avalanche kills skier at Snowbird

Official announcement from Snowbird:

An avalanche occurred Sunday, Dec. 14, 2008, at Snowbird Ski & Summer Resort on High Baldy, hike-to terrain on the east side of the resort.

A female skier from Salt Lake City was recovered from the debris at 1:18 p.m. and was transported to University Hospital via Air Med in critical condition.

Following an exhaustive search of the area using seven avalanche dogs, probes and avalanche beacons, the search has been called off.

A witness reported the avalanche at 12:24 p.m. using a cell phone. The terrain opened at 9:30 a.m.

Snowbird has received 9 inches of new snow in the last 24 hours, 13 inches in the last 48 hours and 93 inches season-to-date.

Agencies assisting in the rescue effort include: Snowbird Ski Patrol, Salt Lake County Search and Rescue, Wasatch Backcountry Rescue and Unified Fire Station 13, as well as avalanche dog teams from numerous Utah resorts.

The 27 year old woman from SLC died at the hospital.

Kevin, Lewis, and I skied there last season. It's a great resort. We were even on that peak but I don't think we were near the avalanche site. Apparently it is the first in-bounds avalanche death at Snowbird since 1977. Unfortunately they had just opened that section of the park that day. They do a very good job with avalanche control in that area. They keep the road going through that canyon to all the resorts closed in the mornings until avalanche control has taken place. And we saw quite a few craters from avalanche control cannons. In fact, this picture I took shows a blast mark just past the skier on the exact same peak (but different area) that the avalanche took place yesterday.

Salt Lake Tribune article