Skier Madison Saltsburg dies after fall from New Hampshire’s Mount Washington
A 20-year-old skier plunged 600 feet to her death on Mount Washington on Sunday, as stormy and icy conditions forced rescuers to pluck at least two other people from the New Hampshire mountain over the weekend.
Madison Saltsburg was killed after slipping off Tuckerman Ravine, a vertical glacial slope on the southeast face of the towering New England peak, NBC affiliate WBTS-TV News reported.
The fatal fall came one day after three people got stuck on the mountain, with two suffering non-life-threatening injuries that forced officials to carry out a rescue operation.
“The snow rangers and emergency personnel were up there late last night,” Colleen Mainville, a spokesperson for the US Forest Service, told the news outlet on Sunday.
Snow and heavy winds hampered the rescue efforts, with about a foot of snow predicted.
Mount Washington, the tallest mountain in the Northeast, is a favorite for backcountry skiers but is well known for its rapid and unpredictable changes in weather that call for frequent rescues.
Last week, a hiker from Kentucky had to be rescued from another part of the mountain after slamming his head in a fall and becoming hypothermic, WBTS said.
Joabe Barbosa, 23, fell off the trail and down Ammonusuc Ravine around 6:45 p.m. on Thursday, hitting his head and face and losing one of his sneakers.
Barbosa managed to call 911 and was rescued from the trail, which is about 3,600 feet above sea level.
It took rescuers four hours to take the hiker off the mountain and to Littleton Regional Health Care — with New Hampshire Fish and Game officials reporting that he had not been properly prepared for the hike.
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