Skier dies in Keystone accident
Nov. 7 – The first ski fatality of the season came Saturday at the Keystone ski resort in Summit County, less than three weeks after the resort’s October 22 opening.
A 27-year-old Broomfield man died shortly after being taken to the High Country Health Care Clinic early Saturday afternoon. He died of injuries suffered in what ski officials described as an accident involving no other skiers on the resort’s Haywood Trail, an intermediate run. It was not known Saturday afternoon if anyone witnessed the accident, and the victim’s identity was not released.
“At this point, reports indicate there were no other skiers involved,” resort spokeswoman Amy Kemp said. “We’re not exactly sure what happened.”
The resort’s two open runs currently hold only manufactured snow, which can be icier and more difficult to navigate than natural snow, but Saturday’s warm temperatures made for soft-snow conditions, she said.
Ski patrollers and sheriff’s deputies were still investigating the incident Saturday afternoon.
“Any time something like this happens, regardless of when it is in the season, it’s very tragic and it’s unfortunate,” she said.
In years past, particularly in years with little autumn snowfall, Colorado skiers have noted that trails at perennial early-season openers like Keystone can be overcrowded, making for less-than-ideal and perhaps less-than-safe conditions. But that didn’t appear to be the case for Saturday’s fatal accident, Kemp said.
“At the point when this accident happened, ski patrollers reported that traffic was very moderate on the slope,” she said.
Even if there had been more traffic, Keystone this season has employed new strategies for controlling fast and out-of-control skiers, she said, such as huge banners noting slow-skiing zones and a stepped-up ski patrol presence.
In skiing chat rooms on the Internet, some skiers and snowboarders recently have complained that Keystone patrollers this year are too aggressively policing fast skiing.
Though officials have no reason to think the skier who died Saturday had been skiing too fast or beyond his abilities, Kemp nonetheless reminded Colorado skiers and snowboarders to exercise caution for the season, which for most still hasn’t started.
“Skiers and snowboarders need to adhere to the Responsibility Code, which is on the back of every lift ticket and buddy pass,” she said. “They need to ski in control.”
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