Two people have died on Colorado ski slopes this week.
A 23-year-old ski instructor was found dead in a tree well Wednesday at the Steamboat ski area, and a 14-year-old from Bayfield died at Durango Mountain Resort on Tuesday after she hit a tree.
Routt County Coroner Rob Ryg said ski instructor Grace Lynn McNeil of Cedar, Mich., was found under 2 feet of snow Wednesday morning.
She was a children’s ski instructor at Arapahoe Basin but was skiing a double-black-diamond run in Steamboat. She became separated from her friends about 1:30 p.m. Tuesday and was found Wednesday about 8 a.m.
An autopsy will determine the cause of death. McNeil was wearing a helmet, but the area around the bases of trees can have loose snow that can cause suffocation, Ryg said.
Madeline Milner, a freshman at Bayfield High School and the daughter of teachers Mike and Dianne Milner, was killed on an intermediate run. She too was wearing a helmet.
Bayfield is about 18 miles east of Durango.
