Skier Kyle Smaine, 31, and the 2015 freestyle skiing world champion, is one of two to die in the snow avalanche that struck Japan’s Nagano prefecture last weekend, his family said.
The United States Freeski Team (Freeski) confirmed Smaine’s death in a post on its social network profile Instagram, accompanied by a photo of the athlete. “We have lost an incredible mountain person, friend, skier and teammate,” the organization wrote on Monday, offering its condolences to the athlete’s family and loved ones. The skier’s wife, Jenna Dramise, also shared the news of Smaine’s death on Tuesday with a farewell message on the same social network, where she wrote: “I am incredibly grateful to have married you and to have you in my life. You loved skiing more than anyone I’ve ever met.”
Rescuers in Nagano Prefecture.長谷夏帆 (AP)
“I know you had the best runs of your life in Japan and I could never blame you for doing what you love,” the message said. Smaine, who lived in Lake Tahoe, California, recently posted that he was on a trip to Nagano to enjoy “the amazing quality of the snow.” Nagano authorities on Monday continued procedures to verify the identities of those killed in the incident, a prefectural police spokesman told EFE. The town of Otari, home to the Tsugaike ski resort, near which occurred the avalanche that killed Smaine and another Austrian skier, whose identity has not been released, was in the midst of the cold and heavy snowfall wave that had hit the region , under avalanche alert.
A group of thirteen people, including Smaine, were cross-country skiing off-piste at the complex when the avalanche struck around 2:30 p.m. local time last Sunday. Photographer Grant Gunderson, who was part of the group, reported what happened as “his worst nightmare”. On the last day of the trip, Smaine and another skier died in an avalanche caused by another ski group skiing further up the mountain, while a third managed to escape unharmed after spending 25 minutes in 1.5 meters deep snow had been buried.
A native of Apple Valley, USA, Smaine won the freestyle skiing gold medal at the World Championships in Kreischberg, Austria, in 2015. His last major championship was the Mammoth Mountain World Cup three years later.
Follow EL PAÍS Deportes on Facebook and Twitteror sign up here to receive our weekly newsletter.