SALT LAKE CITY -- It was the kind of feat extreme skier Billy Poole had nailed countless times before -- a jump off a big cliff in the backcountry of Utah's Big Cottonwood Canyon.

But this time Poole -- filming in an area known as the Wolverine Cirque for his first Warren Miller ski documentary -- miscalculated.

He missed the landing and cartwheeled through a pile of rocks.

Poole was taken by helicopter to a local hospital, where he died Tuesday from his injuries, Salt Lake County Sheriff's deputies said.

It was Poole's first time working with Boulder, Colo.-based Warren Miller Entertainment. He told friends he had always wanted to be in a Warren Miller film.

The 28-year-old, who was born in Massachusetts and learned to ski in Montana, was known to people in Colorado's Roaring Fork Valley as a classic ski bum who lived out of his truck for several years in Snowmass.

He also was remembered as an ambitious skier who dreamed of starring in his own films one day, and a daredevil who loved taking steep lines and jumps most skiers wouldn't dream of.

"We went to the competition in Crested Butte one year, and he did very well," Vince Lahey, a coach for the Aspen Valley Ski and Snowboard Club's freeride team, told the Aspen Times.

"They ran the final day in an area they had opened only once or twice before. Billy skied a line no one else skied that day and set loose a boulder of snow he didn't know he had let loose. When he stopped to jump a cliff the boulder just took him off the cliff in a wild explosion of snow and arms and legs. Right there we were like, that's the end of Billy. But he just popped out. It was an amazing run, never to be repeated."

Poole moved to Glenwood Springs with a girlfriend in 2002. In 2003 he finished fourth at the Colorado Freeride Series Championships at Snowmass Ski Area, according to the International Free Skiers Association Web site.

He moved to Utah a few years ago to take advantage of its deeper snow, the Aspen Times reported.

Peter Metcalf, chief executive for Salt Lake City-based Black Diamond Equipment Ltd., which sponsored Poole, called him the "perfect ambassador."

"His stature was increasing. He was inspiring, outgoing, friendly," he said. "He lived the life of big mountain skier on just enough money to support his habit."

Metcalf and others also said Poole knew the dangers of what he was doing, but believed the reward outweighed the risk.

"In this sport," Metcalf said, "death is part of life."

Max Bervy, who was directing the film for Boulder-based Warren Miller Enterprises, called Poole's death "devastating." He said he plans to honor his career in the upcoming film, which is due out this fall. He also will speak with Poole's family to determine how they would like footage shot this week to be used, he said.

Powder magazine editor Derek Taylor told the Aspen Times it will dedicate its Powder Video Awards, scheduled for this weekend at Aspen's Hotel Jerome, to Poole.