The Snowmass ski patrol is attempting to interview two companions of a former local man who was seriously injured in an accident in a closed area there on Saturday.
Aspen Skiing Co. spokesman Jeff Hanle said ski area officials don't have any answers yet about what happened to the 27-year-old snowboarder who was found at the bottom of a 20-foot cliff in a permanently closed area near the Elk Camp lift.
The two companions the man was riding with "didn't see [the accident] happen - that's what was in their initial report," said Hanle. "We can't tell if he skied off [the cliff] accidentally or on purpose, or at all."
According to Hanle, when his friends found him below the cliff, they called 911 and a nearby ski instructor called ski patrol, who treated the man for multiple injuries and brought him to a waiting ambulance and to Aspen Valley Hospital. The man was wearing a helmet.
SkiCo is not releasing the name of the man, whose injuries were serious enough to have him flown to St. Mary's Hospital in Grand Junction. Hanle said the man "used to live here and doesn't anymore," and his friends, who are not local either, were shaken up by the accident and went with him to Grand Junction.
Because they were dealing with the accident, patrollers had not yet interviewed the man's friends about what might have happened. They're also examining tracks in the area, which is skier's left of the intermediate Grey Wolf run.
Asked if someone might have reason to mistake the area for being open, Hanle replied, "No. There are closed signs all the way down the skier's left side of Grey Wolf."
