Baldy collision hospitalizes two skiers
By GREG MOORE and GREG STAHL
Express Staff Writers
Paul Schneeberger
A collision involving three skiers on Bald Mountain last week nearly cost
two of them their lives.
The accident occurred Tuesday, March 21, just downhill from a cat track
that leaves the skier’s left side of Lower Warm Springs run and connects to the Race
Arena run. The Race Arena joins Lower Warm Springs a few hundred yards downhill.
The skiers involved were Sun Valley ski instructor Peter Schneeberger,
Reno, Nev., resident Kathleen Clark and part-time Ketchum resident Paul Wiley.
According to Wiley, he and Clark had just begun to ski away from the cat
track on Race Arena when Schneeberger came off the track’s lip in the air and hit
them from behind.
Sun Valley Co. spokesperson Jack Sibbach said the ski patrol received a
call on the accident at 1:08 p.m. and was on the scene by 1:12 p.m.
"They were there quickly," Wiley agreed. "They saved their
lives."
After being transported by ambulance to Wood River Medical Center in Sun
Valley, Schneeberger was airlifted in critical condition to St. Alphonsus Regional Medical
Center in Boise. In a telephone interview from St. Alphonsus on Monday, his fiancee,
Shelly Preston, said Schneeberger suffered severe head injuries, facial fractures and a
broken leg.
Preston said he is doing "much better," has begun to walk and
does not appear to have lost any motor skills.
Clark was also transported by ambulance to the Wood River Medical Center,
where she was reported in stable condition Monday with liver injuries, a broken wrist and
facial cuts.
Wiley said in an interview that shortly after Clark arrived at the
emergency room, doctors discovered she was bleeding internally and operated on her to
repair her liver.
Wiley said he suffered severe bruises to his leg, hip and shoulder.
Wiley blamed the accident on Schneeberger.
"He was just going way too fast and he couldn’t see over the
hill," he said.
Wiley said that though he weighs 200 pounds, the impact knocked him out of
both bindings. He said he landed several yards downhill and looked up to see his skis
still sitting on the snow where he had been skiing when he got hit.
Preston said Schneeberger has no memory of the accident. Clark also said
she remembers only beginning to ski down the hill and then waking up in an ambulance.
"It was like a bomb was dropped on me," she said.
The Sun Valley ski patrol was not willing to release any details of the
accident from its report. However, Sun Valley Co. general manager Wally Huffman said
Schneeberger was not working at the time of the collision.
Preston said Schneeberger has received "lots of well wishers, flowers
and candies.
"We feel the support from the community and we’re
grateful."
