Young Skier Killed Near Winter Park, CO, Attempting Berthoud Pass Road Gap Jump

[Updated with police press release]

A young local skier died on Tuesday while attempting to jump over US HWY 40, also known as Berthoud Pass. According to reports by the Grand County Sheriff’s Office, the site of the fatal accident was between Henderson Mine Road and Robbers Roost, approximately six miles east of Winter Park, Colorado.

According to social media posts, a group of young skiers built a ski jump to film the attempt of one of the group members to jump the road gap. The police press release states that a 21-year-old skier was attempting to perform a high-risk skiing stunt by trying to clear the width of Highway 40 and unfortunately lacked the necessary speed and distance and subsequently landed on the highway pavement. Grand County Communications Center received a 911 call reporting a skiing accident on Highway 40 near Mile Post 241.5 (just west of the Berthoud Pass Summit) on April 9 around 3 p.m. The victim was unconscious and not breathing, and a bystander had initiated CPR. According to the police, the victim had been wearing a helmet and other protective gear.

In an interview with SKI Magazine, Dallas’s mother, Valerie LeBeau, said her son was “skiing with friends at the time of the accident and had been preparing for this jump for over a month, checking the run and building the jump. He wanted to submit a video to GoPro for their Line of the Year contest.”

The police emergency crews arrived at the scene at 3:43 and closed parts of Berthoud Pass to attend to the scene. Emergency responders could only determine the death of the male skier and notified the Grand County Coroner’s Office. Traffic was alternating across the accident site for almost three hours. At 6:20 p.m., Berthoud Pass was again opened to traffic in both directions.

The deceased has been identified through social media channels as 21-year-old Dallas LeBeau from Black Hawk, Colorado. Based on his Instagram account, LeBeau was an experienced skier with a long history of daring stunts. He had participated in this season’s Freeride World Tour Qualifiers. There has been an outpouring of messages on LeBeau’s social media accounts, and a fundraiser started by his childhood friend Devin Shirk to help his family with funeral costs has raised more than $30,000 in the first few hours alone. LeBeau’s death has shaken the local freestyle community, and our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends during this difficult time.