Keystone, CO – It’s been a rough winter at Keystone, as the Colorado ski and snowboard resort logged its fifth fatality in little more than a month on Friday.
Truitt Hunter, 23, of Castle Rock, Colo., reportedly caught an edge and veered into a tree alongside Keystone’s intermediate Spring Dipper trail on Friday afternoon. He was pronounced dead at Keystone Medical Center. The Summit County Coroner says that Hunter died of multiple skull fractures. He was reportedly not wearing a helmet.
Hunter’s death is the fifth at Keystone since late January. Joshua B. Allen, 24, of Tampa, Fla., died on Feb. 25 in the trees of Keystone’s Outback. William Emberton, 72, of Stonington, Conn., was found face down in the snow alongside Keystone’s expert Geronimo run earlier in the month, and Odo Lessacher, 58, of Griffin, Ga., died of blunt force trauma following an incident while skiing on Feb. 5 on Keystone’s North Peak. In late January, 54-year-old Vesslin Vlassev, of Westminster, Colo., was found by a passing skier alongside the intermediate Jacques St. James trail on Dercum Mountain. He died of a broken neck.