Catherine “Kasha” Rigby from Utah died in an avalanche while skiing near Kosovo’s only ski resort, Brezovica.
The skier, who was 54 years old and was born in Vermont but now lives in Utah, was working on a project called Tour de Piste. Backcountry skiing was part of it, and she did it at ski resorts all over the world.
Another lost legend, Hilaree Nelson, skied a lot with Kasha Rigby. Nelson sadly died in 2022 while skiing down from the top of Manaslu. The first ski descent of the Northwest Face of 5,982m Hanuman Tibba in the Indian Himalaya was made by Rigby, Nelson Margaret Wheeler, and Alison Gannett in 2010. They mastered a 2,500m couloir.
Rigby was swept into some trees by an avalanche on one of those descents in Kosovo. The area was called the Eagle’s Nest. According to The Daily Mail, she died soon after the impact.
Magnus Wolfe Murray, her fiancé, was with her when it happened and tried to revive her but failed. The news of her death first came from Euronews.albania.
It was in the 1990s that Rigby first became known as one of the first people in the U.S. to do telemark skiing. According to Outside magazine, she turned it into a fast, aggressive style that made her “the best telemark skier in the known universe.”
Soon, she started skiing in high mountains all over the world, not just in the Rockies and Alaska.
She skied down 5,000- and 6,000-meter mountains in India, Kamchatka, the Andes, and the Himalaya, including the first person to ski down Cho Oyu on telemark skis. Rigby has been in nine movies about skiing.
Another lost legend, Hilaree Nelson, skied a lot with Kasha Rigby. Nelson sadly died in 2022 while skiing down from the top of Manaslu. The first ski descent of the Northwest Face of 5,982m Hanuman Tibba in the Indian Himalaya was made by Rigby, Nelson Margaret Wheeler, and Alison Gannett in 2010. They mastered a 2,500m couloir.