Snowboarder Kathleen Willhide-Michiulis, 43, of Santa Clarita, California lost one leg and badly injured her other after a collision with a Mammoth Mountain snowcat saw her get tangled in the cat’s spinning tiller on Friday afternoon March 25, 2011, according to a story on Mammoth Times.
Kathleen Willhide-Michiulis collided with the snowcat and became entangled in the back track and the tiller – a spinning part of the cat that is designed to break up ice. The tines spin at about 1,200 rpms. . . She also suffered facial lacerations and other major injuries, including a broken femur and tibia on her other leg.
An unnamed ski-area employee is quoted as saying, “Her leg was gone.” Willhide-Michiulis was reportedly on her last run on Mambo when the collision occurred. After a visit to Mammoth Hospital she was reportedly airlifted to a Reno hospital where she remained on Tuesday, March 29, 2011, according to the LA Times.
[Link: Mammoth Times via LA Times]
