Champion Skier’s Tragic Death in Mt. Bailey Avalanche Marks Oregon’s Second Fatal Slide in Weeks

DOUGLAS COUNTY, Ore. — Skiing on Mt. Bailey in a remote area of the Diamond Lake resort turned into a nightmare for a group of skiers when an avalanche buried 50-year-old Brian Thomas Roberts of Bend, who died from his injuries.

Roberts, a resident of Bend, was a champion ski racer and a World Cup contender.

According to a post on Facebook from his family and released by KTVZ21 News, Roberts was an expert skier when he was caught under the slide of an avalanche.

Describing his death as an ‘unimaginable loss’ to his family, a friend says Roberts, a skier since early childhood, was a Mt. Bachelor Sports Education Foundation (MBSEF) instructor.

This nonprofit organization that creates competitive snow sports opportunities. Roberts was a champion ski racer and a World Cup contender whose ‘love for the Central Oregon Cascades was unmatched.’

Second Fatal Avalanche in Oregon in Under a Month

This was the second fatal avalanche in Oregon in under a month. On 17 February, an avalanche killed Terry and Susan Skjersaa, a well-known ski couple, also from Bend, while they were backcountry skiing close to a snowmobile trail between Bend’s watershed and an area of Happy Valley called Broken Top Mountain.

Another member of Thursday’s ski party suffered a puncture wound, and a ski pole or tree branch is suspected to have caused the damage, according to the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office (DCSO).

The incident occurred at 3.45 p.m. while the group was skiing in a remote area on the north-northwest side of Mt. Bailey. The avalanche trapped expert skier Roberts under the slide, and despite the efforts of the skiers who dug him out and two nurses who were on the scene, Roberts died of his injuries.

The DCSO says in a news release that after the avalanche and the fatal injury to Roberts, the remaining members of the ski party managed to make their way to the nearest snowmobile trail situated two miles away where they were met by emergency workers.

The DCSO was assisted at the avalanche scene by Emergency Medical Services (EMS), the DCSO Search and Rescue division, U.S. Forest Service Law Enforcement Officers, Umpqua Valley Ambulance service, and employees of the Diamond Lake Resort.