WINTERGREEN, Va. – Wintergreen fire and rescue crews say their prayers are with the family of a fire chief from North Carolina.
47-year-old Adam Snyder had a skiing accident Saturday, but fire responders faced some obstacles getting him to the hospital because of bad weather conditions.
Snyder was visiting wintergreen resort with his family when he had the accident happened, and he needed serious medical attention. But, it's unclear as to what exactly happened on the slopes.
It happened on the lower sunrise slope shortly after noon. Snyder was the only one involved, and the run is listed as one of the more difficult ones on the mountain.
Ski patrol immediately responded and Wintergreen Fire and Rescue took over treating Snyder in the ambulance while the driver made their way to Augusta Health, and Snyder was then transferred to UVA medical center.
Typically, if crews believe the patient needs advanced life support transport, they'll take a 10-minute helicopter ride to UVA medical center. But, the sky was not clear enough to fly, so the crew took alternative measures.
In a Facebook post, wintergreen fire chief, Curtis Sheets, says they "threw everything they had into Chief Snyder."
"We did have an incident on Saturday with Mr. Snyder. You know thoughts and prayers go out to the family for this. There's not much more we can talk about at the moment right now just out of respect for the family," said Zachary Marlowe, director of ski operations at Wintergreen.
This situation is extremely sensitive, and several people we talked to did not want to go on camera and cannot give us much detail.
The North Carolina peer support group set up a GoFundMe page for the family to make sure they are quote financially taken care of through this heartbreaking ordeal.
As of 4 o'clock, people donated more than $23,000.