Helicopter pilot and Haines Alaska snowboard guide Christian Cabainilla has reportedly died from injuries sustained when a section of snow he were traversing gave way an caused him and two others to fall on Sunday March, 3, 2013, according to a story KTUU.com.
Alaska State Trooper spokesperson Megan Peters said troopers received a call from Haines Police on Sunday afternoon about an accident in the backcountry, although she didn’t know the exact location. . . The deceased was identified by troopers as Christian Cabainilla. He is listed as a guide for the local heliskiing company, Southeast Alaska Backcountry Adventures, on its website. The company did not respond to messages on Sunday evening.
Cabainilla was profiled on ESPN.com/Action in 2011 for a column called Dream Job. In that interview he talked about how he got into the business:
I saw that you could either pay a bunch of money to go skiing, or get paid to go skiing [as a guide]. So I just camped out in Valdez and helped out any way I could to learn the ropes of heli-guiding. I was looking for some way that I could support my snowboarding addiction, and one of the pilots at H2O, Wes Conrad, said, “Here’s what you have to do if you want to become a helicopter pilot.” So I started going to flight-training school in Seattle seasonally so I could still snowboard in Alaska and South America.
Officials report that two other people were injured in the accident, but there were still no details on exactly what happened. Our thoughts are with Cabainilla’s family and friends.
[Link: KTUU.com, KTOO.org and ESPN.com/Action]
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