Colorado ski areas aren’t talking about skier fatalities this season. So The Colorado Sun asked coroners instead.

At least 11 skiers were killed in traumatic crashes at Colorado’s 26 ski areas this season.

That is about the average number for a ski season — “about” because it’s difficult to learn when and how skiers and snowboarders die inbounds at the state’s ski areas.

Ski areas are not required to share information about deaths that occur on ski runs, just as they don’t have to share details about accidents or injuries. (A recent legislative effort to require ski areas to report annual fatalities and injury data, as well as provide skiers with detailed safety plans, failed in a committee vote earlier this month.)

Coroners or law enforcement in Chaffee (Monarch), Grand (Winter Park, Granby Ranch), Gunnison (Crested Butte Mountain Resort), La Plata (Purgatory, Hesperus), Lake (Ski Cooper), Mesa (Powderhorn), Mineral (Wolf Creek), Routt (Steamboat), San Juan (Silverton Mountain, Kendall Mountain) and San Miguel (Telluride) counties reported no fatalities at their local ski areas.

Six county coroners — in Boulder, Clear Creek, Eagle, Garfield, Pitkin and Summit counties — did handle deaths involving skiers and snowboarders at local ski areas.

Click here to read the full story via The Colorado Sun.

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