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Family Identifies Toronto Skier Who Died After Deep-Snow Fall at Sunshine Village

RCMP deem the death non-suspicious pending an autopsy in Calgary.

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A skier passes trees on a ski run in Alberta. An accident over the weekend at a ski resort in Banff has brought attention to snow immersion suffocation.
A trail sign at the Sunshine Village Ski Resort in Banff. A woman died on Saturday, possibly by asphyxiation, after falling into deep, fresh snow while skiing the Banff Avenue green run.
STARS air ambulance and EMS responding to an emergency at Sunshine Village ski resort in Banff National Park, Alta. on Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025.

Overview

  • The victim was named by relatives as 47-year-old Farah Merchant of Toronto.
  • She fell into a pocket of deep, loose snow just off the Banff Avenue green run on Saturday afternoon.
  • Ski patrol reached her within about three minutes and performed more than two hours of CPR, but she was pronounced dead at the scene.
  • Emergency crews, including a STARS air ambulance team, were mobilized, though no transport occurred.
  • Resort officials note unusually heavy snowfall this season and describe the incident as a deep-snow immersion, a known hazard in unconsolidated snow.