{"id":4905,"date":"2016-12-26T18:44:58","date_gmt":"2016-12-27T02:44:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/?p=4905"},"modified":"2025-11-19T18:46:43","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T02:46:43","slug":"death-of-an-ski-instructor-attention-must-be-paid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/2016\/12\/26\/death-of-an-ski-instructor-attention-must-be-paid\/","title":{"rendered":"Death of an Ski instructor: Attention must be paid"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Jules Older<\/a>, Image of\u00a0Dennis Baltimore and Jillian Torrez.\u00a0IT WAS THE LAST PLACE and he was the last person you\u2019d associate with death.<\/p>\n

In the middle of the day, on a gentle beginner slope at the generally gentle Tahoe ski resort of Northstar, a skilled ski instructor wearing a helmet and all his safety equipment died.<\/p>\n

What apparently happened was this. To avoid a snowboarder who had lost control on an icy patch, the 35-year-old instructor veered off the groomed slope and skied into the woods. There, his skis may have hit a snow-covered rock, and he was tossed into a ditch. Despite the life-saving efforts of first responders, he succumbed to his injuries where he lay.<\/p>\n

The instructor was Dennis Baltimore, only child of grieving parents, father of a six-month-old daughter named Zoe, loving partner of Jillian Torrez.<\/p>\n

I spoke at length with Jillian, with Dennis\u2019 father Dale Carley and with the mother of two kids whom Dennis instructed.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what came from those conversations, mostly in the words of Jillian \u2026<\/p>\n

Slopeside<\/strong><\/p>\n

As an instructor, Dennis was amazing. He made his students\u2019 experience better every day. Dennis would always have a solution, always had tricks that worked.<\/p>\n

He influenced the community, colleagues, even parents of the kids he\u2019d instructed. Over dinner last week, he told me a story about two of those kids. He couldn\u2019t believe how great, how fearless they were.<\/p>\n

After news of his death was in the papers, their mother wrote me at two in the morning. She hasn\u2019t told her kids about Dennis\u2019 death. They\u2019re still telling the corny ski jokes that Dennis taught them. Her kids still talk about Dennis all the time.<\/p>\n

He also taught two kids who spoke only Mandarin. He knew he had to figure out a way to reach them. Instead of talking, he used\u00a0showing<\/em>; he\u2019d make the move himself and have them copy what he did. Once they had that down, he downloaded a Mandarin translation app so he could communicate verbally with them as well.<\/p>\n

Dennis had three rules on the mountain:<\/p>\n

To learn<\/p>\n

To have fun<\/p>\n

To be safe. That was the most important. The other two came in second.<\/p>\n

Instructors at Northstar Ski School can have lunch with their students. He always got them gummy bears. That would cure the three biggest issues \u2014 missing their parents, feeling cold and being afraid.<\/p>\n

He had pictures the kids had drawn for him, thanking him for teaching them to ski. This was a huge part of his life; he was excited to go to work every day.<\/p>\n

Homeside<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dennis was my best friend, partner, lover, my heart and soul. He was my missing puzzle piece that I thought I would never find. Every day I felt loved, appreciated, cherished. Every day he would say, \u201cI adore you.\u201d He would say it from his heart.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m going to miss him every single day. In this grief, I want to honor him and his spirit. And the way he lived life. Each day when I feel like I\u2019m losing it, I\u2019m going to remember all the good times we had together.<\/p>\n

Familyside<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dennis has a baby, Zoe, from a previous relationship with Cayce Weislow in South Lake Tahoe. Zoe was the apple of his eye. They have the same mannerisms, same smile, even same eyebrows. Any time he had off, he went and saw Zoe.<\/p>\n

And he used that\u00a0BabyCenter<\/a>\u00a0app every day. He would always relay what the app was saying back to Zoe\u2019s mom.<\/p>\n

His father Dale is amazing, the glue that has been holding us all together. He\u2019s been here for me, his best friend Mike, and his mother, Mary. Dale lives in Mexico City; Mary, near Los Angeles. Dennis\u2019 death has been so very hard on all of us.<\/p>\n

Playside<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dennis was an avid karaoke singer. He\u2019d go to the Grid whenever he could and sing his heart out. We had clips of him singing his two favorite songs: \u201cHo Hey\u201d by the Lumineers and \u201cMiss You\u201d by the Rolling Stones. Always those two bands. The Grid had a fundraiser for Dennis. They\u2019re in mourning too.<\/p>\n

Supportside<\/strong><\/p>\n

Northstar has been wonderful. They helped with some of the funeral arrangements, paid for the cremation, brought a shuttle of employees to attend the service. They let folks off on a busy Saturday to attend. Northstar hosted the reception at TC\u2019s Pub in Northstar Village. They\u2019ve been amazing. We\u2019ve received complete support from them.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Jules Older, Image of\u00a0Dennis Baltimore and Jillian Torrez.\u00a0IT WAS THE LAST PLACE and he was the last person<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":"","thumbnail":"","medium":"","medium_large":"","large":"","1536x1536":"","2048x2048":"","darknews-slider-full":"","darknews-featured":"","darknews-medium":"","darknews-medium-square":""},"author_info":{"display_name":"News MoLo","author_link":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/author\/admin\/"},"category_info":"News<\/a>","tag_info":"News","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4905"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4905"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4906,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4905\/revisions\/4906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}