Tuesday’s death of a Freeride World Tour champion in Switzerland returned a spotlight to the safety of extreme skiing, coming less than a week after a Utah man snowboarding with a Haines heli-ski outfit was caught in an avalanche on the Takhin Massif.

Estelle Balet, a 21-year-old Swiss snowboarder who won the women’s snowboarding Freeride World Tour championship this year, died in an avalanche in the Swiss Alps Tuesday morning.

Balet competed in the Haines leg of the tour this year and last, winning the championship both times and getting to know locals along the way.

Haines resident Sam Clay was working at the Captain’s Choice Motel last year when she met Balet.

“She was a very quiet, sweet person and yet a tremendous athlete,” Clay said. “I didn’t know her very well, but what I did know of her was very amazing. There was not anybody I saw talking to her that was not smiling.”

This year, Clay ran into Balet at the Freeride World Tour’s meet-and-greet at the Haines Sheldon Museum, and Balet recalled their conversations from the previous year. “She remembered me and asked me about my daughter,” Clay said.

Balet’s death came five days after an April 14 avalanche buried 29-year-old Bode Merrill of Salt Lake City, Utah. Merrill had been snowboarding with Alaska Heliskiing.

Ryan Johnson, co-owner of Alaska Heliskiing, said Balet’s death and Merrill’s close call are a reminder of the perils of the sport.

“They definitely cause a great deal of reflection. It’s our job to keep people safe while skiing these mountains and we take it very seriously,” Johnson said. “It will happen again, but all we can do is be as ready as we can.”

An Alaska Heliskiing chopper carrying Merrill, a guide and four other riders landed on a ridgeline on the Takhin Massif around 9:20 a.m.

“He got out of the helicopter and the ridgeline that they had landed on cracked and collapsed. So the heli lifted off and kept eyes on Bodie as he tumbled,” Johnson said.

The ridgeline collapsed so soon after the landing that Merrill hadn’t even strapped into his snowboard yet, Johnson said.

Merrill tumbled about 700-800 feet, and the pilot did “a fantastic job” of keeping an eye on the snowboarder’s trajectory, landing only 30 feet from where he was dug out, Johnson said.

Using their avalanche beacons, responders located Merrill buried underneath four to five feet of snow, Johnson said. “He had lost consciousness, but as soon as he was uncovered and his airway cleared, he regained consciousness and began breathing.”

Johnson estimated the total time from the ridgeline collapse to Merrill regaining consciousness was about five minutes.

Merrill was transported to the Haines clinic and medevaced to Juneau via Guardian Flight. Incredibly, Merrill was largely uninjured.

“It seems like he is going to make a full recovery. There was some concern about some bruising in his lungs and chest area,” Johnson said.

After one night in Juneau, Merrill flew back home to Utah on a commercial flight.

“We are just incredibly grateful that we were able to perform this rescue successfully,” Johnson said. “Obviously, it’s a lot more than skill; a little luck has to be involved as well. And it just seems like the sequence of events was on our side.”

Johnson said Merrill wasn’t wearing an avalanche airbag, a device that a skier can carry in his or her backpack and deploy with the tug of a cord. The airbag inflates, making skiers’ surface area larger and causing them to rise to the surface of the avalanche.

Alaska Heliskiing doesn’t require clients to wear airbags, but does require its guides don them, Johnson said.

“Airbags are not required at this point, but it is the direction that we are going in. I wouldn’t be surprised if you see me require airbags next year. But in order to require them I also have to have enough for people, and they are quite expensive. But the price is coming down. We are trying to make it work,” he said.

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