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Originally Posted by kriswielga  I've never heard of anyone dying on a park jump before? it seems unusal, is it?
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While I don't have hard numbers to prove anything, I think it is unusual. My opinion is based on several things - The majority of in-bounds deaths at resorts occur due to people hitting inanimate objects (lift towers, trees, snowmaking equipment, etc.) or other people at high speed. A handful of in-bounds deaths occur each year due to O.B.-type situations (tree wells, avalanches, getting lost).
Granted, the ground certainly qualifies as an inanimate object capable of causing fatal injuries, but my gut feeling still says the number of deaths attributable to freestyle park skiing each year are small if not nearly non-existent.
I'm not blaming anyone for this, but that this tragedy befell an experienced and by all accounts accomplished athlete under the supervision of a coach or coaches is the most disturbing part of the whole thing for me. I can't tell you how many people I see in
way over their head in terrain parks every weekend. When inexperienced, it's one thing to hit little jumps on the side of the trail; big park features, however, are an entirely different animal. Unfortunately, the self-preservation instinct is pretty weak in most park skiers (teenagers and twenty-somethings). I think of all the dumb stuff I did at that age on snow and realize it's a miracle I'm still here...and I was experienced and coached, just like the kid at Copper.
