Palisades Tahoe Employee Dies in Collision Involving a Snowmobile

News Search

Push to The Latest: No

SAM Magazine—Olympic Valley, Calif., Nov. 10, 2023—Palisades Tahoe employee Brian Gimbert, 34, of Tahoma, CA, died as a result of a collision involving a snowmobile early Thursday morning, the California Highway Patrol (CHP) reported. Palisades HN Officials at the resort said the accident happened during snowmaking operations on the Alpine side of Palisades Tahoe.

According to multiple reports, he was last seen around 5 a.m. PST at the resort and was found around 6:30 a.m. He was taken to Tahoe Forest Hospital in Truckee where he was pronounced dead around 7:20 a.m.

"At some time in the early morning hours of November 9, an incident occurred at Alpine that resulted in the death of one of our team members while our crews were performing overnight snowmaking operations," Palisades Tahoe said in a statement. "We are cooperating with local authorities and no further details are available at this time. Our most heartfelt condolences go out to family, friends and co-workers of this valued team member."

Palisades Tahoe president and COO Dee Byrne told KCRA news they have ceased mountain operations while they grieve the loss of a coworker.

"We are taking a pause, an appropriate pause," Byrne said.

She said that employees are trained for emergencies and prepared to put their action plan into place, but they don’t expect to have to use it for one of their fellow employees.

“The first thing we did was call the authorities. They are the experts. They come in and do their part. We support them and their needs while we’re supporting our team,” Byrne said.

She added that grief counselors are available to help employees who need it.

"He’s beloved, he’s highly respected by our team members, he was very experienced, one of the best, I'm told," she said. "The team is broken, I am broken, but we are going to get through it together."

Both CHP and Cal OSHA are investigating the accident.

"We are a tight community in Tahoe. We support each other and a loss like this hits all of us," Byrne said. "It’s going to take time to recover but we are going to keep moving forward and plan to be hosting guests and that will help in the recovery process, quite frankly."

The resort plans to open Nov. 22.