Utah pro skier Jamie Pierre, the high-flying cliff king whose audacity in tackling monster hucks and smooth poise in the air made him a perennial presence in ski media, died Sunday in an avalanche in the Gad Valley drainage of the not-yet-open Snowbird Ski Area in Utah’s Little Cottonwood Canyon. He was 38.
The Utah Avalanche Center accident report detailing the state’s first avalanche fatality of the season noted that Pierre was partially buried in a slide that carried him over steep, rocky terrain and over a cliff band.
His partner, who was watching and was not caught in the slide, called for rescue help. Neither Pierre nor his partner was carrying avalanche rescue gear as they traversed Snowbird’s Peruvian Cirque to reach Gad Valley. The accident report indicated that the pair “had likely triggered another slab avalanche prior to the victim triggering the fatal one.”
Pierre literally flew. In 2006, he skied off a 255-foot cliff on the backside of Wyoming’s Grand Targhee ski area. He used the media attention from the leap to share his faith.
Pierre is survived by his wife, Aimee, and two children. He had lived for years in Sandy, Utah, outside Salt Lake City, but had recently moved to Big Sky, Mont.
Video of his 2006 jump and previous feature:
