Woman dies in Colorado skiing accident

A Huntington Beach woman died over the weekend outside Telluride, Colo., in what the local sheriff called a freak skiing accident.

Mary Scott King, 50, was skiing across a creek with a guide about 11 a.m. Saturday when she fell and got her head stuck between two rocks underwater.

The guide was unable to pull her out, and when a crew finally removed her 10 minutes later, she was not breathing, according to San Miguel County Sheriff Bill Masters.

King was pronounced dead at the scene. Masters said her autopsy showed that drowning, not blunt-force trauma, was the cause of death.

“It’s a real freak and tragic accident,” Masters said. “I’ve never heard of anything like this.”

— Michael Miller