A woman died snowboarding in Fernie from injuries sustained in a fall when she entered a permanent closure area within the controlled ski area boundaries of the Fernie Alpine Resort. The coroner says 20-year-old Alexa Hugh of De Winton, Alta., was with a friend last Sunday when they entered a permanently closed area outside of the resort in B.C.’s East Kootenay region. Hugh fell more than 100 metres down a steep slope.

Hugh was taken to hospital, but couldn’t be resuscitated. Her male companion suffered non-life threatening injuries.

At around 1:30 pm on Sunday March 20, 2016, the Elk Valley RCMP received a report from the Fernie Alpine Resort that an adult female snowboarder along with a male companion had been involved in a serious snowboarding incident.

To date the investigation has determined that on Sunday, Hugh was accompanied by an adult male, when the pair snowboarded into an area that was marked as being a permanently closed area within the controlled tenure of the resort.

The pair had entered into an area of cliff bands and was attempting to traverse what was described as an impassable cliff face when both fell. Hugh fell approximately 130 metres, and sustained fatal injuries. Fernie Alpine Resort ski patrollers were alerted and attended the location and rescued the pair. Patrollers attended to the unresponsive female and provided first aid, she was then transported to the Fernie hospital where she was pronounced deceased. The man sustained a broken arm in the fall.

Hugh is not the first death on Fernie’s steep terrain. Every few years someone gets disoriented and falls to their death. In 2015 Tom Sutherland fell to his death in a similar scenario. Hopefully this will be the last.