{"id":804495,"date":"2020-02-23T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-23T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=379333"},"modified":"2020-02-23T11:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-02-23T18:00:00","slug":"top-5-stories-on-summitdaily-com-week-of-feb-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/top-5-stories-on-summitdaily-com-week-of-feb-16\/","title":{"rendered":"Top 5 stories on SummitDaily.com, week of Feb. 16"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Jody Churich, general manager of Keystone Resort, rides the gondola Wednesday, Feb. 19, to take a morning run before resuming work in the office. Churich is the second female general manager at Keystone Resort.<\/strong>
Liz Copan \/ ecopan@summitdaily.com<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Editor\u2019s note: Stories in this list received the most page views on SummitDaily.com for the past week.<\/em><\/p>\n

1. Vail skier death was from accidental hanging, according to initial investigation<\/a><\/h4>\n

Jason Varnish, 46, of Short Hills, New Jersey, died Feb. 13 of positional asphyxia while riding Chair 37 in Vail\u2019s Blue Sky Basin, according to the Eagle County coroner. Coroner Kara Bettis said the death has been ruled an accident.<\/p>\n

Bettis, in a text, wrote: \u201cWe are still investigating how this whole situation happened. According to our initial investigation, the deceased slipped through the seat of the chair lift and his ski coat got caught up in the chair. The coat ended up going up around his head and neck area putting his neck in a position that compromised his airway.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bettis said that the chairlift\u2019s folding seat was in the upright position, according to witnesses, instead of being folded down so riders could sit on it, leaving an open area which one could fall through if they did not notice the seat was not in place.<\/p>\n

\u2014 John LaConte, Vail Daily<\/em><\/p>\n

2. Breckenridge records snowiest February ever as snowstorms continue to bury Summit County<\/a><\/h4>\n

With more than 7 feet of snow, this is the deepest February on record at Breckenridge Ski Resort.<\/p>\n

While the 2018-19 season brought plenty of snow to Summit County, more than 32 feet at Breckenridge according to OnTheSnow.com<\/a>, this season is catching up with more than 18 feet recorded at Breckenridge. <\/p>\n

The Feb. 17 total of 87 inches at Breckenridge beats last year\u2019s February total of 29 inches by a landslide, according to data by OpenSnow. It topped the recent record of 85 inches from the 2013-14 season, 82 inches from the 1992-93 season, and is far above the average February snowfall of 50 inches, according to Nicole Stull, spokeswoman for Breckenridge and Keystone Resort.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Taylor Sienkiewicz<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

3. Breckenridge State of the Town gives residents updates on developments, opportunity to ask questions<\/a><\/h4>\n

On Thursday, Feb. 13, the town of Breckenridge hosted their annual State of the Town meeting, which is meant to inform residents of past, present and future town issues, projects and events. The meeting began with each council member discussing a topic that council has been working on that is particularly \u201cnear and dear to their hearts.\u201d Then, the floor opened for a Q&A session. <\/p>\n

Council member Gary Gallagher discussed the the $58 million water plant project, expected to be finished by midsummer. Kelly Owens discussed child care, explaining the tuition assistance fund, which she said reaches 78 families and provided $600,000 in 2019 to 105 kids. Dick Carleton covered the topic of workforce housing. <\/p>\n

Council member Erin Gigliello spoke to events and tourism. Wendy Wolfe discussed sustainability by sharing accomplishments and goals. Jeffrey Bergeron gave updates on Open Space & Trails.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Taylor Sienkiewicz<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

4. Two dead in avalanche near Vail on Muddy Pass<\/a><\/h4>\n

Two timbersledders were killed in an avalanche east of Red and White Mountain in Eagle County on Feb. 15. The victims were identified as Dillon Block, 28, and Cesar Almanza-Hernandez, 30. Both men were from Gypsum.<\/p>\n

According to the CAIC\u2019s preliminary report, three motorized snowbike riders were caught in the avalanche. One rider was only partially buried and was able to extricate himself and go for help. The avalanche carried the other two riders into a gully in the drainage bottom. Avalanche debris piled up deeply and they were fully buried and killed. Search and Rescue volunteers recovered the bodies on February 16. <\/p>\n

\u2014 John LaConte, Vail Daily<\/em><\/p>\n

5. Jody Churich is Keystone Resort\u2019s 2nd female general manager, reflecting a growing industry trend<\/a><\/h4>\n

Keystone Resort General Manager Jody Churich is the second female general manager at the resort, coming to Colorado from Park City, Utah. She and her husband moved to Summit County with their dog as empty nesters, and she felt Keystone was a good fit for her. <\/p>\n

\u201cReally the brand fit for me was ideal because I come from a lot of youth action sports and really kids programming,\u201d Churich said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s where my passion is, is in youth sports.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2006, Churich and Pat Campbell became the first female general managers in the industry. At the time, Churich was at Boreal Mountain Resort and Soda Springs Mountain Springs in California, and Campbell was at Keystone.<\/p>\n

Churich recalled someone telling her that she had broken a glass ceiling.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt never even occurred to me,\u201d Churich said. \u201cIt was just, I got tapped and went for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 Taylor Sienkiewicz<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jody Churich, general manager of Keystone Resort, rides the gondola Wednesday, Feb. 19, to take a morning run before resuming work in the office. Churich is the second female general manager at Keystone Resort.Liz Copan \/ ecopan@summitdaily.com Editor\u2019s note: Stories in this list received the most page views on SummitDaily.com for the past week. 1. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-804495","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-21 23:32:33","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=804495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804495\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=804495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=804495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=804495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}