Katherine “Kasha” Rigby, a famous American competitive skier and telemark skier, died on Tuesday in an avalanche in Kosovo, reports Ski magazine. She was 54 years old.
A small avalanche collapsed around 2:30 p.m. on the ski resort in Brezovica, Kosovo. Rigby was then swept off the path into the trees. Officials said the avalanche was about 82 feet wide and 32 feet high.
She was traveling with her fiance, Magnus Wolfe Murray, who located her 20 seconds after the avalanche hit her. He immediately tried CPR to save her. However, she died a few seconds after the avalanche hit. She had internal bleeding in her chest and lung damage.
The incident caused Rigby to fall at the top of the trail, officials said, Ski magazine reported. The Kosovo Mountain Search and Rescue Service said they received a call to come to the location of the avalanche called “Eagle’s Nest” — which is known as a high-risk area for these natural disasters, reports EuroNews.Albania.
A few days before her death, the famous skier shared a photo from her trip and reported that there were dangerous conditions at the ski resort. “Sleeping rain, big melt, and winds too high to run the lifts aren’t keeping these skiers and sledders off the t-slope and slope,” she wrote on her latest Instagram. She was in Kosovo for the Tour de Piste race, which gathers experienced skiers to drive on unknown ski slopes of popular ski resorts in popular locations.
Kasha Rigby at The Ice Lounge in Park City in 2007.
Jason Merritt/FilmMagic
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Rigby was born in Stowe, Vermont, in 1970. She learned to ski as soon as she could walk and began training on the slopes of the East Coast. She became a telemark skier in her childhood. Telemark skiing is a combination of Alpine and Nordic skiing when the athlete will “bend the knees every time he needs to turn.” The heel is attached to the front of the bindings by hinges,” according to the official Olympics site.
At age 22, she moved to Crested Butte, Colorado, to compete in telemark races and extreme skiing events.
According to Ski Magazine, Rigby redefined the sport “with her high-speed, hard-riding style.”
In 1995, she joined the North Face Team and has skied across the USA, Canada, South America, New Zealand, Russia, Asia, Europe, India and the Middle East. During the North Face expedition, she skied on the highest peak of Siberia on the border of Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan and China. She also skied on Mongolia’s five sacred peaks.
She made history as one of three Americans to ski 8,000m, which she accomplished with Hilaree Nelson and Willie Benegas on the summit of Cho Oyu in the Himalayas.
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Melinda Page Hamilton and Kasha Rigby attended the 2006 Sundance Film Festival.
Chris Polk/FilmMagic
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In 2015, she competed in the National Geographic series, Ultimate Survival Alaskaand won second place.
Recently, Rigby has slowed down her skiing expeditions and started earthquake relief. She worked in Kathmandu, Nepal and in Turkey with her fiance Wolfe.
She also helped with the Rohingya refugee crisis and worked with the World Food Program in Bangladesh for three years.
She is survived by her fiancé. The two planned to get married this September.
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education