Editor’s note: Stories in this list received the most page views on SummitDaily.com for the past week.<\/p>\n
1. Skier dies at Keystone Resort on Christmas Day<\/a><\/p>\n A 66- year-old skier died at Keystone Resort on Christmas Day. Durwood Marshall of Silverthorne was discovered unconscious on a trail, and was transported to St. Anthony Summit Medical Center where he was later pronounced deceased. The death was the result of medical events related to cardiac issues, according to Summit County Coroner Regan Wood.<\/p>\n 2. Skier death at Keystone Resort<\/a><\/p>\n On Dec. 22, a 52-year-old male skier was found unconscious and not breathing at the bottom of a ski run at Keystone Resort. Daniel Mares of Arvada was transported to the Keystone Medical Center where he was later pronounced dead. The death was also related to cardiac issues. The two deaths last week represent the second and third fatalities stemming from ski resorts in Summit County this year. Daniel Giger, a 21-year-old University of Colorado Boulder student, was killed following a collision with a tree at Breckenridge Ski Resort on Dec. 16. In addition to three deaths in Summit County, there have been at least two other skier deaths this season.<\/p>\n 3. Copper Mountain’s new American Flyer lift won’t open by Christmas; Breckenridge Resort modified pipe open to public through weekend<\/a><\/p>\n A few days before Christmas, Copper Mountain Resort announced its new American Flyer lift would not be spinning for the holiday. In a statement, the company tasked with completing construction of the lift, Leitner-Poma, said it still had some installation and inspection steps that needed to be completed. The company also said it could not commit to a specific date until “critical steps” were completed. The new American Flyer lift is a high-speed, six-person chair with bubble enclosures that should increase uphill capacity by 33 percent. The new Flyer lift and the resort’s new American Eagle lift \u2014 which opened several weeks ago \u2014 are the first two lifts in North America to run on direct drives as opposed to a complex gear system.<\/p>\n 4. Snowpack has declined by an average of 41 percent in the Rocky Mountains over past 3 decades<\/a><\/p>\n Some researchers are saying that today’s Rocky Mountain snowpack is significantly less than it was just a few decades ago, revealing their findings at the American Geophysical Union’s annual meeting on Dec. 13. University of Arizona researchers said that snowpack had declined by 41 percent over 13 percent of Western land area \u2014 mainly in the Colorado River Basin mountain ranges \u2014 between 1982 and 2016. They attribute the decline to climate change and the effect it is having on Western seasonal patterns. The Arizona Daily Star, which first reported the research findings, pointed out that the 41 percent overall snowpack decline is the equivalent of losing 7.17 million square acre-feet of water. That is enough to supply drinking water to the cities of Tucson and Phoenix for four years.<\/p>\nRecommended Stories For You<\/h2>\n<\/p><\/div>\n