Sam Seiber wrote:
Related to the article, what happens that causes skiers (or boarders)
to hit trees resulting in death? Are people going way too fast
on the very edge of the trail and either catch an edge, or
hit a patch of ice, and into the tree they go?

Most tree-related deaths I've heard of involve skiers losing control
and hitting a tree. Ice is sometimes mentioned as a contributing
factor, but bottom line is failure to control speed and/or skis.
Occasionally it happens to an expert, like at Sun Valley in 1997 when a
local racer supposedly caught an edge while free-skiing. It was near
the bottom of Lower Greyhawk where the trail goes through the trees
back to the lift. I was there the week after and everybody was still
pretty shook up about it.

I had heard that in Bono's case, he may have been trying to shoot
through a shallow tree well and lost it. Helmet wouldn't have helped
his neck.