Deaths at Mammoth Mountain

The 2005-06 season dumped 52 feet of snow on Mammoth. Somewhere beneath all that white, volcanic vents kept pumping out CO₂, melting caverns into the snowpack from below.

Four patrollers were reinforcing a fence around a known fumarole on the Christmas Bowl run when the snow bridge collapsed. Two fell 21 feet (6.4 m) into a cavity with CO₂ concentrations between 20-90%. Both died on impact. A third patroller survived the fall but his oxygen mask failed to seal properly during rescue attempts. He died from carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide exposure. Seven others were injured in the rescue effort.

Same chutes. Same job. Ten months apart. Both patrollers were doing avalanche mitigation on Lincoln Mountain when they got caught in slides.

Claire Murphy, 25, was caught on February 14, 2025 during Presidents Day weekend prep. Wind was howling "like a jet engine" according to witnesses. Her partner triggered the slide with his skis and was buried to the neck but survived. Claire was swept into a fir tree — trapped upright, back against the trunk, facing uphill toward the wall of snow. She died on scene.

Her mother Lisa Apa told the LA Times she begged Mammoth to review their procedures. When Cole Murphy died ten months later, she texted a ski patrol manager: "You killed another ski patroller... you've learned nothing."

Cole Murphy, 30 (no relation), was caught on December 26 during post-Christmas mitigation. An avalanche from a neighboring chute may have propagated horizontally to where he was working. He was buried under approximately one meter of debris for 18 minutes. When rescuers extracted him, his skin was blue and he wasn't breathing. Airlifted to Renown Regional Medical Center in Reno; pronounced dead December 28.

In a normal season, Mammoth sees about three deaths total. In late January 2006, four people died in four days. None of the deaths were related to each other.

January 26: 16-year-old boy from San Diego died after taking a jump too fast on an intermediate run and missing the landing. He was wearing a helmet and reportedly experienced. January 27: 39-year-old man from Laguna Niguel lost control at high speed on an intermediate trail, struck a tree after hitting a mogul. Died four days later at Renown Regional Medical Center. January 28: 61-year-old Los Angeles dentist became disoriented in windy, snowy conditions that had closed some lifts. Collided at full speed with a 30-foot boulder in a canyon area. January 29: 63-year-old man from Garden Grove suffered a fatal heart attack while skiing.