A California ski resort spokesman says a professional big-mountain skier from a Vermont ski team who was seriously hurt in a bad landing after doing a back flip off a cliff during a weekend competition has died.
Kirkwood Ski Resort spokesman Michael Dalzell says Ryan Hawks died at a local hospital yesterday. The 25-year-old member of the Green Mountain Freeride team from Vermont was competing in the North American Freeskiing Championships when he was injured in the fall Sunday.
The weekend event at the Lake Tahoe resort drew about 450 spectators, and was held in an area usually closed to skiers because of its challenging terrain. Dalzell says freeskiing events like the one at Kirkwood are characterized as big-mountain skiing in natural rock terrain.
He says emergency personnel got to Hawks within minutes, but it wasn’t enough to save his life.