Whakapapa Ski Area

Deadly Day on New Zealand Ski Fields

Ohakune, New Zealand – A pair of skiers died in separate incidents on New Zealand’s ski slopes on Friday.

Whakapapa Ski Area
Whakapapa Ski Area

Abraham Klaarenbeek, 38, died Friday night while in surgery in Waikato Hospital after an accident earlier in the day at Whakapapa ski area on Mt. Ruapehu. Klaarenbeek, a Dutch national who had been living in the New Zealand town of Paeroa, came over a rise on the resort’s Knoll Ridge and collided with a T-bar tower that also supported the lift’s control shack.

Earlier on Friday a 29-year-old Australian snowboarder climbing in the Canterbury backcountry slipped down into a ravine and was killed. Tim Stone, 29, of Sydney was with two friends when removed his snowboard to climb the side of Tarn Basin, behind the Mt. Cheeseman Ski Area near Christchurch, before slipping down an icy 45-degree slope and falling into a rock-filled streambed, sustaining severe head injuries. He was airlifted to Christchurch Hospital where he died on Sunday.

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Stone was not wearing a helmet at the time of the incident.

A coroner’s investigation is pending in both deaths.

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