Skier dies at Whiteface

[asnowmobiler]

From what I heard he lost control and hit a tree.

WILMINGTON — A 22-year-old college student from Pennsylvania died while skiing at Whiteface Mountain Tuesday, State Police said.
Essex County Coroner Jerod Heidrick responded to the scene and pronounced Bernhard T. Kahlau, of Mountain Top, Pennsylvania, dead. His body was taken to the University of Vermont Health Network at the Champlain Valley Physician’s Hospital in Plattsburgh where an autopsy was completed on Wednesday. The cause of death was determined to be a cervical skull fracture due to the accident, State Police said.

 

[Smellytele]

From what I heard he lost control and hit a tree.

WILMINGTON — A 22-year-old college student from Pennsylvania died while skiing at Whiteface Mountain Tuesday, State Police said.
Essex County Coroner Jerod Heidrick responded to the scene and pronounced Bernhard T. Kahlau, of Mountain Top, Pennsylvania, dead. His body was taken to the University of Vermont Health Network at the Champlain Valley Physician’s Hospital in Plattsburgh where an autopsy was completed on Wednesday. The cause of death was determined to be a cervical skull fracture due to the accident, State Police said.

Helmet?

 

[BenedictGomez]

Uhhh.... horrible. Were the conditions not great the other day? Whiteface of all places is not a cakewalk under poor conditions.

 

[asnowmobiler]

Helmet?

I don't know, I wondered the same thing.
This year I bought a race style one for the extra protection.

 

[drjeff]

Helmet?

Not 100% sure, but guessing the odds are high that he was, as another story I read about this tragic event, said that we was a college hockey player, so wearing a helmet had likely been 2nd nature for him for a long time

 

[cdskier]

Other articles mention that it happened on the Upper Approach trail. No articles that I saw mention whether he had a helmet or not though.

 

[abc]

Not to forget, helmets aren't strong enough to prevent all head injuries. If the impact is hard enough, even if one is wearing a helmet, it may still crack the skull.

 

[2Planker]

Helmets don't prevent Cervical Spine Fractures

 

[Funky_Catskills]

Sometimes helmets just leave a good looking corpse..

 

[JamesKnt]

This is such a terrible situation. I think the helmet seems like a poor construction in which it breaks easily during the crash.

 

[BodeMiller1]

Horrible, maybe he went over his skis and head into rocks? At any rate, what's the June equvalant of White Ribbon of Death? Grey, moss filed...

The kid was probably an expert, until he wasn't.

R.I.P.

 

[ironhippy]

This is such a terrible situation. I think the helmet seems like a poor construction in which it breaks easily during the crash.

It has to be that way. If the helmet didn't "break easily" your head would be smashed inside the helmet. The "breaking" of the helmet is part of the design to lesson the impact to your head.

There is only so much force a human body (especially the head) can take before things go wrong.

 

[skiur]

Why are we bumping threads about people dieing a year and a half later???

 

[SenorQuesadilla]

Why are we bumping threads about people dieing a year and a half later???

To put it kindly I'd say the forum got the unlucky end of "the spectrum" with their newest member