A 9-year-old Washington boy critically injured during a crash at Mt. Bachelor Saturday has died.
According to a GoFundMe page set up for the family, Brecken Boice was on a family ski trip when the accident happened.
Mt. Bachelor spokeswoman Leigh Capozzi said the crash happened around 2:20 p.m. near the summit.
Skiers on the hill that day reported dangerously icy conditions on that part of the mountain.
Ski patrol responded to the injury and immediately called an AirLink helicopter, she said.
Brecken was taken by patrollers to Mt. Bachelor’s First Aid Clinic where further lifesaving care was given by an onsite doctor and paramedics.
He was then taken by AirLink to St. Charles in Bend.
A Facebook post from Saint Patrick Catholic School in Tacoma said Brecken’s mother Angela confirmed the boy did not survive brain surgery after the crash.
Friends on the GoFundMe page remembered Brecken as a funny little boy who loved 80s rock and Taco Tuesday.
By Tuesday morning, the page had raised more than $30,000 of its $50,000 goal.
Mt. Bachelor released a statement Tuesday.
“Our entire team at Mt. Bachelor is deeply saddened by our guest’s tragic passing and offers our deepest condolences and support to his family and friends.”
Dr. Terri Mucha, the medical director and owner at Family Choice Urgent Care, said they saw an uptick in mostly minor mountain injuries over the weekend at the urgent care.
“On the weekends you get your weekend volumes, your weekend crowds, and we definitely had icier conditions,” Mucha said. “Toward the end of the day, we started to see more scrapes and falls.”
The ski report that morning said snow would be “fast and firm with sharp edges a necessity…with early reports of bulletproof conditions.”
Bulletproof is slang for hard ice.
“It’s unfortunate, but when we have this nice weather down here, sometimes it can mean it’s melting more on top,” Mucha said. “So you get icier, slicker conditions.”
