Penn State student, 22, dies in sudden Colorado avalanche while skiing. What we know
A 22-year-old Penn State student died on New Year’s Eve after an avalanche buried both him and his father while skiing in Colorado, according to multiple reports. His father survived.
Nick Feinstein was set to graduate from University Park in the spring and already had a job lined up near Denver, his family told a local Colorado newspaper. Penn State officials said they learned of his death Tuesday.
“During this time of great sorrow, our hearts go out to his family and all who knew him,” university spokesperson Lisa Powers said in a written statement. “Nick, 22, was a sixth-semester student in the College of Information Sciences and Technology where he was majoring in enterprise technology integration. Leaders of Penn State Student Affairs are reaching out to offer support to his family and friends.”
According to the Summit County Rescue Group, the father-son duo were backcountry skiing just outside the Breckenridge Ski Resort boundary in Colorado when an avalanche descended around 1 p.m. Saturday. Nick became fully buried while his father Andy, president at the University of Northern Colorado, was only partially buried.
Andy Feinstein was able to dig himself out and call for help around 1:40 p.m., while about two dozen rescue crew members responded. Nick was found at 3:11 p.m. and was already deceased.
Andy spoke to the Greeley (Colo.) Tribune on Monday.
“I literally had to use my fingertips to dig out a pocket for me to see light and to dig out,” he told the newspaper, adding the avalanche came on very suddenly. “One minute I was skiing and enjoying the powder, and the next minute I was riding what looked like a violent wave of whitewash.”
According to the family, Nick was an avid outdoorsman who had been skiing since the age of 5. Andy called them both “fit and experienced skiers.” The Tribune also reported Nick and his family had a pact to climb all 50-plus of Colorado’s mountain peaks more than 14,000 feet above sea level — peaks known as 14ers — and Nick had already completed 25.
Nick was widely remembered as an intelligent, hardworking man whose most defining characteristic might’ve been his kindness. A family friend told a Colorado TV station, KDVR, that Nick worked for him for two summers.
Nick would take one employee who didn’t drive to work and then drive him home every night, and the employee would give him gas money, the family friend said. After that second summer, when Nick knew he wasn’t coming back, he gave the family friend a card to hand to the employee: Nick had saved all that gas money and gifted it back to the employee in the form of a generous gift card to Trader Joe’s.
A memorial service is planned for Saturday at the University of Northern Colorado. In lieu of flowers, the family is asking for donations in Nick’s name to the nonprofit “Colorado Fourteeners Initiative,” which works to preserve the natural integrity of those 14,000-foot peaks.
More information can be found at www.14ers.org, and donations can be made online.
This story was originally published January 5, 2023 at 12:26 PM.
