Burried alive
01-16-2005, 07:20 PM
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Burried alive
SALT LAKE CITY - Search teams digging through the tons of snow found the body Sunday of one of the five people believed buried by a powerful avalanche in an area that skiers had been warned to avoid.
The body of a man who appeared to be in his 20s was found under 4 feet of snow after trained dogs alerted the teams searching the area of Friday's slide, Summit County Sheriff Dave Edmunds said at a news conference.
The body was not immediately identified, though Edmunds said the man's clothing matched that of a missing snowboarder.
The only person identified as having been caught by the avalanche was Shane Maixner, 28, of Sandpoint, Idaho. A friend told a 911 dispatcher that he saw Maixner being caught by the cascading mass of snow, Edmunds said earlier.
The amount of snow carried down the mountain by Friday's slide - up to 30 feet deep at some points - meant authorities had to tally potential victims by matching eyewitness descriptions of the avalanche to a list of skiers thought to be in the area at the time.
More than 150 rescue workers and dogs had resumed the search at sunrise Sunday in an out-of-bounds area near The Canyons resort that had been marked with skull and crossbones warning signs because of the avalanche danger. An all-day search on Saturday had turned up no trace of the missing people.
If Sunday's sweep failed to find any additional bodies, authorities planned to bring in machines to take away layers of snow, Edmunds said. They also planned to begin using ground-penetrating radar on Monday.
The Wasatch mountain range has had two weeks of wet, heavy snow that created an extreme risk of avalanches, especially in the backcountry.
Six people have already been killed in Utah avalanches this winter and it's still relatively early in the season. That is the highest toll since the state started keeping records of avalanche deaths in 1951.
The body of a man who appeared to be in his 20s was found under 4 feet of snow after trained dogs alerted the teams searching the area of Friday's slide, Summit County Sheriff Dave Edmunds said at a news conference.
The body was not immediately identified, though Edmunds said the man's clothing matched that of a missing snowboarder.
The only person identified as having been caught by the avalanche was Shane Maixner, 28, of Sandpoint, Idaho. A friend told a 911 dispatcher that he saw Maixner being caught by the cascading mass of snow, Edmunds said earlier.
The amount of snow carried down the mountain by Friday's slide - up to 30 feet deep at some points - meant authorities had to tally potential victims by matching eyewitness descriptions of the avalanche to a list of skiers thought to be in the area at the time.
More than 150 rescue workers and dogs had resumed the search at sunrise Sunday in an out-of-bounds area near The Canyons resort that had been marked with skull and crossbones warning signs because of the avalanche danger. An all-day search on Saturday had turned up no trace of the missing people.
If Sunday's sweep failed to find any additional bodies, authorities planned to bring in machines to take away layers of snow, Edmunds said. They also planned to begin using ground-penetrating radar on Monday.
The Wasatch mountain range has had two weeks of wet, heavy snow that created an extreme risk of avalanches, especially in the backcountry.
Six people have already been killed in Utah avalanches this winter and it's still relatively early in the season. That is the highest toll since the state started keeping records of avalanche deaths in 1951.
01-16-2005, 10:19 PM
#2
Of all my knowledge they mark off all "possible avalanche" areas pretty well. At least they say that they were all in a marked off area, but who knows how clear that is. Probably just a way to cover their butts from a lawsuit.
I've only ever skied a couple times, so I wouldn't know.
I've only ever skied a couple times, so I wouldn't know.
01-16-2005, 11:29 PM
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I almost got eaten by an avalanche in bear valley near lake tahoe of course we caused it hillclimbing our sleds at orv park man that was scary 60-70mph down the side of the mountain almost vertical and it felt like the snow was catching up
Poor kid just trying to have fun
Poor kid just trying to have fun
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