Snowboarder Dies in Colorado Freak Accident

A California woman tragically lost her life on Saturday while snowboarding in Colorado, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times. 

If you haven’t seen this particular news report then it is guaranteed that your initial gut reaction and thoughts about how this snowboarding accident might have occurred will be wrong. 

No safety rules, safety advice, avalanche equipment, gadgets, technology, or helmets in the world will ever stop freak accidents from happening…

The deceased woman is believed to have been a competent snowboarder.  She was heli-skiing (heli-boarding) near Telluride with a group of skiers and wearing a helmet.  Somehow she lost her balance, slid backwards and fell into a snow-covered creek.  Her helmet lodged between some rocks and it took rescuers ten minutes to dislodge the helmet, by which time she had drowned.  

It is not clear whether the heli-ski company required the wearing of helmets, but apparently about 50 percent of people do wear them – and for good reason.   What a terrible and ironic twist of fate.  What a sad end to a life.

What is the moral of the story?  Perhaps the tragic loss of this woman’s life will serve as a warning to those who think their level of expertise makes them invincible.  Crazy accidents like this can and do happen.   With luck they will not all result in loss of life, but serious injuries and boken bones are likely to result in hefty medical expenses and mountain rescue costs.  Repatriation of a body can also be a huge expense.

If an accident occurred while skiing or boarding without ski insurance not only would the family of the deceased have to deal with grieving over the loss, but they would potentially be faced with paying mountain (helicopter) rescue bills, hospital bills, and repatriation expenses (to fly the body home).

Flickr Image: alexindigo