Brendan Allan and Bryan Richmond forgot, and testing Mother Nature cost them their life. Born a day apart, the two nationally ranked members of the Squaw Valley Ski Team, both 17, died Feb. 21 after being buried under six feet of snow on the backside of Squaw Valley USA's KT-22 peak. Their deaths shocked the North Shore community. More than 1,000 mourners attended their memorial at the Resort At Squaw Creek. A wire story, citing their deaths, appeared on the Internet talking about the perils of skiing.
Sympathy goes to the families of the deceased.
But Allan's and Richmond's deaths don't so much display the perils of skiing as much as the perils of skiing foolishly. The boys were taking what was going to be their last run of the day, but they weren't headed back to any base lodge or parking lot. They were skiing illegally in a closed area toward Allan's home off Alpine Meadows Road. Not only did Allan and Richmond duck the Squaw Valley closed signage and the Troy Caldwell closure, near where the avalanche occurred, but they skied during heavy snowfall directly into an area that is well-known as designated by Placer County as a high avalanche hazard. For 10 years Caldwell has worked toward developing a ski area on his property.