Snowboarder Eric McConeghy, 28, suffocated to death at Mt. Hood Meadows yesterday, December 27, 2007, after falling into a large hole at the base of a lift tower.
Investigators said the man fell in a snow well at the base of a pole under a chairlift face first. Friends tried to pull him out of the well, authorities said, but he suffocated. . . Authorities have not released the victim’s name.
Though it has been officially ruled an accident, we find it hard to believe the mountain would have allowed those wells to exist. Packing in the snow at the base of lift towers is job number one for rookie ski patrollers.
