The original version of this story appeared on ExplorersWeb.
Katherine “Kasha” Rigby has reportedly perished in an avalanche while skiing near Brezovica, Kosovo’s only ski resort, according to various news outlets.
The 54-year-old skier, born in Colorado but a Utah resident, was immersed in a project called Tour de Piste, skiing off-piste areas at resorts around the world. She published an Instagram post skiing at Brezovica shortly before EuroNews Albania reported Tuesday that a 54-year-old foreign citizen had died in an avalanche.
The Kosovo Mountain Search and Rescue Service said it had received a call on Tuesday afternoon for help in the area called “Eagle’s Nest” in the ski center, an area prone to avalanches. They initially reported two skiers lost, according to EuroNews, and Nevasport reported that an additional skier had perished.
But several outlets, including Backcountry Magazine, reported that Rigby had likely died in the avalanche. As in most parts of Europe this week, a warm spell caused rain on Kosovo’s Balkan mountains, as Rigby noted in her last Instagram post:
Rigby first made a name for herself in the 1990s as one of the pioneers of telemark skiing in the U.S. She adapted it into a fast, aggressive style, prompting Outside magazine to dub her “the best telemark skier in the known universe.”
Soon, she took her skis from the Rockies and Alaska to other high mountains around the world. She achieved the first descent of Cho Oyu on telemark skis and skied down 5,000’ers and 6,000’ers in India, Kamchatka, the Andes, and the Himalaya. Rigby was featured in nine skiing films.
Kasha Rigby skied often with ski legend Hilaree Nelson. Nelson sadly perished while skiing down from the summit of Manaslu in 2022. In 2010, Rigby, Nelson Margaret Wheeler, and Alison Gannett bagged the first ski descent of the Northwest Face of the 5,982m Hanuman Tibba in the Indian Himalaya, mastering a 2,500m couloir.
