PARK CITY, Utah, Jan. 4, 2023 (Gephardt Daily) — The Summit County Sheriff’s Office has identified the man who died Monday when a falling tree struck his ski lift at Park City Mountain Resort.
“The man who lost his life in the tragic ski chair lift accident has been identified as 29-year-old Millcreek resident Christian Helger,” says a tweet issued by Sheriff Justin Martinez.
“Our prayers are with the Helger family as they grieve the loss of Christian. Hug your loved ones often and tell them you love them.”
When the tree struck the chair lifts, on the Short Cut ski run, Helger fell about 20 feet, according to information released after the Monday morning accident.
Sheriff’s officials were alerted at 11:25 a.m. that day to an unresponsive male who hit the ground after a fallen pine tree cut the chair lift cable “an caused chairs to vertically move up and down significantly enough to cause (the victim) to fall from the lift chair into a ravine of deep snow,” an earlier SCSO statement says.
The cable cut was behind the victim, the statement says.
Ski patrol workers and medical personnel performed life-saving efforts, which were not successful.
Helger was a resort employee, reportedly a ski patrol member, who was on duty at the time of the accident.
Shortly after the incident, a Park City Mountain spokeswoman released the following statement:
“The Park City Mountain team — as well as the entire Vail Resorts team — extend our deepest sympathy and support to the family and friends of our team member. We are all deeply saddened by this tragic incident, and we will be providing support for our employees as we grieve this devastating loss.”
