A Bend man’s fatal ski crash on Mt. Bachelor was the first in about seven years, the ski area reported Friday.

“Until (Thursday) , the last on-mountain fatality directly related to skiing or snowboarding at Mt. Bachelor was in 2008,” Drew Jackson, Mt. Bachelor spokesman, wrote in an email. “We’ve hosted nearly 3 million skier (and) snowboarder visits between then and now.”

He added his sentiments to those who knew and loved Peter Sky.

“All of us at Mt. Bachelor are very saddened by this,” Jackson wrote. “We send our deepest sympathy to Mr. Sky’s family and friends.”

Sky, 29, was skiing down the Leeway run Thursday around 1 p.m. when he lost control and hit a tree, according to the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office. An avid, accomplished skier, Sky was wearing a helmet but did not survive due to the nature of his injury. Jackson wrote that Mt. Bachelor was deferring other questions to the sheriff’s office. Sky leaves behind his wife, Marisa Sky, 36, and her 16-year-old daughter.

The Leeway run was once called the Last Chance run, but Mt. Bachelor changed the name following the 1993 death of 15-year-old Lee Atherton, his father, Dennis Atherton of Roseburg, confirmed Friday. On Feb. 22, 1993, Lee Atherton fell and was critically injured on the run while on a Boy Scout trip with his troop, according to Bulletin archives. He died two days later.

Over the preceding decade an average of 39 people per season died skiing or snowboarding at a ski area in the United States, according to data released last October by the National Ski Areas Association. The association collects information from all the ski areas around the country, as well as their insurers, said Dave Byrd, association spokesman.

He said the association does not provide data broken down by state or ski area, not wanting to single out any particular place.

“The numbers get so small that it is hard to put them into context,” he said.

Byrd said collisions with trees are the most common cause of fatalities at ski areas, with half of all deaths at ski areas over the past five years attributed to trees.

The last fatality at Mt. Bachelor involving skiing or snowboarding was similar to Sky’s death. Scott Nicholas Hackett , 27, died on Jan. 13, 2008, after hitting a tree. Hackett’s crash occurred on what is commonly called the back side of the mountain, accessed via the Summit Express chairlift. He had been skiing through a patch of dense trees with at least two friends when he lost control and careened into a tree. He was wearing a helmet.

Other fatalities on the mountain in recent years:

On May 8, 2004, Shelley Glover, a member of the U.S. Ski Team’s Alpine Development Team, died in an crash on Mount Bachelor. Glover, 17, from Madison, Wisconsin, was skiing over small moguls when she fell on the Coffee run. She was wearing a helmet.

On April 9, 2004, Keenan Foisset , a 10-year-old from La Pine, died after suffering head injuries in a fall. He landed awkwardly and fell backward after going off a jump in one of Mt. Bachelor’s terrain parks. He was wearing a helmet.

On March 4, 2002, Mount Bachelor Ski Patrol members found the body of Kate Svitek , 22, of Bend in a tree well on the northwest side of the mountain. She had gone missing Feb. 9 after becoming separated from friends. She was found about 300 yards from the Northwest chairlift and had fallen about 9 to 10 feet below the snow line, where she suffocated. During her fall her snowboard dislodged snow and ice, burying her. Svitek had worked at Mt. Bachelor as a ticket attendant.

Mt. Bachelor also saw a pair of fatalities in 1999, when Travis Vandehey, 20, of La Pine, died after apparently being struck in the head by a downhill skier and Jason Craig Redlener, 28, of Bend, died of massive internal injuries suffered in a cartwheeling fall.

Also, on Jan. 27, 2006, Cameron Joseph Sharp , an 18-year-old Lane Community College student from Myrtle Creek, died when snow removal equipment ran over him in the West Village parking lot. Sharp had been camping in the lot, either in his sleeping bag atop the snow or tucked into a snowcave. He went through a snowblower and may have also been hit by a snowplow, the sheriff’s office reported in 2006. He died from multiple traumatic injuries.

Sheriff’s Lt. Bryan Husband did not have more details about the fatal crash Friday.

“He and his friend were enjoying the day,” Husband said, “skiing on the mountain.”

While Mt. Bachelor is on land managed by the Deschutes National Forest, the U.S. Forest Service is leaving the investigation of Sky’s death to the sheriff’s office, said Jean Nelson-Dean, national forest spokeswoman.

“We don’t intend to do an additional investigation,” she said.

— Reporter: 541-617-7812, ddarling@bendbulletin.com