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18 year old killed at Sunday River

SIKSKIER

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Not sure what was going on here but the Tempest trail is not a tubing trail that I know of.

NEWRY, Maine —
An 18-year-old from New Hampshire was killed early Wednesday morning and another person was seriously injured in an accident at a Maine ski resort, officials said.

The Oxford County Sheriff's Office said the person killed in the accident at Sunday River was an 18-year-old man.

A 17-year-old boy from New Hampshire was taken to a hospital with serious injuries.

The victims' names have not been released.

A spokeswoman for Sunday River said the accident was reported at 2 a.m. on the Tempest Trail, which is an advanced trail.

The victims were riding on the same inflatable tube when it went off the trail and crashed into a tree, deputies said.
 

mriceyman

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Not sure what was going on here but the Tempest trail is not a tubing trail that I know of.

NEWRY, Maine —
An 18-year-old from New Hampshire was killed early Wednesday morning and another person was seriously injured in an accident at a Maine ski resort, officials said.

The Oxford County Sheriff's Office said the person killed in the accident at Sunday River was an 18-year-old man.

A 17-year-old boy from New Hampshire was taken to a hospital with serious injuries.

The victims' names have not been released.

A spokeswoman for Sunday River said the accident was reported at 2 a.m. on the Tempest Trail, which is an advanced trail.

The victims were riding on the same inflatable tube when it went off the trail and crashed into a tree, deputies said.

Because its not a tubing trail doesnt mean kids cant take a tube down it


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Smellytele

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A few years ago someone died at Wildcat sledding down at night. I have sled down an old ski hill at evergreen valley back in the 80's at night while fun I still have a scar on my hip from wiping out and sliding out of control. Also used a sled in tuckermans from about 50 feet below the bottom of the headwall and that scared the shit out of me as well.
 

Jully

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I've seen kids during the day take sleds out onto easier trails, like Dream Maker, but Tempest is fairly narrow at the headwall and rather steep. If they went even halfway up it, you could get some serious speed going with trees, hydrants, and lift towers all real close. Horrible tragedy. I bet SR starts cracking down real hard on sledding on ski trails.
 

Edd

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I've seen kids during the day take sleds out onto easier trails, like Dream Maker, but Tempest is fairly narrow at the headwall and rather steep. If they went even halfway up it, you could get some serious speed going with trees, hydrants, and lift towers all real close. Horrible tragedy.

Tubing on that trail is suicidal.
 

SkiFanE

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Very very sad. There are condos on that trail - and one of my kids has sled on Tempest with a friend that had a condo there. The bottom of tempest is not steep and a cruiser - it all depends on where they started. The steepest sections are above the condos. I always assumed my kid was on the flatter part - maybe some climb up to steeper section - especially HS boys. Really a bummer.
 

shwilly

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That is unthinkably sad. I can well imagine 18-year-old me sneaking out for a few sled runs, not considering it particularly dangerous.

RIP.
 

deadheadskier

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That is unthinkably sad. I can well imagine 18-year-old me sneaking out for a few sled runs, not considering it particularly dangerous.

RIP.
In high school, my group of friends would sled after hours on the Sachem trail at Okemo pretty frequently. We would rotate having one person drive up to the top of the trail on the condo access road while the rest of us sledded down. Super fun and also dangerous. Between this accident and the ones at Snow and Wildcat it makes me realize how lucky we were nothing bad happened.

Very sad

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eatskisleep

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Rest In Peace. The amount of speed you can pickup on an inflatable tube is very high. They can get going scary fast real quick too. Used to sled a lot at Black Mountain on Whitney Hill; it's a green circle but the amount of speed you'd get would be insane.
 

Whitey

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Very sad. Its kind of weird for me too as we were there last weekend and my boys were sledding on the trails at SR. Saturday night we went back up to the mountain to catch the Pat's game, watch the fireworks, and of course drink some beers at the Foggy Goggle. My boys brought a couple of sleds with them and were sledding on the lower section of Broadway and into the ski rack area, the trail section that funnels into the chondola/south peak area. The mtn was still open for skiing but there was no one there. I was kind of surprised that the lifties didn't say anything. At one point a ski patrol stopped and talked to them (a friend and I were sitting at the window at the FG and we could see them), I was sure they were going to kick them off the mtn. Nope, after about 2 minutes the patroller just skied away. When I asked the boys later what the ski patroller said to them they said it was just "please be careful".

I have a feeling that interaction would have gone a lot differently now if it was this upcoming weekend instead of last weekend.
 

Pez

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We used to do that all the time after a few beers at smugglers. It was always on the beginner slope by the village, but you'd still pick up a ton of speed. Good thing we were too lazy to hike up anything steeper. very very sad.
 

SkiFanE

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Very sad. Its kind of weird for me too as we were there last weekend and my boys were sledding on the trails at SR. Saturday night we went back up to the mountain to catch the Pat's game, watch the fireworks, and of course drink some beers at the Foggy Goggle. My boys brought a couple of sleds with them and were sledding on the lower section of Broadway and into the ski rack area, the trail section that funnels into the chondola/south peak area. The mtn was still open for skiing but there was no one there. I was kind of surprised that the lifties didn't say anything. At one point a ski patrol stopped and talked to them (a friend and I were sitting at the window at the FG and we could see them), I was sure they were going to kick them off the mtn. Nope, after about 2 minutes the patroller just skied away. When I asked the boys later what the ski patroller said to them they said it was just "please be careful".

I have a feeling that interaction would have gone a lot differently now if it was this upcoming weekend instead of last weekend.

i think sledding then and there is pretty common - during fireworks and when well lit. Don't say I love it - because kids can get decent speed and sled into people standing around. My kids have sled there. But I'm kinda old school in that you can't put a rule and regulation for everything that common sense should dictate - so I wouldn't stand at bottom of hill.

Still cant get this out of my head and how awful it was. Kids being kids...we all probably have that one thing that could have killed us and we feel lucky in hindsight.
 

machski

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i think sledding then and there is pretty common - during fireworks and when well lit. Don't say I love it - because kids can get decent speed and sled into people standing around. My kids have sled there. But I'm kinda old school in that you can't put a rule and regulation for everything that common sense should dictate - so I wouldn't stand at bottom of hill.

Still cant get this out of my head and how awful it was. Kids being kids...we all probably have that one thing that could have killed us and we feel lucky in hindsight.
Yup, seen that and lower Tempest/Starlight at White Cap. These teens supposedly hiked upper and tubed Upper Tempest, drastically different and with granular conditions, very unwise to say the least. Still very sad their decision ended with this.

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