Backcountry Skiers Get Caught in Avalanche, One is Killed

Backcountry Skiers Get Caught in Avalanche, One is Killed


Save Story
Leer en espaƱol

Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

(Salt Lake City, KSL News) -- It's been a deadly night in Utah's mountains after a group of backcountry skiers were hit with an avalanche. One person was killed.

Four of those skiers have minor injuries from the avalanche slide that happened around 6:00 Saturday night.

The slide occurred in an area near Gobbler's Knob -- that's roughly at the 10,000 foot level in the mountains between Big Cottonwood and Millcreek Canyons.

Rescue teams worked on the mountain Saturday night, bringing the four survivors down along with the victim, a man in his 40s who was killed in the avalanche.

Searchers say five people, three men and two women, were backcountry skiing in the area when an avalanche hit around 6 p.m.

One man was killed. The other four skiers survived with only minor injuries, although they are said to be suffering from fatigue.

They were able to call 911 from a cell phone to get help.

Rescuers are being taken by LifeFlight Helicopter to the slide, where they are being dropped off to help.

Rescuers have determined it will be easier and safer to bring the skiers and victim down into Millcreek Canyon.

Paramedics are standing by to treat the survivors for fatigue or hypothermia.

Rescuers expect it will take another hour or so until they can get the survivors off the mountain.

The Utah Avalanche Forecast Center ranked the risk of avalanche danger today as low to moderate.

Most recent Utah stories

Related topics

Utah

STAY IN THE KNOW

Get informative articles and interesting stories delivered to your inbox weekly. Subscribe to the KSL.com Trending 5.
By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to KSL.com's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

KSL Weather Forecast