Summit County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to Keystone Resort Jan. 19 for a report of a snowboarding crash, and incident reports from the deputies provide more information.

William Marcus Hunnicutt, 32, of Aurora, was pronounced dead after crashing and being transported to the Keystone Medical Center. Hunnicutt had been skiing with friends when he crashed, and Summit County Coroner Amber Flenniken wrote in an email that his manner of death was an accident and the cause was multiple blunt force injuries.

According to the Sheriff’s Office report, Hunnicutt came up from the Front Range with two friends to ski, and they had been lapping the Peru lift and Go Devil run for most of the day. The friends told law enforcement they were skiing fast on Go Devil on the run where Hunnicutt crashed, according to the report. The report stated Hunnicutt was wearing a helmet when he crashed.

One of the friends told law enforcement they saw the crash, but they at first thought Hunnicutt was just stopping, as he kicked up a large cloud of snow. Hunnicutt ended up off the side of the groomed part of the run, according to the report, in “debris left by the grooming operations.” 

An obituary for Hunnicutt stated “severe conditions” led to his crash. The Sheriff’s Office report stated the surface where Hunnicutt crashed was “hard and fast” and that he ended up about 10 feet off the “groomed portion” of the run. Meteorologists have said this winter has been one of the worst in history for the snowpack in Colorado’s mountains, according to previous Summit Daily reporting.

Ski patrollers arrived within 10 minutes, according to the report, and started CPR on Hunnicutt. The friends told law enforcement they were not sure how Hunnicutt crashed, as the snow cloud blocked the view of the one who saw the crash. There were no other people or objects like trees involved in the crash, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

A memorial fund has been set up Hunnicutt’s name through the Sky’s the Limit Fund, which raises money to make nature-based therapy programs available to families of adolescents and young adults who have acute mental health conditions.

Summit County’s ski resorts have seen three skier deaths this winter, including Hunnicutt’s death, all of which occurred in January. Two incidents were at Keystone Resort, and one was at Copper Mountain Resort.

This report was originally published in Summit Daily.