By Kathryn Reed

A 34-year-old man from England died at Heavenly Mountain Resort on Tuesday after running into a sign.

“He was probably skiing faster than he should have and tried to avoid a skier and left the run and the hit marker,” El Dorado County sheriff’s Lt. Les Lovell told Lake Tahoe News.

Christopher Michael Perring was pronounced dead at the scene at 3:40pm Jan. 17.

While the incident occurred on the Nevada side of the ski resort near the Tamarack run, the landing zone for the Calstar helicopter is on the California side so it became an El Dorado County Sheriff’s Department case.

A spokesperson for Heavenly was not immediately available.

“Skiing unfortunately is sometimes an inherently dangerous sport,” Lovell said. “Unfortunately, there is not enough snow on the mountain to spread everyone out.”

Although an autopsy is pending, Lovell said blunt force trauma is the likely cause of death.

This is the second outdoor accident involving a resident from the United Kingdom in less than a week. Michael Machell, 23, fell to his death while ice climbing at Cascade Falls. It is not believed the two men knew each other.