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[Skiing#1]

Teen skier fall into narrow hole in the snow around the tree and died. Sad.

http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_11480640

Bountiful teen dies from skiing accident
Good student » Was to attend BYU this fall
By Lindsay Whitehurst

The Salt Lake Tribune

Posted: 01/17/2009 06:59:00 PM MST

Megan Pysnak (Courtesy of Brett A Blake) A 15-year-old Bountiful girl died earlier this week in a skiing accident at Alta Ski Area.

Megan Pysnak was with her parents and youngest sister about 4 p.m. Wednesday when she became separated from the group, said Alta Town Marshal Mike Morey.

"She had gone off into the trees on a run," said family friend Brett Blake. "[The family] was at the bottom of the hill. They knew it was unlike Megan not to join them right after the run."

The family called ski patrol, but it was the girl's father who found Megan about 40 minutes later in a wooded area near the Vail Ridge run, about 150 feet east of the Sunnyside ski lift, Morey said.

The girl had fallen in a deep, narrow hole in the snow around a tree and her head was buried, Blake said. She was unconscious and flown by medical helicopter to Primary Children's Hospital, where she was pronounced dead Thursday morning, apparently of asphyxiation, Blake said. She was not wearing a helmet.

Blake called Megan Pysnak an "exceptional person," who despite her young age, had been accepted at Brigham Young University for the upcoming fall semester.

Pysnak was home-schooled most of her life before entering Bountiful High School last year, and was in the middle of her junior year.

A cheerful but quiet girl at school, Pysnak could likely not have guessed how many students would send cards, remembrances and good wishes after her death, Blake said.

She was especially close to her father, Bernard, and often left notes like "May Rocks!" for her youngest sister, May. She typically skied two or three times a month with her family.

"They were not a family of great means, and they would go up in the afternoons and ski for free," Blake said. Alta offers free skiing on the Sunnyside lift after 3 p.m.

She also leaves behind two older stepsisters, two other sisters, and a brother.

Onno Wieringa, spokesman and general manager for Alta Ski Area, said investigators are looking at the accident to try to determine whether safety measures may be improved. It could be a difficult task, he said, since Pysnak was alone and it's unknown exactly what happened.

"We always feel bad when someone gets hurt. Somebody that young ... it's just not fair," Wieringa said.

Blake said Pysnak's family was "really feel[ing] the loss and the pain," and was not able to speak publicly Saturday.