Sad update: Young skier injured in Mt. Bachelor crash has died
(Update: Mt. Bachelor confirms boy passed away)
'I’ve never seen ice like that,' snowboarder says
BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) – A 9-year-old boy critically injured while skiing at Mt. Bachelor Saturday afternoon and flown by air ambulance to St. Charles Bend has died, resort officials confirmed Tuesday.
Mt. Bachelor Ski Patrol responded around 2:20 p.m. Saturday to the skier injury, Brand and Marketing Director Leigh Capozzi said Sunday.
“Upon assessing the skier’s injuries, Ski Patrol immediately summoned an Air Link helicopter,” the resort spokeswoman's statement said.
The boy, who resort officials have now confirmed was wearing a helmet, "was transported by patrollers to Mt. Bachelor’s first aid clinic, where further life-saving care was administered by an onsite doctor and paramedics,” Capozzi said.
The AirLink helicopter took the skier to St. Charles Bend.
“Today, we learned that the young skier passed away," the resort said in Tuesday's updated statement. "Our entire team at Mt. Bachelor is deeply saddened by our guest’s tragic passing and offers our deepest condolences and support to his family and friends."
Meanwhile, there's been an outpouring of support in the Tacoma, Wash., community for the family of the boy, identified on a GoFundMe page and in other public postings as Brecken Boice.
The boy was skiing on a slope off of the Summit lift, which was reported to be extremely icy over the weekend.
Peter Kendrick, a self-described expert snowboarder, told NewsChannel 21 on Monday, “In my 18 years of snowboarding, I’ve never seen ice like that.”
Kendrick went down the slope once with his girlfriend on Saturday.
“Eventually, when it got steep enough on the Healy’s run, I soon found my self not being able to stop," he said. "I could really only half-control my speed, but I knew I couldn’t.”
Dustin Lanier skied at Hoodoo that day, but he was shocked to hear the Summit lift was running.
“I know they were recommending to advanced riders only to take the lift up, but there needs to be some enforcement up there,” said Lanier, who has worked in the ski industry.
Rain over the past week, coupled with warm daytime temperatures, caused an unusually high amount of snowmelt for January. The melted snow then refreezes at night, causing ice in spots that don’t receive much sunlight.
The open slope off the Summit lift on Saturday faced northeast, away from the sun for a portion of the day.
Nightly grooming and warmer daytime temperatures at lower elevations on the mountain can help to soften the snow, but sveral skiers reported injuries this weekend.
Morgan Botkin, director of operations for Family Choice Urgent Care in Bend, said, “This past weekend, on average, we’re seeing between seven and 15 additional patients that were specifically related to ski, snowboarding or snowmobiling accidents.”
Fortunately for Kendrick, he and his girlfriend, who did fall on the Summit run, were not seriously injured.
Kendrick said he may have seen the aftermath of the incident as he was trying to safely come down the slopes.
“I started seeing kind of a light trail of blood," Kendrick said. "That’s kind of when it all started to dawn on me of what these conditions were, which were objectively dangerous.”
The Summit lift was closed on Monday.
NewsChannel 21 asked Mt. Bachelor about what goes into the decision to open the summit lift on a given day. We were pointed to a promotional video detailing how the lift and runs are prepared.
The three-day Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend is traditionally a busy one at the resort, though this year, COVID-19 distancing, mask and safety precautions remain in place.
