Skier dies at Taos Ski Valley

[Amie H]

The second thing I wondered is why a 13 yo seems to have been skiing alone with just a sibling.

Well... that seems to be par for the course where a lot of teens split off from the adults. At least in our family it was.

My parents let my sisters and me ski all over Killington on our own (I was the oldest at 19, the others were 15, and 12) as novices. However, two of us (myself and youngest sibling) took 5 days of lessons. My middle sister was in ski club in high school in Pennsylvania, so she insisted she knew how to ski. She never took a lesson and ended up tearing her ACL later but that's another story.)

I do recall us daring each other to try various black diamond runs, and of course doing all the dumb teen stunts of the 90s like "shoot the duck."

We were pretty dumb (but we had a blast!)

 

[Susan L]

That hill just coming off of Lift 1 is fairly steep, and what's interesting is that they opened it up several yrs ago because beginners had been complaining that the only way down was that "scary cat track" (straight ahead past the big map). The cat track is certainly narrower, but it's much less steep than the other hill. Sigh.

I just found out this season that the easiest way to get on Whitefeather was to take the skier left off the Chair 1, down towards Porcupine direction.
I have seen younger kids ski on their own without supervision and I always wondered why any parents would allow it. It did say her adult sister was skiing with her but far enough away to see the 13yo disappear around the turn.

 

[TNtoTaos]

I just found out this season that the easiest way to get on Whitefeather was to take the skier left off the Chair 1, down towards Porcupine direction.
I have seen younger kids ski on their own without supervision and I always wondered why any parents would allow it. It did say her adult sister was skiing with her but far enough away to see the 13yo disappear around the turn.

Yes, that takes you on that fairly flat cat track, and you can then turn later, but it's counter-intuitive. Most people follow the herd right down the hill.

 

[diymom]

Cat tracks can be quite nerve wracking for beginners though. Narrow with a drop on one side is bad enough. Add in the more experienced skiers skiing past you on all sides, yikes. I can see why green skiers might choose the somewhat steeper than they are used to run over a cat track.

 

[Susan L]

Cat tracks can be quite nerve wracking for beginners though. Narrow with a drop on one side is bad enough. Add in the more experienced skiers skiing past you on all sides, yikes. I can see why green skiers might choose the somewhat steeper than they are used to run over a cat track.

I remember the first time I skied Taos, I had already spent 2 seasons at Santa Fe, thinking I was an intermediate. I still remember it was a windy afternoon and we took Chair 1 up for Whitefeather because it was the only green run. Thought it’d be a warm up but it turned out to be the one and only run we did that day. I thought it was crazy narrow, windy and steep. I was happy to have survived it once and that’s all I could handle.

 

[liquidfeet]

....While that hill is fairly steep, it's quite wide, and although you do have to turn left at the bottom to avoid running into the trees, it's not a blind turn -- there's plenty of time to see that a turn is coming, and plenty of space to make it in , so I suspect this young skier was totally over her skill level and completely out of control.

That hill just coming off of Lift 1 is fairly steep, and what's interesting is that they opened it up several yrs ago because beginners had been complaining that the only way down was that "scary cat track" (straight ahead past the big map). The cat track is certainly narrower, but it's much less steep than the other hill. Sigh.

The only reason that cat track might have been "scary" would be because it was crowded with people zooming along it in close proximity to each other, passing close and fast beside slower skiers. The new wide trail where the crash happened probably redirects the crowds away from the narrower trail now.

 

[Susan L]

The only reason that cat track might have been "scary" would be because it was crowded with people zooming along it in close proximity to each other, passing close and fast beside slower skiers. The new wide trail where the crash happened probably redirects the crowds away from the narrower trail now.

Ski week ski off used to be on that slope right off Chair 1, then they moved to Whistlestop.

 

[marzNC]

Ski week ski off used to be on that slope right off Chair 1, then they moved to Whistlestop.

Before the change for 2017-18, there were two lifts from the base. The change in set up for beginners at the base of TSV changed in 2017. Part of the change was that Chair 5 was removed and Lift 1 became the only base lift as a detachable quad. So it may be hard for someone who didn't ski Taos before the change to imagine how the trails in that area were aligned before 2018. By 2017, Chair 5 was only being run during the mornings when people needed to get up higher for the Ski Week ski off.

Going back a few decades, fair to say that beginners were pretty intimidated by the look of Al's Run. I would guess that fewer families were bringing teens who had never skied before for a spring break trip to Taos back then. These days, there are families who take ski vacations where the younger generation skis but the parents and grandparents do not.

 

[diymom]

Ski week ski off used to be on that slope right off Chair 1, then they moved to Whistlestop.

I like it being at the Whistlestop. If you get there early you can go inside, use the facilities, etc. But I can see an advantage to it being at the lift, if there is anyone who finds themselves over terrained they don't have to go anywhere.

 

[marzNC]

I like it being at the Whistlestop. If you get there early you can go inside, use the facilities, etc. But I can see an advantage to it being at the lift, if there is anyone who finds themselves over terrained they don't have to go anywhere.

Lift 5 was the lift that went higher when before the ski off was moved to below Whistlestop. In theory advanced beginners could do a ski week, but I doubt many did during the era that the Blake family owned TSV. Lift 1 unloaded 400 ft below Lift 5 (according to LiftBlog).

There was a season or two in recent years when the blurb for a Ski Week said "intermediates and above." I know in 2018 and 2019 there were advanced beginners who did a Ski Week. I remember seeing a woman ski off with an instructor for a solo Ski Week, or at least solo on Sunday morning.

 

[TNtoTaos]

Lift 5 was the lift that went higher when before the ski off was moved to below Whistlestop. In theory advanced beginners could do a ski week, but I doubt many did during the era that the Blake family owned TSV. Lift 1 unloaded 400 ft below Lift 5 (according to LiftBlog).

There was a season or two in recent years when the blurb for a Ski Week said "intermediates and above." I know in 2018 and 2019 there were advanced beginners who did a Ski Week. I remember seeing a woman ski off with an instructor for a solo Ski Week, or at least solo on Sunday morning.

Even when it was there, Lift 5 was rarely used -- it was an overflow lift. Occasionally they used it to get the skiers to the ski-off faster. It loaded up where that flat area is above and to the left of Lift 1.

 

[Cantabrigienne]

In a recent social media conversation in a Sunday River skier group.. there was discussion about what the public should be informed of regarding serious accidents and deaths on the mountain. Often times it's hard to find any of it out and is kept very quiet.

I know that in Whistler that while deaths are reported fairly promptly, they need to wait for the coroners report or something equivalent before stating cause of death. And when there is a lag in reporting the death, it's due to having to notify next of kin etc.

That said, I rode up the gondola with the worlds most cliched dude-bro ski instructor and his gaggle of young teen (maybe even tween) boys. He was from central casting (okay, Estonian rather than Swedish but to the casual N.American bystander, Scandinavian in appearance/accent/mannerisms) and when Boy 1 asked "can we go to Flute Bowl?" DudeBro drawled "oh bowls are so boring, they're really overrated." When asked what skiing *is* interesting, DudeBro said "Trees. But I'm not allowed to take you" - and when pressed why, he said "there was an incident last week."

Now the teens/tweens were still childlike enough to ask slightly anxiously "but the skier was okay in the end, right?" and DudeBro said "sure"

....and my eyes bugged out because I wanted to say something, but didn't know if it was ski school policy to not talk about deaths to kids (parental perogative etc). But at least 3 people have died in Whistler this year.

 

[Cantabrigienne]

Was going to add: the most recent was on Renegade, which is a tree run, and the 2nd was between two cat tracks (7th Ave and Expressway) in an area popular for tree skiing - so reasonable to assume either i) collision or ii) tree well immersion. This is the first year I've seen signs all over the mountain warning about tree wells, fwiw.