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Snowboarder who died at Sugarloaf Mountain identified
Police identified the man who died on Sugarloaf Mountain in Carrabassett Valley, Maine, as 63-year-old Kendall Willard.
Police identified the man who died at Sugarloaf Mountain in Carrabassett Valley, Maine, as 63-year-old Kendall Willard.
Willard, of Kingfield, Maine, dropped a glove while going up a ski lift Saturday morning and went to the head of a closed-off trail to retrieve it, according to Carrabassett Valley Police Chief Mark Lopez. The trail was closed due to icy conditions.
Willard removed his snowboard and walked down the trail, slipped, and slid down the steep slope for several hundred feet, Lopez said.
Ski patrol reported the incident at around 9 a.m., when they found Willard unresponsive in a group of trees about 800 feet from the start of the trail, according to a statement from the Carrabassett Valley Police Department.
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Most ski lifts at Sugarloaf Mountain open at 8:30 a.m. daily, according to the resort’s website.
The patrol performed life-saving measures on Willard in the resort’s first aid room, but pronounced him dead at 9:45 a.m., according to the statement. Willard’s cause of death was blunt force trauma.
“Chief Lopez wishes to express his deepest condolences to the family and friends of Kendall Willard during this time,” the statement said.
