New England ski deaths reach 4 in one week

LINCOLN, N.H. — With little thought for their own safety, ski patrol members lined up on the steep, mountain woods for the usual rescue operation. Digging into the frozen snow as best they could, they began passing down one litter, hand to hand. Then another. Then a third.

Once a litter cleared, those at the top of the line would scoot to the bottom to take it again.

“You have to take your time and kick your toeholds in and make sure where you step,” said Dan Healy, ski patrol director at Loon Mountain.

Howard Gwynn, 51, of Brodheadsville, Pa., lay motionless on the first litter as he was carried the 50 or so feet to a trail for the toboggan trip to the bottom. Rescuers knew he was dead.

But his daughter, Margaret, 24, and her fiance, Mark Goss, 24, of Lancaster, Pa., were alive, though Goss was unconscious.

They were farther up the hill, so it took a little longer to pass them down, but rescuers had all of them out within 45 minutes as dusk approached Monday.

“Later, I thought about it and how people just came and did it,” said Dave Hill, the assistant patrol director. The entire ski patrol of the area played some part in the rescue, and rescue crews from nearby Lincoln also answered the call.

“We were all pretty motivated. We had just done something pretty spectacular,” Hill said.

Some of the satisfaction dissipated Thursday when it was learned Howard Gwynn had died Wednesday at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon of his injuries. But Margaret Gwynn remained in fair condition.

The death brought to four the number killed in skiing accidents this week in northern New England. Another person was killed at Attitash in Bartlett, and a fourth at Sugarbush in Warren, Vt.

Another skier was killed in December at Attitash, making this one of the worst seasons on record in the region for skiing fatalities.

Howard Gwynn apparently had lost control and gone under the rope onto the closed trail, one of the most difficult on the mountain when it’s open. His daughter and her fiance took off their skis and went to help, and apparently fell down the slope.