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The former Cumberland Valley football star was working with student-athletes when he died from injuries suffered as a "single skier verses snow accident" on the first jump feature at Little Makuna Park in the Snowmass ski area," Pitkin County Deputy Coroner Kevin Hadfield said.
The official cause of death is pending medical review but the manner has been ruled accidental according to the county coroner's office's release. This investigation by the office into his death is ongoing.
Updegraff was with his high school friend Brad Hamshaw, and instead of his normal chat before the trick, the two only exchanged a head nod before he "hit the jump in front of Hamshaw," The Denver Gazette reports.
A lifelong skier, Updegraff had moved to Colorado "to focus on the sport," the outlet reports citing his close friend Olivia Rogers.
The Mechanicsburg transplant to Silverthorne, CO was wearing a helmet at the time of the crash, which happened in the landing zone of the park’s first jump, Jeff Hanle Vice President of Communications at Aspen Snowmass told Daily Voice.
The Snowmass ski patrol was called at 2:24 p.m., arriving ten minutes later to find Updegraff unresponsive, and immediately began life-saving measures— continue as they went to Snowmass Clinic, where he later was pronounced deceased, according to Hanle
Growing up, Updegraff was a star on the Cumberland Valley High School football team, as well as being on CV's track and wrestling teams, according to his Facebook.
He went on to play at Drake University where he graduated with a degree in business administration in 2018, he detailed on his social media profiles. Before moving to Colorado he moved to China for a year where he was a foreign language teacher at Guangxi Normal University in Guilin, according to his LinkedIn. More recently he was a Mountain Mentors Coordinator with Summit County, the county directory shows.
Updegraff was a strength and conditioning coach for many of the team’s student-athletes in addition to leading the Healthy Choices class at Summit Middle School, and he "has been an important mentor to both SHS and SMS students," Kate Hudnut, Summit School District RE-1 Board of Directors wrote in a statement on behalf of the district on Facebook.
Collin Williams who once coached alongside Updegraff called him one of the “truly good people” he had known in a post on LinkedIn.
“He was dedicating his life to making an impact with kids and I can tell you, in the short time I witnessed it, no one made a bigger impact. I never saw him without a smile,” Williams wrote in his post. “He treated my son like he was his own. He was impactful enough that my little man asked if he could say a prayer for Tyler last night. He’s six years old.”
Funeral and memorial service details have yet to be released, but a GoFundMe campaign has been started to help cover the costs.
"Tyler's caring nature, patience towards others, and the energy he put out into the world made an impact on countless people from Colorado to China. Tyler always saw the best in others and encouraged everyone else to see it as well. He found joy in every aspect of life and especially enjoyed skiing, rock climbing, camping, hiking, football, and many more activities," Brian Cherewka writes on the campaign page.
"He is survived by his parents, Mickey and Karen, his brother, Luke, and countless friends."
The campaign has raised $40,608 raised of a $1,000 goal from 523 donors in 48 hours.
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