Pioneering American telemark skier Katherine 'Kasha' Rigby is suspect to have died at the age of 54 following an avalanche at a ski resort in Southeast Europe on Tuesday (February 13), FOX News reports.
Euronew.albania initially reported that a 54-year-old female skier was killed by the natural disaster in southern Kosovo. Ferizaj region police spokesperson Kanun Veseli told a local radio station that the woman killed was "a 54-year-old foreign citizen," though didn't mention Rigby by name.
Friends and loved ones, however, shared tributes to the renowned skier on her Instagram account, which showed several posts shared from the ski resort in Brezovica where the avalanche occurred. Sources close to Rigby also confirmed reports of her death to Ski Magazine.
Rigby is credited for having "aimed to redefine telemarking with her high-speed, hard-driving style," Ski Magazine wrote on its social media accounts following reports of her death. The Vermont native was the first telemark skier to successfully descend the Cho Oyu mountain in Asia, the sixth-highest peak in the world, as well as several other notable successful telemark ski descents in Russia, Ecuador and Lebanon.
Backcountry Magazine editor Adam Howard said Rigby "embodied compassion and free spiritedness" following reports of her apparent death.
"The whole outdoor and ski world is just gutted to lose such a special soul," Howard said.
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