Jamie Pierre dead at age 39
Professional skier Jamie Pierre died yesterday in an avalanche at Snowbird. He was 39.
Snowbird has yet to officially open for the season, which is why there has been no avalanche control to date at the Utah ski area. According to reports, Pierre was snowboarding with a friend near the South Chute area around 3:15 p.m. yesterday when he triggered an avalanche and was taken off a cliff. The mountains in the area had seen more than a foot of snow over the 48 hours prior to Pierre’s death.
According to the official report from the Utah Avalanche Center, “Collapsing of the snow pack occurred all week prior to the accident. There were two slab avalanches triggered early in the week and no less then 12 human triggered avalanches during the day of the accident. Over an inch of water weight was added to our weak pre existing snow, obviously too much weight for the snowpack to stay put with people on the steeper slopes.”
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