Ellery “Ellie” Curtis, a former ski racing champion at Dartmouth College, died Saturday from a head injury sustained on a ski slope near Lake Tahoe, California. She was 26.
A Waitsfield, Vermont, native, Curtis was skiing down the steep “Ahhh Chute” trail at the Palisades Tahoe Ski Resort when she crashed and sustained multiple injuries.
Elise Soviar, a spokesperson for the Placer County Sheriff’s Department, told the Los Angeles Times that Curtis was pronounced dead by the time ski patrol arrived at the scene just minutes after the crash occurred.
On Monday, Palisades Tahoe issued a statement to Powder magazine, saying officials were “deeply saddened by this accident.”
“Our hearts go out to the Curtis family and everyone impacted by this devastating loss,” the statement read.
Watch an E! News report on Ellery Curtis below.
According to local Fox affiliate KTVU, Curtis lived in San Francisco, where she worked as a regulatory analyst for the California Public Utilities Commission.
A 2022 graduate of Dartmouth College, Curtis earned a spot on the All-America second team, and placing eighth at the NCAA championships in Park City, Utah, just months before her graduation, according to her Dartmouth athletic profile. She was also named to the National Collegiate All-Academic Ski Team three times.
Curtis’ father, Charles, was a 1981 Dartmouth graduate, according to the Boston Globe. Her mother, Katherine “Kari” Dolan, is a former member of the Vermont House of Representatives.
John Dwyer, Curtis’ coach at Dartmouth, described her as “an amazing person, on and off the snow” in an interview with the Globe.
“She was a tremendously hard worker, and I think she earned the respect of all her teammates,” he added. “She had this fearless ability to go fast and go straight. It was either she was going to win every race she was in, on the podium, or she was going to blow up and fall. That’s what made her special. She did not hold back on anything she did.”
A CPUC spokesperson echoed those sentiments, describing Curtis as “a valued member” of the agency who “will be deeply missed.”
“Our hearts go out to her family, friends, colleagues, and all who were touched by her kindness,” the spokesperson continued, according to KTVU.
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As the Sacramento Bee pointed out, Curtis’s death was the fourth fatality this season to occur at one of the popular skiing resorts in the Lake Tahoe area and the fifth across the Sierra Nevada region this year.
