Pro Skier Billy Poole Killed in Utah Backcountry Cliff Jumping Accident

By Jared P. Hargrave

The ski community lost one of its most talented, up-and-coming freeskiers on January 22, when Billy Poole died while jumping off a cliff in Utah’s Big Cottonwood Canyon backcountry. The 28-year-old was being filmed for a segment in a new Warren Miller movie when he apparently misjudged the landing and tumbled over a band of rocks. He was airlifted to a Salt Lake City hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.

Friends of Poole say the Warren Miller film segment could have been his big break. “It would have introduced him to a bigger audience,” said Julian Carr, Poole’s friend and fellow skier. “It was going to be his breakthrough.”

Poole was originally from Massachusetts but grew up skiing in Montana before making his way to Snowmass, Colorado. There, he became well known as a rising star after placing fourth in the Colorado Freeride Series Championships. Soon after, he was lured by deep powder to Utah where Carr says he was “finally achieving his goal to be a professional skier, to ski dream lines.”

Poole eventually landed a sponsorship with Black Diamond where he quickly became a marquee athlete. Black Diamond Ski Category Director Thomas Laasko described Poole as a “fiery red-headed ripper who has blessed a circle of friends and influenced unknown admirers with his passion, professionalism and ripping talent.”

According to his mother, Phyllis Erck, Poole was very aware what the risks of his occupation were. “That was the life he had chosen and he would not do anything else. We talked about it a lot and there was no question in his mind.”

Since Poole’s death, Erck has started the Billy Poole Foundation, an organization dedicated to helping less fortunate kids learn how to ski. “It would be in line with what Billy would want carried on in his memory. I see it as a new life for Billy.”

Erck has also been in discussions with Warren Miller and has asked that they destroy the footage shot the day Poole died. They agreed and have said they will instead pay tribute to him when the film is released this fall.