Kwang Kim suffered the injury Wednesday while attempting a jump, the coroner’s office said in statement. The area is approved for jumping.

SkiHelmets.org Note: It is not known is the man was wearing a ski helmet at this time.

Kim was airlifted to Arrowhead Regional Medical Center where he was pronounced dead at 2:30 p.m. Coroner’s officials said the autopsy was pending.

Officials are still trying to sort out the exact circumstances of the accident.

Snow Summit is about 100 miles east of Los Angeles.

– Andrew Blankstein

SOURCE: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/12/snowboarder-dies-in-jumping-accident-at-snow-summit-ski-area.html

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The man was skiing on Angels Rest, an intermediate run, and missed a turn onto the Monte Cristo trail. He lost control and collided with a tree. Breckenridge Ski Patrol arrived immediately after receiving a call about the incident. Patrollers provided advanced life support and transported the patient to a waiting ambulance that took him to Breckenridge Medical Center.

Summit County Coroner Joanne Richardson determined the cause of death to be blunt force trauma to the head. The man was not wearing a helmet.

The resort released a statement Thursday afternoon, saying, “Breckenridge Ski Resort, Breckenridge Ski Patrol and the Vail Resorts family extend their deepest sympathy and support to the family and friends of the man.”

Julie Sutor can be reached at (970) 668-4630 or jsutor@summitdaily.com.

SOURCE: http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20091224/NEWS/912249953/1078&ParentProfile=1062

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The death of a 13-year-old novice skier last week jolted Premier Dalton McGuinty into buying a ski helmet, but the province will not make such safety gear mandatory on the slopes.

In the wake of last Wednesday’s tragedy involving “James” Boo Sung Moon, a Korean student attending Richmond Hill’s Trillium Woods Public School, McGuinty was asked about extending youth bicycle helmet laws to ski hills.

“No, there has not been any talk” of such a measure, the premier told reporters yesterday.

But McGuinty, an avid skier for 30 years, acknowledged he was affected by the boy’s accident.

“This tragedy happened and this very Saturday I went to the ski shop and bought a helmet. I took my (adult) daughter skiing on Sunday (at Devil’s Elbow) and wore the helmet,” he said, urging parents to voluntarily follow his lead.

James, who had been on skis once before, was at Snow Valley on the beginners’ Family Hill when he apparently lost control and hit a tree off the groomed trail. While the resort rents helmets for $8, he wasn’t wearing one.

Margarett Best, minister of health promotion, expressed sympathy for the boy’s family and classmates, saying people of all ages should be aware of the risks of head injuries. “I would encourage all Ontarians and all parents to encourage their children to wear ski helmets when they go out to ski or snowboard.”

“My daughter is an avid snowboarder and I always tell her to wear her helmet, and she’s 21 years old. I tell her every single time she goes out,” Best said.

Progressive Conservative MPP Elizabeth Witmer (Kitchener- Waterloo), a minister in the Tory government that made bike helmets mandatory for children and teens in 1995, agreed the onus is on parents.

“I do think that we need to remember that parents do have responsibilities and, as a parent myself, those are decisions that I had to make,” said Witmer.

NDP leader Howard Hampton said headgear for all types of outdoor activities – including tobogganing – is a good idea.

“These are dangerous sports and you’ve got to outfit your kids appropriately,” he said. “It’s one of those sports where there’s a real risk of head injury.”

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VAIL — Colorado’s ski resorts set a grim record Saturday when a 32-year-old Denver-area man became the 17th skier or snowboarder to die on the slopes this season.

The unidentified man was pronounced dead at the Vail Valley Medical Center after a skiing incident on the intermediate run In The Wuides in Blue Sky Basin on Vail Mountain.

A call came at approximately 10:50 a.m., and Vail Ski Patrol responded immediately.

The ski patrol provided advanced life support and transported the patient to an ambulance at the bottom of the mountain.

The skier was wearing a helmet at the time of the incident. Officials did not provide any other details.

The previous record for deaths was 16, set in the 2001-02 season.

That record was tied last weekend when a Kansas man became the 16th skier or snowboarder to die in a crash on the slopes.

The death of skier Michael Howe, 43, of Andover, Kan., on March 30 pushed the state to tie the dubious record. It was the fourth death at Keystone this season.

Industry officials say skiing remains statistically safer than many other outdoor activities, including bike riding and swimming, and every resort runs into safety programs.

“Not to sound cliche, but safety is the No. 1 priority at our resorts,” said Nick Bohnenkamp, spokesman for the trade group Colorado Ski Country USA.

Victims have ranged from 11 years old to 67 and included men and women, snowboarders and skiers, beginners and experts, so observers say they are not concerned about major unaddressed safety issues.

“I don’t see any trends,” said Joanne Richardson, the coroner in Summit County, where eight people have died. “In some cases, it could be a little bit of inexperience. It could be unfamiliarity.”

The Associated Press and Denver Post reporter Steve Lipsher contributed to this report.

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The young man died of massive chest trauma, according to Summit County coroner Joanne Richardson. She said the skier and his family arrived at the resort on Saturday.

Resort spokesperson Kate Lessman said a call came into the Keystone ski patrol about 10:15 a.m. and the patrol responded immediately to the scene of the accident.

The patrol provided life support, and then the patient was flown to the Summit Medical Center in Frisco, where he was pronounced dead at 11:53 a.m., Richardson said.

The skier was wearing a helmet at the time of the incident. Richardson said the young man’s name will be released today.

The ski slope death was the latest in Colorado this season.

Last week, two other skiers died on different slopes. A 33-year-old Southwest Airline pilot was racing a friend when he lost control and hit some trees at Telluride Ski Resort. He wasn’t wearing a helmet.

A 68-year-old retired Air Force general, Richard Gefford of Arvada, died at Winter Park after he was found face-down in the snow. He died of natural causes. On Feb. 6, John McWethy, a retired national-security correspondent for ABC News, died in a skiing accident at Keystone Resort.

Witnesses said McWethy, 61, was skiing fast when he lost control in a turn on and slid-chest first into a tree.

In 2002 Colorado set a record for ski deaths at 15, exceeding the previous record of high of 12 set in the winter of 1998-99.

The spike in fatalities at nine different resorts led some victims’ families to call for a Colroado ski helmet law, but ski resorts still have no such requirement.

According to the National Ski Areas Association, an average of about 37 people a year die on the slopes out of 55.1 million U.S. ski trips each year. There were 22 fatalities nationwide in the 2006-2007 ski season.

However, that figure does not include people who die of natural causes, said a spokeswoman for the Lakewood-based national association, which does keep statistics by state.

On Jan. 25, a 22-year-old snowboarder, Jared Daniel, of Auburn, Mass., died on an intermediate trail at the Steamboat ski area when he fell head-first into a tree well, a depression of unstable snow that forms beneath low-hanging branches around tree.

On Jan. 15, skier Mark Joseph Stout, 45, of Ottsville, Pa., died at Steamboat under similar circumstances after falling into a tree well.

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Tony G. Sisco, a seventh-grader at White Lake Middle School, was snowboarding at Alpine Valley in White Lake Township when he fell, resulting in a head injury.

He died as a result of the injuries on Dec. 22.

Sisco wasn’t wearing a helmet, though nobody can say for sure whether it would have saved his life.

According to Lt. Edward Harris of the White Lake Police Department, there were no witnesses to Sisco’s fall. The medical examiner has listed the official cause of death as accidental.

In his 25 years with the White Lake police, this is the first accidental death Harris has heard of at Alpine.

Alpine Valley’s operations manager Gail Winterhalter said she hopes the incident will make people more cautious when out snowboarding, particularly when it comes to wearing helmets. Though many people do wear appropriate safety gear, Winterhalter said there’s also a fair number who don’t, especially in the middle school age range.

A candlelight vigil was held at Alpine, near the site of Tony’s fatal injuries, on Monday night, organized by Tony’s friends. Alpine shut down the area to give mourners peace and quiet. Several hundred people attended the vigil.

The memorial service was held Tuesday at Cornerstone Church in Highland.

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A memorial service will be held today in Highland Township for Tony Sisco, 12, of White Lake Township, who was found Wednesday night on the snow at the half-pipe jumping area of Alpine Valley Ski Resort in White Lake Township.

He was taken to Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, where he died of blunt-force injuries to the head, according to the Oakland County Medical Examiner’s Office.

When rescuers found Tony, he was breathing but motionless, and he was quickly put on life-support systems, Alpine Valley operations manager Gail Winterhalter said Monday.

“The family pulled life support the next day,” she said. Although no one saw the accident, Tony apparently “went up on a jump and came down wrong — very sad,” Winterhalter said.

“A helmet would’ve helped. Whether it would’ve saved him, I don’t know. But I can’t stress enough that all these people — kids and adults — should wear helmets,” whether skiing or snowboarding, she said. Helmet rentals cost $5 at Alpine Valley and can be purchased there starting at about $25, she said.

“Every adult who spoke” at Monday’s vigil, including Tony’s father, pleaded with listeners to wear helmets, Winterhalter said.

Tony was barely a middle-schooler, but the youngster already loved off-road motorcycling, snowmobiling, hunting and fishing, his father, Tony Sisco, said Monday. Perhaps the boy’s first love, though, was snowboarding, which he did over and over with his annual pass to Alpine Valley, near his home.

“He’s an expert at everything he does,” his father said, choking back tears. “He’s probably had eight motorcycles. We drove a dune buggy together,” he said.

After Tony died, his organs were harvested and the body was cremated, his father said.

“We’ve seen some shows on TV and we talked about that, so he donated his body and it’s already benefited four other people.

“When I get his ashes, I’m going to put him where he’d like to be. Some people might not like this, but he’s going to go camping with me this spring” to be buried in a Michigan woodland, his father said.

Besides his father, Tony is survived by his mother, Karen Sisco, and his sister, Shanda, 10. Today’s memorial service is at noon at Cornerstone Church, 4995 N. Hickory Ridge Road, Highland Township.

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R-C-M-P Staff Sergeant Bill Young says the man was trying to make a turn when he lost his balance and hit his head on an exposed rock.

Ski patrollers found the man.

He was rushed to hospital in Banff, but was pronounced dead when he got there.
The Mounties are still trying to determine if the man may have been working in Banff.

They say he wasn’t wearing a helmet.

Lackawanna County deputy coroner Joseph Swoboda said David M. Holgate, of RR 1, Dalton, was pronounced dead at Community Medical Center, Scranton, at 10:15 a.m.

Swoboda said the cause of death was severe head trauma caused by the accident. Holgate was not wearing a helmet, Swoboda said.

Elk Mountain Ski Resort general manager Gregg Confer said it is the resort’s policy not to release the details of accidents on the mountain. However, Confer said Holgate — a lift-operator at the resort — was found against a tree off one of the resort’s intermediate ski slopes just after the mountain opened at 9 a.m.

Confer said Holgate was snowboarding with a friend, and the friend found Holgate and alerted the ski patrol for assistance. He was taken to Community Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
Holgate worked at Elk Mountain for two years, according to Confer. He was not working on Saturday.
“Our whole staff is saddened by it,” he said. “He was a very good kid. Our sympathy goes out to his family and friends.”

Holgate graduated from Lackawanna Trail High School in 2003 and was a member of the school’s ski club. State police in Gibson said they did not respond to the tragedy, and would only investigate the death if it was suspicious.

According to SkiHelmets.com, a Web site dedicated to providing the potential benefits of wearing ski helmets, only about 10 percent to 20 percent of all skiers and snowboarders wear helmets.

Winn Matthews, owner of Idlewild Ski Shop in Uniondale, said his shop sells about 300 to 400 helmets each year. He said he has witnessed an increase in the number of skiers and snowboarders wearing helmets.

“The only drawback I see in them is that they sometimes impair hearing while you are wearing them,” he said. “They’re warm, they’re comfortable, they fit well and they offer a degree of protection.

“You never know if you can prevent a death with a helmet, but there are brain injuries and fractured skulls that can be prevented.”

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Lackawanna County deputy coroner Tim Rowland said David Holgate, 19, of Dalton died from a severe head injury. He said he was not wearing a helmet.

Holgate was found against a tree just after the mountain opened Saturday morning. He was taken to Community Medical Center in Scranton where he later died.

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But Furelli, 24, motioned her on, telling the Hauppauge High School senior that he would meet her at the lodge, then watched as she turned and skied out of sight.

As he gathered himself and continued on, Furelli said he noticed ski patrol officers crouched over someone beside a cluster of trees about 20 feet from the bottom, but thought nothing of it.

But Biondo was nowhere to be found outside the lodge, so Furelli put his snowboard down and began walking toward the commotion — until he spotted one of Biondo’s skis. “I just dropped to my knees,” he said. “I couldn’t believe it was Nicole.”

State Police said that about 3 p.m., Biondo lost control as she was skiing near the bottom of the trail, veered to her right, and struck a cluster of hemlock trees.

She was knocked unconscious by the accident, and was rushed by ambulance to Benedictine Hospital nearby, where she died of severe head injuries two hours later, said Lt. Robert Nuzzo.

The accident occurred on Belleayre Run, an intermediate level trail. Furelli said he and Biondo arrived at the mountain at 1 p.m. and skied down several other intermediate trails, but hadn’t tried that particular one.

It was Biondo’s first visit to Belleayre, which has 38 trails, 80 percent of which are designated as either beginner or intermediate. “She was doing fine, she was a good skier. I was the one falling down,” Furelli said, adding that Biondo learned to ski several years ago.

Belleayre was very crowded, Furelli said, so the two friends, who have been close since Furelli began dating Biondo’s cousin three years ago, had only gotten in about five runs by midafternoon.

“There were some ice patches,” he said, “but it was clear and fine all day.”

State Police said they were still investigating the accident, but had not come upon anything that could have caused it — apart from human error.

At Biondo’s home in Hauppauge Monday, friends and relatives gathered to support the teenager’s parents Donna and Joseph, and her three siblings, Jessica, 19, Amanda, 15, and Angelo, 11.

A wake for Biondo is scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday from 2-4 and 7-9 p.m. at Maloney’s Funeral Home in Hauppauge. The funeral had not been finalized by Monday afternoon.

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State police at Ulster said Nicole M. Biondo, 17, of Hauppauge, was skiing at about 3 p.m. on Belleayre Run Trail, a trail for skiers with intermediate-level skills, and was unable to stop at the end of the trail. Police said that according to witnesses, Biondo was going at a high speed and appeared be out of control when she came off the trail near the upper lodge and struck a group of trees beneath lift number four.

Biondo suffered severe head injuries and was treated at the scene by the Bellayre ski patrol. She was taken by Shandaken Ambulance to Benedictine Hospital in Kingston where she was pronounced dead at 4:40 p.m., police said.

Police said Biondo’s family members described her as having beginner to intermediate skills as a skier. She had gone skiing with a friend, police said.

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Kevin Eckerman, 21, a graduate of Robert E. Lee High School in Fairfax County, was spotted from a chairlift lying about 10 feet into a wooded area about 4:30 p.m. Monday, shortly after he began what was supposed to be his last run of the day. Massanutten officials said no one witnessed the accident on the Dixie Dare trail, and they don’t know what caused Eckerman to lose control on the groomed snow.

Eckerman was airlifted from the mountain with skull fractures, and he died Tuesday. Relatives and friends said he almost always wore a helmet while snowboarding, but he wasn’t wearing one Monday because he wasn’t planning to take risks, said his girlfriend, Lisa Ha of the District.

Ha, 21, who was snowboarding on an adjacent intermediate trail at the time of the accident, said Eckerman had described the conditions on an earlier run down Dixie Dare as “very fast.”

It was the first fatal accident at the Shenandoah Valley mountain in almost five years, officials there said.

Massanutten, which is just a few miles from JMU’s Harrisonburg campus, is a popular attraction for students. Fred Hilton, a JMU spokesman, said he can’t remember another student fatality at the mountain during his 30 years at the school. Monday was the first day of classes after winter break.

Eckerman, an avid snowboarder who had been active in JMU’s snowboarding club, was a computer sciences major and was described as a quiet, witty, creative thinker who loved to paint and invent and tinker. He was a volunteer firefighter and a member of JMU’s caving club. His interest in snowboarding meshed with his interest in computers, as he helped create the snowboarding club’s Web site.

“Our whole family skis, and he had to be the one who had to be a little different and had to board instead of ski,” said Eckerman’s father, Donald Eckerman. “He would try some tricks, but he had a helmet. He wasn’t wearing it this week because he said he wasn’t going to do anything like that. . . . If you’re going to ski, wear a helmet, even if you’re not planning on taking any risks.”

Skiing and snowboarding fatalities are rare in the United States, with an average of 38 fatal accidents each ski season, or less than one per 1 million skier days, according to the National Ski Areas Association. Last season, there were 37 reported fatalities nationwide, six on snowboards.

Steve Showalter, Massanutten’s general manager, said yesterday that people at the mountain — especially the ski patrollers — were shaken by Eckerman’s accident. He said conditions were about as good as they’ve been all year. He said he hopes such accidents can at least raise awareness and help “educate the public to ski in a safe manner and to ski in control.”

Ha, also a senior at JMU, said she and Eckerman had been talking about moving to New Zealand after graduation and were beginning to put their future life into focus. They were introducing each other to friends as each other’s partner.

“He was such a good person, and he was so good to everyone around him,” Ha said. “What a great mind we all lost, and what a great person we all lost.”

Eckerman also is survived by his mother, Margaret, and an older brother, Paul. The family is planning a memorial service in Northern Virginia for Jan. 24.

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Mark D. Carruthers of 25 Fawn Lane died at Glens Falls Hospital of trauma to his head, according to a news release from the Warren County Sheriff’s Office.

Carruthers had been skiing at about 4:45 p.m. near the intersection of the Frolic and Inchworm trails with his 10-year-old son. According to the release, the boy was able to get help from other skiers who summoned the ski patrol. Ski Patrol members called for emergency rescue services.

The news release from Warren County Sheriff Larry Cleveland doesn’t specify if Carruthers was wearing a helmet at the time of the crash. Cleveland didn’t return a call for comment Tuesday.

West Mountain general manager Mike Barbone also didn’t return a call for comment Tuesday.

On West Mountain’s maps, both the Frolic and the Inchworm trails are listed as easy.

Cathy Hay, an owner of Alpine Sport Shop on Clinton Street in Saratoga Springs, said about 70 percent of all skiers are buying helmets nowadays. The upswing is only partially due to the high-profile deaths of Sonny Bono and Michael Kennedy in 1997 and 1998 respectively, she said.

Many of the helmets are sold to parents of children, but adults are picking them up as well.

‘This is my fourth year with a helmet,’ Hay said. ‘They’re warm and you don’t know you have it on.’