On Monday, a group of four sky divers that included Erik Roner, JT Holmes and Aaron McGovern were scheduled to open a charity golf tournament for The Squaw Valley Institute by skydiving onto The Links at Squaw Creek just outside of Squaw Valley, when tragedy struck. After Holmes and McGovern landed safely first, their friend Erik Roner followed behind. During his landing, Roner apparently hit a tree at high speeds. He was later pronounced dead upon impact.
Roner lay entangled in the tree for 40 minutes before emergency personnel could retrieve his body. He was 39 years old.
Founder of the High Fives Foundation, Roy Tuscany witnessed the horrific scene and later told TGR what he saw and heard. According to Tuscany, he saw McGovern land first who was then followed shorly after by JT Holmes. After the two were on the ground, he witnessed Roner go off course during the landing at which time he struck a tree. A distraught Tuscany told TGR over the phone that “He hit a tree… he hit a tree so hard. I don’t know what happened from there.”
Most recently Roner starred as a pivotol figure on MTV’s Nitro Circus alongside Travis Pastrana. Before gaining nationally televised recongnition, Roner was a ski bum through and through who called Lake Tahoe home and pioneered the sport of ski-base. He is survived by his two children Oskar and Kasper as well as his loving wife Annika.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to all of Roner’s friends, family, and fans.
*Earlier today, we reported that this tragic accident occurred at a High Fives Foundation charity event when in fact it was a Squaw Valley Institute event. We apologize for the mistake.