At least 15 people, aged 14 to 78, died on Colorado’s ski slopes during the 2023-24 ski season.
This story first appeared in The Outsider, the premium outdoor newsletter by Jason Blevins.
In it, he covers the industry from the inside out, plus the fun side of being outdoors in our beautiful state.
Six deaths resulted from collisions with trees. All but one of the deaths from collisions or falls happened on intermediate or beginner slopes. Twelve of the fatalities were males, including a 14-year-old boy. Seven of the ski resort visitors who died were not from Colorado. Six of the deaths involved medical events, including a 43-year-old dentist from Kentucky who suffered a brain hemorrhage following an accident that broke his arm at Vail. Four of the deaths from medical events were skiers from out-of-state.
Ski areas do not release cumulative details or reports about deaths at resorts. Many resorts only reveal a fatality when asked, offering emailed statements that “extend our deepest sympathy.”
Resorts also do not discuss or detail injuries at ski areas, even though emergency rooms in resort communities treat thousands of injured skiers and snowboarders every season.
The Colorado Sun annually surveys 16 county coroners across the state to compile a list of skier deaths at ski resorts each season.
Colorado coroners reported at least 17 deaths at ski resorts in the 2022-23 ski season, an increase over previous seasons but below the record of 22 fatalities in the low-snow season of 2011-12. The 2022-23 season in Colorado included two teenagers killed while sledding in the closed halfpipe at Copper Mountain, four medical issues and five collisions with trees. The 2022-23 season was the busiest ever for Colorado’s ski resorts, with 14.8 million visits. The U.S. ski resort industry also logged a record number of visits — 64.7 million — in the 2022-23 season.
The National Ski Areas Association reported 46 deaths at U.S. ski areas in 2022-23, which included 42 males, 37 skiers and 19 fatal accidents on intermediate runs. The national association does not count fatalities involving medical events in its annual reporting of resort deaths.
The National Ski Areas Association fatal incident rate — based on a 10-season average — is 0.74 deaths for every 1 million skier visits. In Colorado that would equate to 11 deaths in seasons with 15 million skiers visits, but again, that national rate does not include medical events.
Colorado Ski Country, the trade group that represents 20 of the state’s 30 ski areas, counted only three deaths at its member resorts in 2023-24. The group’s member resorts do not include any Vail Resorts ski areas — like Breckenridge, Keystone and Vail, three of the busiest ski areas in the country, that accounted for seven ski area deaths in 2023-24.
Colorado Ski Country, like the National Ski Areas Association, only counts trauma-related deaths and does not include medical events like heart attacks. The trade group does not release statements on skier deaths.
Here’s the list from 16 Colorado county coroners:
- Dec. 28, 2023 Vail ski area. Roger Kim Porter, a 69-year-old Vail ski instructor, died in a Denver hospital on Jan. 3, 2024 following what the coroner called an “acute health event” on Dec. 28 at Vail on the intermediate Born Free ski run before the ski area opened to the public.
- Jan. 2, 2024 Breckenridge ski area. Gavin Scott, 47, from Colorado Springs, suffered multiple blunt force injuries after hitting a tree while snowboarding on the intermediate Monte Cristo trail. He was wearing a helmet.
- Jan 5., 2024 Copper Mountain. Stephen Kintigh, 53, from Frisco died from heart failure and natural causes.
- Jan. 5, 2024 Purgatory. Kenneth Riddle, 64, from Durango, died from injuries sustained on the intermediate El Diablo run.
- Jan. 27, 2024 Aspen Highlands. Eileen Sheahan, a 22-year-old senior at the University of Michigan was killed after colliding with a tree on the intermediate Exhibition run. It is unclear if she was wearing a helmet.
- Jan. 29, 2024 Breckenridge. James Bright, 78, of New Hampshire, died of a heart attack.
- Feb. 1, 2024 Breckenridge. John Rubio, 52, of Miami, suffered multiple blunt force injuries after colliding with a tree on the intermediate Duke’s run. Rubio was not wearing a helmet.
- Feb. 1, 2024 Vail. Ryan Brown, a 43-year-old from Somerset, Kentucky, died Feb. 5 from a brain hemorrhage stemming from a clinical condition after breaking his left arm at the ski area.
- Feb. 12, 2024 Purgatory. Richard “Rick” Boebel, a 73-year-old Durango resident from Louisiana, who suffered blunt trauma to his neck while skiing the Lower Peace trail, an intermediate run. He was wearing a helmet.
- Feb. 16, 2024 Loveland. Trina Pappas, 22, of Dyer, Indiana, was killed after colliding with a tree while skiing the beginner Zig Zag run.
- Feb. 26, 2024 Winter Park. A 62-year-old man from Pennsylvania died of a heart attack. The Grand County Coroner has not released his name.
- March 2, 2024 Keystone. Levi Hudson Inama, a 14-year-old snowboarder from Monument, died March 4 in a Denver hospital after suffering head injuries from colliding with a tree on the beginner Two Sled trail. He was wearing a helmet.
- March 14, 2024 Keystone. Oleksandr Piguliak, 58 of Silverthorne, suffered fatal neck injuries following a collision with a tree while skiing the intermediate Flying Dutchman trail.
- April 8, 2024 Winter Park. A 47-year-old female snowboarder from Miami died at a Denver hospital on April 12 following a traumatic brain injury after a fall on a beginner slope. She was wearing a helmet. The Grand County Coroner has not released her name.
- April 13, 2024 Arapahoe Basin. William Tanner, a 64-year-old from Canfield, Ohio, suffered a fatal heart attack.