Taylor hit a group of trees off the trail and is suspected to have died of a head injury, McCausland said.

Benjamin Taylor, of Bethel, Maine, was found at the bottom of Black Hole, an expert trail on Aurora Peak at about 11 a.m., said Steve McCausland, a Maine State Police spokesman.

A 35-year-old man died in a ski accident Wednesday at Maine’s Sunday River ski resort, the fifth death on New England slopes since the beginning of the year, officials said.

Taylor, who was wearing a helmet, was found unresponsive and treated by the ski patrol, said Sarah Devlin, a spokeswoman for the ski resort. Ambulance personnel pronounced him dead, she said.


Taylor was an employee at the Newry, Maine, resort, though he was not working at the time of the accident, Devlin said. Ski conditions Wednesday were “variable,” she said.

“First and foremost, our thoughts and prayers go out to his family,” Dana Bullen, president and general manager of Sunday River, said in a statement. “It is not easy to share news like this. We are deeply saddened to lose a team member and it affects all of us here.”

Four other people have died on the slopes this year.

On March 21, 23-year-old Terrence Scott of Nashua, N.H., died at Killington Resort in Vermont. Scott lost control and crashed into multiple trees, causing his helmet to come off, police said.

A Pelham, N.H., native and 23-year-old graduate of Wentworth Institute of Technology, Sean Paradis, died March 17 from injuries suffered in a snowboarding accident at Bretton Woods Ski Resort in New Hampshire, according to Dracut Funeral Home.

On March 9, Samuel Moore, 34, of North Conway, N.H., died after he lost control skiing near the bottom of a novice trail on Wildcat Mountain in New Hampshire. He veered into a tree-covered area and continued 67 feet downhill, where he died, New Hampshire State Police said.


In January, 13-year-old Rajiv Paluri of Westford died in an accident at Nashoba Valley Ski Area, which was the Westford, Mass., ski resort’s first fatality on the slopes. The teen was pronounced dead at Lowell General Hospital shortly after hitting a tree, according to the Middlesex district attorney’s office.

Globe staff Steve Annear contributed to this report. Aneri Pattani can be reached at aneri.pattani@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @apattani95.