Skier, snowboarder die at Mt. Bachelor in separate incidents
Published 12:00 am Saturday, March 3, 2018
- Mount Bachelor (Andy Tullis/Bulletin file photo)
Two people died at Mt. Bachelor on Friday after falling into tree wells, one a snowboarder and the other a skier.
The snowboarder, 24-year-old Alfonso Braun of Bend, was found by other skiers at about noon in an area known as the West Bowls, which the resort describes as an experts-only location off the Northwest chair lift.
Sgt. William Bailey, a spokesman with the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office, said the department’s search and rescue team was sent to help the Mt. Bachelor ski patrol. “They apparently dug him out, and the ski patrol started CPR,” Bailey said. “Then, he was transported down to waiting emergency medical personnel.”
An investigation determined Braun had separated from his friends and entered a treed area, where he became buried head-first in a tree well in about six feet of snow, according to the sheriff’s office. He was taken to West Village, where he was pronounced dead at 1:14 p.m.. a Mt. Bachelor spokesman said.
About two hours later, at 3:30, the Mt. Bachelor ski patrol was notified that an adult female skier had become separated from her friends and was missing.
At about 8:30 p.m., the ski patrol, assisted by the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue, found the skier in a tree well near the difficult White Bark run in the vicinity of the Cloudchaser lift. The skier, 19-year-old Nicole Panet-Raymond of Eugene, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Searchers used cell phone information to locate Panet-Raymond, according to the Sheriff’s Office. She was found buried in about six feet of snow, roughly 10 yards from the White Bark run.
These are the first deaths at Mt. Bachelor since May 2015, when 29-year-old Peter Sky, of Bend, died skiing down the Leeway run, lost control and hit a tree.