18-year-old skier dies in accident on Blackcomb Mountain

An 18-year-old man from Vancouver Island died in a skiing accident on Blackcomb Mountain Saturday afternoon.

Ski patrol was notified just before 3 p.m. that a skier had fallen 12 metres off the edge of a cliff in an off-trail area in Crystal Zone. He fell into a patch of rocks and sustained massive blunt force trauma.

A team of nine patrollers and medical staff arrived at the scene just minutes after the incident occurred. Attempts were made by a doctor and paramedic to revive the unconscious and unresponsive skier, including CPR and the use of a defibrillator, but he could not be revived and was pronounced dead at 3:41 p.m.

The young man was an experienced racing skier and was wearing a helmet at the time of the accident. He was part of a group consisting of three or four other people.

The family of the deceased man has been notified but Whistler RCMP are withholding the identity of the man at this time.

This is the second fatal skiing/snowboarding accident at Whistler Blackcomb this ski season. On February 28, a 29-year-old man from Ontario was found dead within Whistler’s Harmony Bowl in-bounds area.