Woman dies on ski slopes

A woman from Mississauga died Wednesday after crashing into a tree while snowboarding at the Beaver Valley Ski Club east of Markdale.

Police were called to the ski club at about 11 a.m. to respond to a report of a seriously injured snowboarder, Grey County OPP said in a news release. "Investigation revealed that a 48-year-old . . . woman was snowboarding on the hill when she left the ski slope and entered a wooded area where she struck a tree."

The woman was taken by ambulance to the Markdale hospital, where she died, the release said. A post-mortem was to be held today in Barrie to determine the exact cause of death, police said. The woman's name was not being released pending notification of her family.

Briton found dead in ski resort

A 24-year-old British man has been found dead in a ski resort, the Foreign Office said.

Police believe Paul Rea wandered off and got lost in freezing temperatures after becoming separated from friends on a night out in Pas de la Casa in Andorra. His body was discovered on Friday covered in snow in the Envalira tunnel close to the French border.

A spokesman for police in Andorra told Spanish news agency Europa Press the body showed "no signs of violence" and it was likely Mr Rea died of hypothermia. He said police believed he became "disorientated" and headed off in the wrong direction away from the centre of the resort.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: "We are aware of the death of a British national in Andorra on March 12. "Next of kin are aware. We are providing consular assistance and a post-mortem is under way."

Doctor's wife dies in ski accident

A DOCTOR'S wife from Doncaster has died in a skiing accident in the Alps after tumbling 650ft down a slope and hitting a tree.

Experienced skier Brenda Smith, 56, is believed to have lost control on black ice and skidded off the piste in the French resort of Les Deux Alpes before suffering fatal head injuries. Mrs Smith was in the resort with her oral surgeon husband Keith. Dr Smith, a consultant at Sheffield's Charles Clifford Dental Hospital, was in the region for a conference.

Maurice Barker, who is married to Mrs Smith's mother Kathleen, said: "Keith is devastated. We all are, she was such a lovely woman. They went skiing twice a year. She would easily have been able to cope with a black slope." A former neighbour said: "They didn't have children and were devoted to each other.

"It's such a shock to find out that this has happened, Keith will be absolutely distraught. Brenda had an operation about six months ago on a knee she damaged whilst skiing. She has had a couple of operations as a result of skiing but it never put her off."

Avalanche buries ski patroller

A member of the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort ski patrol suffered critical injuries when he was buried in an avalanche Wednesday, officials said.

Mark Wolling, 58, was caught in the slide at about 8:25 a.m., before the slopes were open to the public, as he and other patrollers conducted avalanche hazard reduction work in the Cheyenne Bowl at an elevation of 9,350 feet. Wolling, a Jackson resident known by the nickname "Big Wally," and another patrol member were setting off explosive devices called hand charges when the avalanche triggered above them, according to a resort news release.

The other patroller was able to stop himself on a tree but Wolling was swept up in the sliding snow. Wolling was carried along for most of the 1,000-foot slide, including over a 25-foot cliff, according to the resort. It took fellow patrollers about 10 minutes to find Wolling, who was buried in about 6 feet of snow.

Wolling was rushed to the Teton Village Clinic and then St. John's Medical Center in Jackson. He was flown Wednesday afternoon to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in Idaho Falls, where a hospital spokeswoman said he was in critical condition. "It has been an extremely tough morning for all our patrollers and staff," Jerry Blann, resort president, said in a statement. "I am very grateful to everyone for their efforts. Our thoughts and prayers are with Mark and his family right now."

Wolling has been on the ski patrol since 1989 and has worked for the resort in other capacities since 1978, said Anna Olson, a resort spokeswoman. "His family are aware, and we have a lot of people looking out for him," Olson said.

Jackson Hole Mountain Resort had received 10 inches of snow in the 24 hours before the avalanche occurred and substantial snowfall in the previous week. Wolling was in the upper area of the Cheyenne Bowl when the avalanche occurred, Olson said. The area has not been open to the public this season because of insufficient snow.

Skier Nigel Jackson’s body found after Christmas Day avalanche

A British skier who went missing on Christmas Day has been found dead in the French Alps after being caught in an avalanche.

The body of Nigel Jackson, 43, who had been staying in an hotel in the resort of Chamonix Mont Blanc, was found under snow on Boxing Day. Mr Jackson, who was originally from Liverpool but had moved to London, went skiing in Le Tour ski area on Christmas Day with three friends, despite bad weather.

The party, which included Mr Jackson’s girlfriend, were staying at Les Aiglons hotel. They had decided to ski one last run, though Mr Jackson, a keen skier, separated from the group and agreed to meet them at the bottom. When he failed to arrive, his worried friends contacted the mountain police and a search involving a helicopter began. Police believe that he skied between two marked pistes and was caught in a small avalanche.

One friend said: “We are in shock. It was a freak accident. The avalanche was not even big.” Mr Jackson’s parents have flown to France to meet police and to arrange for his body to be returned to Britain.

A police spokesman said: “We found the body of a British man at 3pm on Saturday at Le Tour. We think he had been skiing between two pistes and was caught in an avalanche. The weather was very bad on Christmas Day. “A ski patrol searched for him and then we searched with a helicopter but we couldn’t see anything. He was not wearing an avalanche transceiver.”

The avalanche risk in Chamonix, which is near the French borders with Switzerland and Italy, has been classed as “considerable” over the Christmas period. Mr Jackson’s death is the second fatality in a week in the area. A French skier from Limoges was caught in an avalanche with two other people who managed to remain on the surface of the slide. The skier who was killed was also not equipped with an avalanche transceiver and was buried.

Meanwhile, the parents of a British man who went missing in a Swiss ski resort last week are continuing to hunt for their son. Myles Robinson, 23, from London, has not been seen since the early hours of Tuesday as he returned from a bar in the Swiss ski village of Wengen, southeast of Berne. His family and friends are conducting their own door-to-door inquiries in the search for the former Charterhouse public school pupil.

Swiss police have called in specialist search teams using heat-seeking devices and helicopters to find Mr Robinson, who was last seen escorting a family friend back to her hotel. He had spent the evening playing pool and drinking beer with Amy O’Brien and other friends in a bar. He walked Ms O’Brien to her door, only 300 metres from his own apartment, but has not been seen since.

More than 70 friends and villagers joined Mr Robinson’s family to knock on doors in Wengen. Cara, 25, his sister, said: “We are asking villagers if we can come into their houses and look around their properties. There might be some clue. The police, who have been so good, said they can’t search houses without applying for search warrants.”

A friend said: “He was perfectly capable of walking home. He wasn’t really drunk. She presumed he was going to walk back to his family’s apartment which is just a few minutes’ walk away.” Mr Robinson’s mother Sarah, 59, is a former president of the British Alpine Racing Ski Club.

Girl who fell from ski lift is out of hospital

A 4-year old who fell from an Alta Ski Resort chairlift is now out of the hospital.

Unified fire says the girl, who fell saturday night, is now in good condition. Witnesses saw the girl fall 30 to 35 five feet from the Sunnyside lift and called for help.

Ski patrol found the girl not breathing, but were able to revive her. She was flown to primary children's hospital.

Man dies in fall off Lake Tahoe ski-area chairlift

Authorities in Nevada say a 51-year-old man has died and his wife injured when he fell from a chairlift in the Heavenly Ski Area. The El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office says the man fell from the Tamarack Express Chair and down a mountain in the area Monday afternoon. It was not immediately known how far he fell.

Authorities are investigating the cause of the fall but say preliminary findings show equipment malfunction with the chairlift. The Reno Gazette-Journal identified the man as Mark Alan Dickson, most recently of Glendora, Calif. It says his wife, 47-year-old Rebecca Gonzaga, suffered non-life threatening injuries.

Actress in hospital after skiing accident

Actress Natasha Richardson has been left in a critical condition after a skiing accident in Canada, according to media reports.

The Canadian Press reported that the 45 year old British actress suffered a head injury yesterday whilst skiing in Mont Tremblant resort near Montreal.
She is thought to have first been brought to Centre Hospitalier Laurentien near Mont Tremblant, and then transferred to Montreal's Sacre Coeur hospital.

Richardson, 45, is the daughter of Vanessa Redgrave and is married to actor Liam Neeson with whom she has two sons. Neeson was reportedly in Toronto at the time of Richardson's accident filming the movie 'Chloe' with Julianne Moore, and has now left Toronto to be at his wife's side.

Skiers injured in chairlift fall

A structural failure on a chairlift in Spain’s Sierra Nevada resulted in 23 skiers being injured in the resort on Monday.

Six of the chairs chairs dropped approximately six metres to the ground and injuring 23 people after the top section of the tower gave way on one side.
Two skiers were taken to hospital with minor chest injuries and at least 21 suffered cuts and bruises and were treated for shock after falling from heights of up to 26 feet. At least another 35 people had to be rescued from chairs on the lift after it ground to a halt in the resort which is situated in the mountains above Granada. Most of the guests on the lift were ski instructors with their clients, and the Sierra Nevada Ski Patrol, Guardia Civil, Local Police and the Emergency Department immediately implemented an emergency lift evacuation procedure.

Recent snowfall had served to cushion the blow and saved many from serious injury. "Fresh snow beneath the lift no doubt cushioned the fall," said Mariano Gutierrez, a spokesman from the Sierra Nevada National Park. The chairlift is built by Doppelmayr and was installed in late 80’s. A world-leader in lift design and manufacturing, Doppelmayr lifts are in operation throughout the world and have a good safety record. The regional government of Andalucia, Guardia Civil, Doppelmayr and Cetursa, the company that manages the ski resort, have opened an investigation into the incident.

German politician found guilty over ski accident

The German politician who was charged earlier this week with manslaughter over a collision on an Austrian ski slope in January, has been found guilty.

The politician, who was involved in a fatal collision with a fellow skier at the intersection of two runs in Austria, was convicted on Tuesday of involuntary manslaughter. Dieter Althaus, who is a German state governor, could not attend Tuesday's trial because he is still recovering from head injuries sustained in the collision which took place at the Riesneralm ski area in Austria.

Prosecutors said Althaus has told them that he has no memory of the accident but takes responsibility for the 41-year-old woman's death. The court fined him 33,000 Euros and ordered him to pay another 5,000 Euros to the victim's husband. The Slovakian woman who had 4 children, died from head injuries as a result of the crash. She was not wearing a helmet, whilst the politician was, which has led to a re-opening of the debate over whether to make helmet wearing compulsory.

Following the incident, a new law requiring all children age 15 and under to wear a helmet on the slopes will be rolled out across 23 small ski resorts in lower Austria from 20 March.

Twitter and iPhone help find lost skier

A missing skier in the Swiss Alps has been rescued with the help of Twitter and an iPhone, but a snowboarder was found dead after the two were separated from the rest of their group on holiday in Verbier.

The Foreign Office has confirmed that the man who died was entrepreneur Rob Williams, 29, who went missing on Monday. Entrepreneur Rob, from Liverpool, was discovered in a stream at the foot of a cliff. He is thought to have fallen more than 60ft after getting lost near the resort. He was on holiday with a group of internet entrepreneurs including Michelle Dewberry, a former winner of the second series of The Apprentice.

Williams, and Jason Tavaria who was also 29, got into difficulty after becoming separated from fellow snowboarders in the resort. Tavaria survived and was found after Michelle Dewberry launched an online rescue on Twitter where she reportedly wrote, "2 of our ski party been missing since 4pm. Conditions terrible. 1 guy found but trapped. 20 man team searching for other." A helicopter search was not possible due to the bad weather conditions, but a GPS signal from Tavaria’s iPhone was used to guide in the rescue services. The rescue attempt continued to unfold on Twitter as details of the whereabouts of the two men were relayed back and forth. The search sadly ended with the discovery of the body of Rob Williams but Jason Tavaria was found unharmed about 6 hours later.

British tourists killed in ravine fall

Two British tourists have died after falling down a ravine in Les Deux Alpes following a night out with friends.

Richard Ryan, 27, and Christopher Lockwood, 28, fell while returning home after a night out in the ski resort. The pair were both from Leeds and were last seen by friends leaving a popular British-style pub to return to their chalet at about 2am last Thursday. The two men were "probably very drunk" when they fell into the Combe Noir ravine, police in the resort have said. A Deux Alpes police spokesman added, "Their friends alerted us that they were missing in the early hours of Thursday. Interviews with friends also revealed both men had drunk large quantities of beer that evening. The spot where they fell is very steep and, although unprotected, there are signs everywhere." The two were among a party of eight British skiers who were due to fly back to Britain at the weekend. Their families have been informed by the Foreign Office.

New Mexico ski areas offer ski helmet rentals

All of New Mexico's ski areas will now offer helmet rentals for skiers or snowboarders under the age of 18. State Sen. Eric Griego had been planning to introduce legislation to require slopes around the state to offer the rentals but the ski industry beat him to it.The issue became moot after Griego approached ski industry officials. He learned that only three of New Mexico's eight downhill ski areas—Santa Fe, Sandia Peak and Pajarito Mountain—didn't already offer such rentals. The three ski areas have since agreed to begin renting youth helmets, said George Brooks, executive director of Ski New Mexico.

"The senator and the ski areas in New Mexico have the same interests," Brooks said. "We all want the consumers, our guests, to be safe and enjoy the sport."

Geraldine Link, director of public policy for the National Ski Areas Association, said no states mandate youth helmets on the slopes but most ski areas nationwide offer rental helmets and many parents choose to purchase helmets for their children. "Through voluntary measures, we have achieved high usage rates," she said. Griego became concerned about the availability of children's rental helmets after taking his godson skiing at Santa Fe Ski Basin on Dec. 30. He had promised the boy's parents he would put the kid in a helmet.

"I got up there and found out they didn't rent helmets," Griego recalled.

So he purchased a $70 helmet, the On the same day at the ski area, a 10-year-old girl from Bushland, Texas, died after crashing and sliding into a tree. She wasn't wearing a helmet; investigators said she sustained head trauma. "My feeling was that if they're going to rent skis and snowboards, they ought to rent helmets, too," Griego said. cheapest model offered. Griego said some were selling for as much as $300.

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Ski death provokes helmet debate

The death of a woman in a highly publicised skiing collision has shaken holidaymakers and sparked debate about safety on the piste.

There has been plenty of early snow in the Alps and the ski season is in full swing. But in Kitzbuehel, the news of a fatal skiing accident has overshadowed the usual frivolous atmosphere at this time of year. People in Germany and Austria have been shocked by the recent ski accident involving a senior German politician, Dieter Althaus, and it has triggered a debate about wearing helmets.

In the accident, which happened on New Year's Day, a Slovak woman was killed and Mr Althaus, the governor of the eastern German state of Thuringia, was seriously injured when they collided while skiing. Mr Althaus, 50, was flown by helicopter to hospital in Schwarzach and he was placed in an artificially-induced coma. According to surgeons, he suffered injuries to the skull and brain. Neurologists said it was likely that the helmet that he was wearing saved his life.

Beata Christandl, a 41-year-old mother-of-four, was not wearing a helmet. She died on the way to hospital after suffering from multiple skull injuries. The accident happened at a junction of two pistes in the Riesneralm ski resort in Austria.

According to reports in the German media Mr Althaus was skiing on a red, intermediate, slope which crosses an easier slope, on which Beata Christandl was travelling. One investigator said both skiers were travelling at around 50km/h (30 mph).

Josef Schmid, a spokesman for the Austrian skiing federation, urged all those on the slopes to err on the side of caution. "We recommend that all skiers should wear helmets, it's not just young children, adults also need protection," Mr Schmid said.

"With the new carving skis, people tend to ski faster these days and they overestimate their own abilities. The slopes are very busy and it's much safer for everyone if you wear a helmet," he said. Politicians and leading figures in sport have called for the wearing of helmets to be made compulsory for skiers and snowboarders in Germany and Austria. In Italy, it is compulsory for all children under the age of 14 to wear a helmet on the ski slopes. And the idea has support from among skiing's elite." A helmet would help to reduce the severity of injuries," said Hilde Gerg, the 33-year-old German Olympic slalom champion, who has now retired from professional skiing, in an interview with Bunte magazine.

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