearing a helmet.
104. Eric Haiar, 26, of
Silverthorne and Texas, died Dec. 13, 2014, of blunt-force trauma after losing control on Spring Dipper, an intermediate run at Keystone. He was wearing a helmet.
105. Suzann Pennington,
55, of Reeds Spring, Missouri, died Jan. 19, 2015, of a closed head traumatic brain injury. She had fallen several times on the beginners slope, but her family also said she had a pre-existing medical condition. A newspaper at the time reported that Pennington’s sister-in-law, Sarah Garoutte, said Pennington had been complaining about her neck and head for weeks.
106. Luis Olide, 13, of
Montrose, died Jan. 23, 2015, after an accident on the intermediate Upper Treasury run at Crested Butte resort. The eighth-grader had been skiing as part of his school’s ski club. He was wearing a helmet.
107. John “Jack” Lindsey, 18, of Louisiana,
died Jan. 24, 2015, after losing control on Elk Run and hitting a lift tower at Keystone. On just his fourth day on skis, the certified private pilot and former football defensive back had accepted the challenge of keeping pace with a more experi-
enced member of his group. He was wearing a helmet. Lindsey was just into the start of his second semester at the military academy in Colorado Springs and the early stages of his engineering degree. He was in the middle of some downtime, as part of the SnoFest military ski weekend.
108. Christopher Martin, 43, of Conifer, died Feb. 11, 2015, of blunt-force trauma after hitting a tree on Anticipation, an intermediate run at Keystone. He was wearing a helmet. 109. John Martin “Marty” Gancsos, 64,
of Aspen, died Feb. 23, 2015, in an out-of-bounds avalanche on the west side of Aspen Mountain. The longtime local was said to have two passions: skiing and whitewater kayaking, and that he skied every day. “He lived his life the way he wanted to, and his love was Aspen, the mountain and the river,” his brother, Tom Gancsos, said in 2015. It’s not known whether he was wearing a helmet.
110. Jacob Koltun, 22,
of Alameda, California, was attending school at the University of Colorado-Boulder when he died on Feb. 23, 2015, at Breckenridge. Koltun had been skiing without a helmet on expert terrain off Peak 7.
111. Krzysztof Kostelic, 46, of Rolling Meadows, Illinois, died Feb. 26, 2015, after skiing into a tree on Northstar, an intermediate run between Peaks 7 and 8 at Breckenridge. Kostelic veered off the run and collided with a tree, resulting in laceration of aorta and liver from blunt-force trauma. Kostelic was wearing a helmet and may have had a medical issue that led to the accident. 112. Zane Mason, 33, of Crested Butte, died March 16, 2015. A paraglider in the air spotted Mason’s body at the base of a 250-foot cliff at the bottom of a rocky chute in an area known locally as the
In memoriam Terminator Chutes, outside the boundary of Crested Butte Mountain. The snowskater had been seen leaving the peak of Crested Butte Mountain by passing underneath the rope lines marking the edge of resort property. It is unknown whether he was wearing a helmet.
113. Logan Salviano, 25,
of Avon, died Jan. 11, 2016, of suffocation in a tree well on Vail Mountain. Salviano was found off of an expert run on the front side of the mountain near Chairs 3 and 4. It is unknown whether he was wearing a helmet.
114. Donald Hinckley,
51, of Austin, Texas, died Jan. 20, 2016, after falling head-first on a snow-covered stump on the expert Far East Run at Copper Mountain. He died of traumatic brain injury and a fractured neck. He was wearing a helmet.
115. Jason “Jay” Taylor,
27, of Boulder, died Jan. 20, 2016, of multiple skull fractures and a broken neck after colliding with a tree just 12-to-15 feet into a forested area on the blue trail known as Elk Run at Keystone. He was not wearing a helmet. Jay, a self-taught and self-employed glass artist, moved to Boulder from his northeastern Massachusetts home in mid-July 2015. He was an experienced skier, and a rock climber, trekker, mountain biker and photographer.
116. Donald G. Drapkin,
67, of Aspen, died Feb. 22, 2016, after a weeklong hospitalization from a ski fall on Aspen Snowmass. He was skiing with his son and a ski instructor Feb. 15 when he had a seemingly minor fall. He fell down from a standing position and hit his head, and then later became dizzy and nauseous. He was later airlifted to a Denver hospital, where he underwent surgery to relieve pressure on his brain. It is unknown whether he was wearing a helmet.
117. Sam Beall, 30, of
Walland, Tennessee, died Feb. 25, 2016, on an un-
known intermediate run at Beaver Creek. Beall died of blunt-force trauma to the chest after a collision with a wooden post. He was wearing a helmet. Beall was the owner of a luxury hotel and event destination in the Great Smoky Mountains.
118. Christopher Dutko,
26, of Pennsylvania but working in Breckenridge, died March 1, 2016, at Breckenridge. Witnesses say Dutko lost control while skiing on blue run Sundown after he ran into another skier and then a tree. He was not wearing a helmet and died due to severe loss of blood following the bluntforce trauma.
119. Nathan Rom, 19, of
Arlington, Virginia, died March 9, 2016, of blunt-force trauma injuries after hitting a tree on the intermediate American Flyer run at Copper Mountain. Rom was visiting the area on spring break with his family and lost control while skiing when he crashed. Rom was wearing a helmet.
120. William Scott Elligott, 49, of Colorado
Springs, died March 9, 2016. He was skiing a traverse over the Rose Bowl with his 20-year-old daughter when he fell about 300 feet through trees and hard snow. It was the first time the man had skied in Telluride. He was on a days-long trip to various Colorado ski areas with his daughter.
121. George A. Nolan, 69,
of Greenwood, South Carolina, died March 19, 2016, after crashing into trees on Coonskin run in Telluride. His daughter-in-law told sheriff’s deputies that Nolan was slightly behind her but then passed her as he was sliding headfirst on his side.
122. John Sherwood, 43, of Randolph, New Jersey, died April 4, 2016, after colliding with another skier on the Tiger double black diamond run on Peak 8 at Breckenridge.
123. David Carr, 32, of
Frisco, died April 6, 2016, of blunt-force trauma injuries after colliding with a tree on on Claimjumper, an intermediate run on Peak 8 at Breckenridge. He was wearing a helmet. Carr, originally from Georgia, introduced many to the mountains, whether through rock climbing, reaching the summit of a challenging peak or trekking out to the backcountry on a perfect powder day. Since moving to Colorado, Carr had summited all 53 14ers.
124. Catherine Abeyta, 20, of Denver, died April 24, 2016, from blunt-force trauma injuries after hitting a tree on the Monte Cristo run on Peak 7 at Breckenridge. 125. Kevin Pitts, 48, of
Longmont, died Dec. 19, 2016, of accidental bluntforce trauma after hitting a tree on Alpine Alley, a black run at Breckenridge. He was wearing a helmet. Pitts was director of product marketing in Oracle’s communications global business unit. He left a wife and two children.
126. Kelly Huber, 40, of
San Antonio, Texas, died Dec. 29, 2016, after falling 25 feet from a chairlift at Ski Granby Ranch. A six-day investigation revealed that a “rare dynamic event” related to the electrical control system was the cause of the fall. Her two daughters were also injured after falling with her.
127. Sean Haberthier, 47, of Denver, died of a severe skull fracture after skiing into a tree on the expert Lower Boneyard run off the Peak 8 6-Chair in Breckenridge. He was not wearing a helmet. After graduating from Powell High School in 1987 as a standout state-level wrestler, Haberthier moved to Colorado with his brother Tony in the early 1990s to start a construction business.
128. Ricardo Cohen, 26,
of Mexico City, Mexico, died Feb. 10, 2017, while skiing on Breckenridge’s Volunteer run off Peak 9’s C-Chair after slamming hard into snow. He was wearing a helmet.
129. Alicyn Mitcham, 17,
of Colmesneil, Texas, died Feb. 15, 2017, after skiing into a tree on Forget-MeNot, an intermediate trail at Winter Park Resort.
130. Unknown. Colorado
Ski Country USA confirmed a fifth death this season between Feb. 16 and March 6 at a member resort but will not provide any other details.
131. Andrew Garcia, 20,
of Fort Sill, Oklahoma, died Feb. 23, 2017, after hitting a tree at Buttermilk on Feb. 19 and suffering head injuries. Garcia was not wearing a helmet.
132. Kressyda Ming, 34,
of Farmington, New Mexico, died Feb. 25, 2017, after hitting a tree on the lower Demon Trail, an intermediate run at Purgatory Resort. She was wearing a helmet.
133. Tess Smith, 15, of
Wichita, Kansas, died March 5, 2017, at Breckenridge. Smith, a sophomore at Wichita Northwest High School who was skiing for the first time, reportedly broke her leg in the accident. She was alert and speaking with ski patrol responders when they arrived after the crash, but lost consciousness shortly after that and never woke up. She was kept on life support until her organs could be donated. Smith was not wearing a helmet.
134. Tien Tran, 24, of Hawaii, died March 7, 2017. He was an intelligence analyst with assigned to the 566th Intelligence Squadron in the Air Force. He collided with a tree on Mule Shoe, an expert run at Eldora Mountain. He was wearing a helmet.
135. Cole Barker, 35, of Silver Plume, died March 24, 2017, following an incident near the bottom of Loveland’s Lift 8. He collided with a tree, which appeared to have broken his neck. A ski patroller pronounced Barker dead, and his body was removed before investigators arrived on the scene. Colorado law prohibits moving a dead body from the scene of the accident without the authority of the coroner. 136. Michael Black, 56,
of Florida, died March 25, 2017, after an accident at Wolf Creek on March 21. Black was traveling at a high rate of speed on the freshly-groomed Summer Day intermediate run by the edge of the trail near some trees when he lost a ski, and began to uncontrollably somersault before coming to a rest when he collided with a downed tree. He suffered neck, rib and internal injuries consistent with blunt-force trauma, and experienced complications from a blood clot. He was wearing a helmet.
137. Logan Goodwin, 12,
of Hermosa Beach, California, died while skiing at Breckenridge Ski Resort on April 8, 2017, after reportedly hitting a tree stump while skiing near upper Springmeier, a beginner run on Peak 8 at Breckenridge. Goodwin was taken to Children’s Hospital in Aurora via Flight for Life.
More online
Learn more about the skiers and snowboarders who died on Colorado’s slopes online at SummitDaily.com/news/ skierdeaths An interactive map includes links for more information and marks the ski trail where each accident took place.