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Wolf Creek Ski Area death March 25 confirmed as state’s 12th

Kevin Fixler / kfixler@summitdaily.com

A 56-year-old Florida man died after skiing at Wolf Creek Ski Area on Tuesday morning, March 21, the southwestern Colorado resort told the Summit Daily Monday.

Michael Black was traveling at a high rate of speed on the freshly-groomed Summer Day intermediate run by the edge of the trail near some trees when he lost a ski, according to Wolf Creek president and CEO Davey Pitcher. Black, while wearing a helmet, began to uncontrollably somersault before coming to a rest when he collided with a downed tree.

Ski patrol tended to the man, who Pitcher said never lost consciousness while at the resort and was responsive to staff who came to his aid. Pagosa Springs emergency responders then helped transfer Black, who suffered neck, rib and internal injuries consistent with blunt-force trauma, by fixed-wing aircraft to St. Anthony Hospital in Lakewood for higher-level care.

On Wednesday, Black reportedly experienced complications from a blood clot. Life support was then removed on Saturday, March 25.

“He had a second home in Pagosa Springs, and was always reaching out to people, saying good morning and being very pleasant,” said Davey. “It’s a real tragedy.”

Black’s death became Colorado’s 12th ski fatality of the 2016-17 season, an official with the state’s ski trade association confirmed. That came on the heels of a 35-year-old man dying at Loveland Ski Area on Friday, March 24, who was the Colorado’s 11th. Summit County’s Breckenridge Ski Resort has had the most on-mountain deaths in Colorado this year with four.

Wolf Creek now stands at seven inbounds ski deaths in the past decade. The last fatality there occurred in January 2013 when a 70-year-old Pagosa Springs man died from multiple chest injuries after skiing into a tree.


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