Teton Village, WY – A second tree well death in less than a week occurred yesterday in Wyoming, as a Jackson Hole Mountain Resort employee was found dead  in trees alongside the ski area’s Sundance Gulch run beneath the Bridger Gondola.

The 25-year-old victim, Kelsey Hewitt, was identified by Teton County Sheriff’s Deputy Todd Stanyon. She had just moved to Jackson from Portland, Ore., to spend the winter working at the rental shop at Jackson Hole Sports.

Jackson Hole reported 15 inches of new snowfall from Monday night into Tuesday. Teton County Coroner Brent Blue indicated that Hewitt died after falling head-first into a tree well and likely suffocating.

Jackson Hole ski patrol received the report just after 11 a.m. that the victim’s boyfriend, Neil Anderson, had found Hewitt unconscious in a group of trees on the left side of Sundance. The pair had been skiing Sundance when they became separated. When Hewitt failed to arrive at the bottom, Anderson rode back up the lift to look for her, and found Hewitt upside-down in the tree well.

CPR was initiated and Jackson Hole Mountain Resort Ski Patrollers responded to the scene. The victim was transported to the Teton Village Clinic where she was pronounced dead. Blue indicated that Hewitt exhibited no sign of external trauma, pointing to asphyxiation in the tree well or inverted submersion in deep snow as the likely cause of death.

A graduate of the University of Colorado at Boulder, Hewitt is the second employee to die at Jackson Hole thus far this winter, following the death of 23-year-old Callagy Ross on Dec. 7. Ross struck a tree. Almost one year ago, another skier, a 54-year-old man from Ohio, died after becoming inverted in a ravine alongside Jackson’s Brush Alley run and suffocating.