A pro skier known for breathtaking stunts and world records was killed in an avalanche in Utah.
Matthew Jamie Pierre, a 38-year-old extreme skier immortalized in several ski films, was snowboarding on National Forest Land at a elevation of more than 10,000 feet. A small slab of snow broke off and swept him 700 feet down a rocky, narrow chute, according to the Salt Lake Tribune. Pierre a married father of two, was dead, though not buried, when rescuers reached him, said Brett Kobernik, a forecaster with the Utah Avalanche Center.
"It was a pretty good slab he knocked off," Kobernik told the paper. "It’s not unusual to have weak snow this time of season. This year, it’s a little weaker than usual."
The area Pierre was in, Snowbird resort's Gad Valley, was technically open to the public. But signs were posted saying it was not open for the season.
Pierre had been featured in several ski movies made by famed ski and snowboarding filmmaker Warren Miller and others. In 2006, he set a record by skiing off a 255-foot cliff near Grand Targhee in Wyoming.
