A Sugarloaf employee died Friday after falling on a difficult course that was being prepared for a ski competition this weekend.
He was identified by the Carrabassett Valley Police Department as Alexander Witt, 24, of Farmington.
Ethan Austin, spokesman for the Carrabassett Valley ski resort, said Witt was part of a crew prepping the Skidder trail for a mogul competition.
Austin said Witt fell and hit his head around 10 a.m., and slid down the course. He wasn’t wearing a helmet at the time, Austin said.
Austin said that to his knowledge, Witt was wearing skis at the time of the accident.
Witt was taken to the Sugarloaf First Aid Clinic, where he died.
The Sugarloaf Ski Patrol performed CPR on him in an attempt to revive him, Austin said, and a NorthStar Ambulance crew continued CPR at the first-aid clinic, unsuccessfully.
“Our staff is a close-knit family that cares deeply for one another, and our hearts are with our team member and his family today,” Karl Strand, Sugarloaf’s general manager, said in a statement. “Safety is the first priority in everything we do at Sugarloaf and a loss like this is a tremendous blow to all of us.”
The Sugarloaf Ski Patrol and investigators from the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration are looking into potential causes for the accident.
Austin said Witt had been an employee at the resort for about five years.
He said he didn’t know precisely what the Competition Center staff was doing on the course Friday, but their tasks typically include marking parts of the course with spray paint and putting up netting to keep skiers from going off course or to stop them if they fall.
Austin said the Skidder trail is a double-black-diamond course, intended for expert skiers only. It was being readied for the Eastern Freestyle Tri-State Championship at Sugarloaf. Austin said the mogul portion of the competition, which had been scheduled for Sunday, has now been canceled.
The last death at Sugarloaf was in February 2014, when a Husson University student lost control and crashed into trees off the Hayburner trail. Stephen Colvin, 21, of Hoosick, New York, was skiing with others when he veered off the trail.
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