In the winter of 2008/2009, the USA saw 34 deaths at ski resorts. 11 of those deaths were in Colorado.
In 2007/2008 there were 50 ski-related deaths in the USA. 16 of those were in Colorado.
Colorado is very much overly represented in the ski-related death area. This is very likely due to it’s high number of skier visits combined with persistently high avalanche danger.
So far in 2011/12 there have been ski-realated 14 deaths in Colorado.
Between 1980 and 2001 there were 274 ski-related deaths in Colorado.
Colorado had 7 million skier visits in 2010/2011, the most of any state. That’s a big number considering the entire USA had 60.1 million skier visits that same year. Lake Tahoe received 3.6 million skier visits in 2010/11.
COLORADO SKI-RELATED DEATHS BETWEEN 1980-2001:
– 274 deaths
– 81%+ were male
– 65% were due to traumatic injuries resulting from collisions
– 32, the average age of the deceased skiers
– “Death rates ranged from 0.53 to 1.88 per million skier visits.” – Stallones & Xiang
– Source: Lorann Stallones & Huiyun Xiang