‘Breaks my heart’: 2 skiers dead after backcountry avalanche
SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) –Two skiers were killed and another rescued following a backcountry avalanche Thursday morning near Lone Peak on the Wasatch Front.
Salt Lake County Sheriff Rosie Rivera confirmed shortly before 4 p.m. that the two skiers, whom rescue crews had spent hours searching for in rugged mountain terrain, were dead.
What you need to know about avalanches — and how to survive one
Earlier in the afternoon, the sheriff told reporters that a third skier who was airlifted off the mountain dug himself free from the snow and called 911.
While he was not physically hurt, his mental state was “not great,” Rivera said.
The two dead skiers were also men, aged 23 and 32. So far, no names have been released, but officials said that one was from Utah while the other was from out-of-state.
Due to difficult weather in the mountains, the effort to recover their bodies was delayed until Friday morning.
“Now it’s windy, raining, and it’s just unsafe, especially with the avalanche situation,” Rivera said. “It’s unsafe ground. And where they’re at is very difficult to get to.”
According to officials, the three skiers hiked up Lone Peak Canyon from Hidden Valley Park in Sandy. They had avalanche gear on them when they headed up into the mountains, which had been hit with significant snow just days before.
Utah Avalanche Center Forecaster Craig Gordon told the media that the snowslide happened around 10 a.m. along a path known as Big Willow Circle, which is known to be difficult terrain.
“It’s not the type of zone you stumble upon,” Gordon said, noting that the skiers were likely experienced backcountry riders.
The avalanche forecaster said that more than 30 inches of snow and three inches of rainwater had been reported in the area over the past three days, making the snow particularly treacherous in springtime conditions.
“This is my backcountry family,” Gordon said. “I have spent decades giving to this community to make sure that everybody comes home at the end of the day to their family. And so this situation, of course, deeply rocks my world. And deeply breaks my heart.”
The difficult and hard-to-reach terrain proved a struggle for search and rescue crews, who had to deal with winter-like weather in the high country as they searched several hours for the missing skiers.
Unified Fire Authority, Sandy officials, and Draper Fire crews assisted in the search and rescue effort.
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