26-Year-Old Skier Dies After Accident on Steep Palisades Tahoe Run

Ellery Curtis, a former ski racing champion, succumbed to a traumatic head injury despite rapid emergency response efforts.

Ellery Curtis, a 26-year-old skier originally from Vermont, was fatally injured on Saturday while skiing the Ah Chute in Palisades Tahoe’s Rock Garden area.
The accident occurred at 3:45 p.m. on a challenging run accessed from the KT-22 chairlift, with approximately 10 witnesses present.
Ski patrol and emergency teams responded within minutes, but Curtis’s injuries were too severe to save her life.
Curtis was a former ski racing champion at Dartmouth College and most recently worked for the California Public Utilities Commission in San Francisco.
Her death follows a series of hazardous incidents at Palisades Tahoe, highlighting the risks of extreme alpine terrain.