Missing Skier's Body Found at Crystal Mountain

The body of Paul Melby was found Wednesday at Crystal Mountain Resort more than three months after the experienced skier was . He was 40.

According to a statement released by Crystal, the search for Melby involved more than 130 people. His body was spotted on Wednesday at about 12:30 p.m. by an employee who was working on the gondala towers in an area called "Mine Shaft."

Ski patrol director Paul Baugher said in the statement that Melby, a former member of the Crystal Mountain ski patrol, had "fallen upside down into a tree well and suffocated."

"Our thoughts are with all of Melby’s' friends and family as they finally get to say goodbye. He will be deeply missed."

Paul's mother Bonney Melby recalled that when Paul was a child, the rules for children skiing unaccompanied at Crystal were much more lax than they are now.

"Kids could ski by themselves," she said. She only had to zip her kids into snow pants, give them money for lunch, and tell them when to return.

"It always worked," she said. Paul always made it back safe and sound.

Bonny Melby said her son appeared to have neglected to follow two important safety rules that fateful day: he was skiing alone, and he didn't carry a location finder/beacon.

"When you're home, and you're on your last 1,000 feet down the mountain, the rules are not thought about -- they're instinctual," she said.

She couldn't explain why he had apparently neglected those two safety rules, which made it difficult for her to accept his death.

"There's no reason or purpose to his death," she said of her son, who was 6 when he began skiing at Crystal. When asked if she took any comfort in knowing he died doing what he loved, she said, "That statement is used a lot in situations like this, and I understand that people want to find solace in that. But just because he loved it didn't mean he had to die for it."

The official search for Melby's body was called off about a week after he was first reported missing, Bonny Melby said, but ski patrol never quite stopped looking for him.

"They've been fantastic," she said. "The search never really stopped. Whenever we called them with concerns, we always got answers right away. They couldn't have been nicer or more kind, and I know many of them are terribly heartbroken."

The family had dealt with not knowing his fate all these months by taking "one plodding footstep after another," she said. They made album books and story books for him. "It's what you do when you don't know what else to do. ... We did know he was up on the mountain."

And in the three months or so that have passed, the family was able to prepare for the inevitable news. Nonetheless, it didn't make yesterday's news any less heartbreaking. "We all kind of collapsed. ... We were preparing mentally for months, but it's hard. I don't think you can ever be completely prepared. Closure will come -- just not today."

Melby was not married and did not have children, his mother said. His friends and family will gather at Crystal this Saturday to ski together in his memory.