CARRABASSETT VALLEY -- A 19-year-old Colby College freshman who died in a snowboarding accident at Sugarloaf/USA over the weekend was not wearing a helmet when he left the trail and hit a tree, according to police.

Andrew M. Peff, of Philadelphia, Pa., was riding with friends on the expert-level Haul Back Trail when the accident occurred at about 11 a.m. Saturday, according to Carrabassett Valley police patrol supervisor Randy Walker.

A Maine Medical Examiner's Office spokesperson on Sunday said an autopsy was not being done and that the cause of death will not be available until Tuesday.

Carrabassett Valley police on Sunday were interviewing witnesses and still piecing together what happened in the moments before Peff's board swerved into the trees.

"We are still putting that together," Walker said "There are a lot of witnesses to talk to."

Walker said he did not know if Peff was an experienced boarder. He said Peff did not intentionally ride off the trail and it appeared his snowboard caught an edge, sending the board out of control.

Peff had recently returned from the semester-long Colby in Dijon program, a French-immersion initiative that has students living with French families, studying and traveling. The program started Aug. 23 and students returned at the end of December.

Peff had just arrived at Colby's Waterville campus two weeks ago and had started his month-long winter term, a Colby spokesman said Sunday.

"He had been on campus only two weeks," said Colby spokesman Steve Collins. "The dean of students, Jim Terhune, invited Andrew and the other 17 students who had been on the immersion program in for coffee a week ago. Jim said Andrew was very enthusiastic about being at Colby and getting involved in campus life."

About 70 percent of Colby students spend at least one semester studying abroad as undergraduates. Colby runs programs in France, Ireland, Russia, and Spain, according to the campus Web site.

Peff graduated last spring from the William Penn Charter School, a co-educational, college-preparatory day school and the oldest Quaker school in the world.

Collins said Peff's death has hit the small group in the French program hard. He said Colby President William Adams notified the campus community of the accident by e-mail Saturday, and staff and counselors met with students Saturday evening. Support will continue to be offered to anyone who requests it.

Sugarloaf spokesman Frank Guerriero on Sunday said the trails were covered with a combination of powder and packed powder and according to Sugarloaf daily ski report, conditions were excellent with 13 inches of new snow in the past week.

This is the fourth fatality at Sugarloaf since 2003, and all involved skiers or snowboarders who struck trees.

Last April, Abigail Holman, 44, of Fayette, an experienced skier, died when she skied off the trail and struck a tree; in April 2005, a 17-year-old girl from Massachusetts who was wearing a helmet died after losing control and skied into the trees; in Apirl 2003, a woman skiing with her family was killed after she was hit by another skier and slammed into a tree.

Skiing and snowboarding have an excellent safety record and there is less than a one-in-a-million chance of being seriously injured or dying on the slopes, according to Dr. Ferdinand Liotta in an article he wrote on the necessity of wearing helmets on the slopes for the Brain Injury Resource Foundation.

When injuries do occur, five to 10 percent are injuries to the head, with the most severe occurring from collisions with trees, lift poles or another skier, he wrote.

Sports-related brain injuries account for about 300,000 injuries a year, with winter sports such as skiing, snowboarding and ice skating making up about 20,000 of those accidents. In comparison to other injuries, brain injuries in these sports are more likely to result in death or permanent disability, Liotta wrote.

According to the National Ski Areas Association:

n There were 39 fatalities and 57 serious injuries in the 2005-06 season, with skiers accounting for 37 of the serious injuries (31 males and six females) and 20 snowboarders (all males).

n The rate of serious injury in 2005-06 was .097 per million skier/snowboarder visits, with 12.9 million ski-snowboard participants that season.

Betty Jespersen - 778-6991

bjespersen@centralmaine.com