RIP John Nicoletta, best wishes to his family and friends.
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RIP John Nicoletta, best wishes to his family and friends.
Funken and I were out shooting with him on the day that this picture was taken. John was a dear friend. Today was a heavy one on the mountain.Quote:
Originally Posted by powder11
:( Condolences to his friends and family and RIP. So sad
Sunday was a beautiful bluebird day in the Chugach. Such a fitting day for the impromptu memorial for John Nicoletta.
I had my own moment of rememberence for both John and Valdez local Jesse Tol, yesteday as well.
These turns were for you, guys
http://web.mac.com/rasta907/iWeb/ras...s/P1000812.jpg
todays Anchorage Daily News had a nice article I wanted to repost.....
Until deadly disaster struck on the slopes above the Alyeska Ski Resort Friday, 27-year-old John Nicoletta had been living the life of a ski bum who drew a royal flush.
Addicted to the speed and thrill of going downhill on snow, he'd moved as a young man from Westford, Mass., to Maine to be near the slopes of the Sugarloaf Resort. It was in Maine he met up with Hilary Klug, a student at Colby College, and his ski dream came together.
Klug is the sister of Olympic skier Chris Klug from Aspen, Colo. More importantly, her father, Warren, manages the classy Aspen Square Hotel.
"Hilary hooked (John) up," said friend Zach Ornitz, a photographer for the Aspen Daily News.
All of a sudden, Nicoletta had the perfect connection and what was for a young, diehard skier the near perfect job. He started tending bar in Aspen.
"It worked out really well," Ornitz said. "He got to ski a lot of days and work a lot of nights."
Until Friday.
A fall down a craggy and rarely skied slope used during the Subaru Freeskiing World Championships left Nicoletta dead.
Emergency medical personnel said Nicoletta died as he tumbled head-over-heels through bands of rock and snow as a live Web cast recorded every body-smashing impact.
Despite a swift response by the Alyeska ski patrol, there was nothing anyone could do to save him.
On Saturday, friends, fellow skiers and event organizers were still wondering how it happened. Nicoletta fell, as did telemarker skier Ben Johnson two weeks ago during the World Telemark Free-Skiing Championships, in what Alyeska press releases have been described as a "no fall zone." His death and Johnson's serious injuries underline why it was so labeled.
Still, there lingered a question of how a skier so young and so talented could suffer a lethal fall.
"John wasn't doing anything beyond his skill level,'' said Cara Williams, communications coordinator for Mountain Sports International, which owns and produces the U.S. Freeskiing series of events.
"He had every business being where he was," she said. "He was jumping a 20-foot cliff, something he's done probably five times a day when he's skiing terrain like this. Lots of other compeititors did it without incident."
Ornitz, who was skiing when his friend fell, didn't see what happened. But he agreed that Nicoletta took "a line'' that other skiers had used. He wondered if his friend hit the cliff top at the bottom of that line a "little hot.''
A little hot means too fast, and too fast means you can overfly the landing zone and come down in rock.
Or he simply could have landed on snow so hard that his binding released. Web video of the crash, however, could not be reviewed Saturday to try to determine what happened. Mountain Sports, which had broadcast the fall live on Friday, had taken it down from its Web site.
"It was an accident,'' she said. "We never lost a person before, and it's very hard to deal with. That the competitors wanted to go up and compete today was a testiment to (John)."
Fellow competitors held a short ceremony and tribute to Nicoletta on top of Mount Alyeska before anyone skied. Then the skiers from Aspen skied down together. People who were there said it was very moving.
Skiers who had been unable to compete after Nicoletta's fall forced the closure of the venue on Friday then made their runs.
And that was the end of the Subaru Freesking World Championships. A planned second run for everyone was canceled.
Many were left pondering Nicoletta's death.
Only weeks ago, in an online interview with the editor of the Aspen Daily News, Nicoletta had observed that freeskiing was changing.
"It had a little bit of a reputation in the past of being an extreme sport, strictly, and people just kind of like hucking themselves and getting hurt,'' he said.
The sport has been plagued by some serious injuries, but Williams noted this is the first fatality in competition.
Two other Aspen extreme competitors, a skier and a snowboarder, have died filming video or simply going big in the last year.
Such out-of-competition deaths, however, had only seemed to make the somewhat more controlled environment of competition look safer.
"We've been running this tour for 11 years, and this is the first death,'' Williams said. "Other competitors had done the same line. They're (racers like John) very well aware of where they're going to ski before they go down the hill. They take a lot of time to make sure things are going to go according to plan."
This time, they didn't. Nicoletta's friends, family and loved ones will be left to remember.
"John worked for us for two years,'' said Dave Ellsweig, manager at Campo De Fiori restaurant in Aspen where Nicoletta most recently tended bar. "He was very educated, very smart kid. He always had a smile on his face. I don't think I saw him sad one day in the two years he worked here.
"Yesterday was the darkest day in my life."
Employees of the restaurant gathered after closing last night to toast their friend and colleague. "All the eyes were very red," said Billy Zuehlke, a fellow bartender at the restaurant.
Ellsweig, also an avid skier, admired Nicoletta.
"He was unbelievably light on his feet, very careful. He was an intelligent skier, not a cowboy. I never saw him doing somethiing he wasn't capable of. He's skied the most difficult trerrain here in Aspen, though Alaska is definitely a step above what we have here in Aspen.
"Customers loved him, the town loved him. I've never seen this town so somber. It's been a miserable 24 hours."
Nicoletta's parents and officials with Alyeska Ski Resort could not be reached.
About 200 people hike on Saturday morning to a ridgeline above the Alyeska Resort to attend a memorial in honor of freeskier John Nicoletta, who died Friday while competing in International Freeskiing Championships.
http://media.adn.com/smedia/2008/04/...ffiliate.7.jpg
A gathered group of 200 skiers and snowboarders cheer in memory of freeskier John Nicoletta, who died Friday while competing in International Freeskiing Championships.on The group came together for a memorial service at the top the competition venue area located on a ridgeline above the Alyeska Resort
http://media.adn.com/smedia/2008/04/...ffiliate.7.jpg
Fresh tracks forever
RIP John...