Death of skier, 5, puts toll one short of record
Death of skier, 5, puts toll one short of record Florida girl who hit tree at Aspen Highlands raises season’s fatality tally to 11
By Joe Garner, News Staff Writer
Colorado ski deaths this season are one short of a record, after the death Monday of a 5-year-old Florida girl.
The 11 deaths equal the total ski fatalities last season and are one less than the 12 deaths in 1998-99, according to Colorado Ski Country USA, a ski trade group. And the peak spring skiing is yet to come.
Leonie Arguetty, of West Palm Beach, Fla., died Monday at Children’s Hospital in Denver of “traumatic brain injury” after hitting a tree Saturday at Aspen Highlands ski area as she was skiing with her class, Pitkin County authorities said.
The child’s death was the second of the holiday weekend. A 61-year-old Kentucky woman died Sunday after hitting a tree at Breckenridge.
The deaths are tragic, but they do not represent a trend that’s alarming the industry, said David Perry, president of the ski trade group.
“There’s quite a wide range: young and old, some on groomed trails and some on ungroomed trails,” he said. “As sad and horrible as a fatality on the mountain is, there is no statistical evidence to support any kind of trend.”
Resorts have not made changes in trail grooming techniques to save money or for any other reason, said Kristin Rust, spokeswoman for the trade association.
Four of the deaths have occurred since Jan. 24 at Aspen Highlands ski area, but others have happened across the state — from Monarch in southern Colorado, one of the smallest, to Keystone, one of the closest to Denver and one of the largest.
Aspen Highlands had counted only one trauma-related fatality in the previous 10 years, according to a press statement from John Norton, chief operating officer of the Aspen Skiing Co. The four deaths in the last four weeks occurred at different places on the mountain and involved skiers of varying abilities — from the little girl who died Monday to a skier on an expert run.
“The sad deaths on Highlands have nothing to do with one another, and, consequently, we have not changed our operating policies,” Norton said. “Sadly, we can’t explain why this has happened, other than to say that Highlands has experienced a tragic string of terrible misfortune.”
He expressed sympathy to families and loved ones of the accident victims.
Perry, the trade association president, said he has tracked a decrease in injuries to skiers and snowboarders over the past 20 years.
Better grooming, more-informative signs at resorts and improved ski equipment, especially releases on high-tech bindings, have contributed to the decrease, he said.
In addition to the 11 deaths at ski resorts that were not linked to heart attacks or other medical problems, the state has recorded two skier deaths in backcountry avalanches since November, according to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.
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