A 10-year-old Texas girl died Tuesday at Ski Santa Fe after she hit a tree, Santa Fe County Sheriff Greg Solano said.

Shelby Gilespie of Bushland, Texas, near Amarillo, was skiing on an intermediate run called Sunset Trail with her parents, Cory and Carmen Gilespie, and her older brother when the accident occurred about 10:50 a.m., the Sheriff's Department reported.

Witnesses told investigators the girl gained speed while skiing down the trail and then began heading toward trees. She fell but continued sliding into a tree and sustained head trauma.

Ski patrol members tried to resuscitate her, but she was pronounced dead at the scene, a news release said.

"Last season was the first year she had taken ski lessons," the release said. "She was not wearing a helmet at the time of the accident."

Her family reportedly was visiting Ski Santa Fe on a two-day ski pass, part of a large crowd of holiday visitors enjoying recent abundant snow on the ski trails.

Larry Buynak, a spokesman for Santa Fe Ski Co., said the accident occurred on the upper portion of the mountain in the vicinity of the Sunrise Glade.

Buynak said he didn't know when the last skiing death occurred at Ski Santa Fe.

However, New Mexican archives indicate the last reported fatal skiing accident at the basin above Santa Fe was almost four years ago. Jonathan Reeves, a 20-year-old lift operator at the mountain at the time of his death, died on a ski run called Muerte — Spanish for death — on Feb. 27, 2005, when he hit a tree.