keep your friends in site reason # 914
scary stuff,
I know a lot of us have skiied the box.
.
Quote:
"Man killed skiing in Aspen backcountry
By Troy Hooper/Aspen Daily News Staff Writer
A man was killed while skiing in Aspen's backcountry Saturday and authorities had not determined his cause of death by nightfall.
The skier was found dead in a tree well - a hollow area that forms as snow gathers at the base of a tree - and it wasn't clear whether he had died from a collision with the tree or from suffocating in the heavy snow.
The death occurred at about 2:45 p.m. in the trees of Pandora's Basin, a popular out-of-bounds area accessible through a backcountry access gate on Aspen Mountain. The man's name, age and hometown were not released.
"He was skiing with a friend and the friend was in front of him and heard the victim fall," Pitkin County Sheriff's Deputy Jim Hearn said. "The friend yelled for him and when he didn't hear a response, he took his skis off and wallowed through the big snow to the last point where he was seen, and he found him facedown with his feet sticking out of a tree well."
Hearn said the friend dug the skier out after about five minutes, performed CPR and then went for help when he couldn't resuscitate him. Ski patrollers responded and also could not revive the man.
With more than 17 inches of new snow on Aspen Mountain, Hearn said it is possible the skier fell and simply couldn't get back up.
"It's been a stable but weak snowpack and then you add all this (new snow) on top of it and there's not a lot of cohesion. There's nothing to push against when you go down in it," Hearn said. "It's an unfortunate reminder that unstable snow - whether it's in large or small pockets or even just a tree well - deserves everyone's attention."
The cause of death was under investigation by the county coroner, who had not ruled out the possibility that impact with the tree had caused the death. "We won't know until a postmortem is completed," Hearn said.
Aspen Skiing Co. Jeff Hanle said the manager of Aspen Mountain had left him a message about a fatality that occurred outside of the ski area's boundary, but he was unable to contact the manager to find out more about what happened.
The death marks the first skiing-related fatality in the Aspen/Snowmass area during the 2003-2004 season. So far, ski industry officials say the number of skier fatalities in Colorado this season is lower than in recent years
