The holiday weekend brought death and injuries to the region’s winter terrain, including a double ski fatality near Casper on Friday and an incident in which a 20-year-old woman was found unconscious on the slopes at Steamboat Springs on Saturday afternoon.
Wyoming authorities said a 5-year-old girl and a 22-year-old man died after a Christmas Eve skiing collision at a ski area outside Casper. The girl’s mother also was injured.
The man was snowboarding at the Hogadon Ski Area when he collided with the mother and daughter, who were on skis and had stopped on a ski run about 2:30 p.m. Friday, said Natrona County Sheriff’s Lt. Mark Sellers.
No names were released. All were from Casper, Sellers said.
The mother remained hospitalized Saturday, but her condition wasn’t known.
At Steamboat Springs’ Rabbit Ears Terrain Park on Saturday, a 20-year-old woman was skiing with her family when she became separated from her group, said Steamboat Ski and Resort Corp. spokesman Mike Lane.
When they went back to find her, she was unconscious. There were no obvious signs of an accident, he said.
She was rushed to Yampa Valley Medical Center. Her name and condition have not been released.
In Pitkin County on Friday, rescue crews airlifted a snowmobiler who broke his leg riding at Hagerman Pass near Ivanhoe Lake west of Leadville.
Craig Peckat, 50, of Glenwood Springs was taken by helicopter to Summit Medical Center in Frisco, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
According to the National Ski Areas Association, based in Lakewood, serious injuries on resort terrain are relatively rare: an average of 43 per year nationwide.
Given the numbers of people on the slopes annually, that works out to 0.65 injuries per million skier or snowboarder visits, according to the association.
