Utah avalanche leads to shelter-in-place order at ski resort

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — After an hourslong search, a Utah ski resort confirmed that nobody was hurt or killed from an avalanche that gushed from the backcountry into its boundaries on Thursday.

Snowbird, a mountain resort in Little Cottonwood Canyon southeast of Salt Lake City, said on Thursday afternoon that it had completed a search of a part of an area caught in the path of an avalanche that began on Mount Superior and crossed the highway onto a beginner run near the resort’s base.

“No guests or employees were caught in the debris caused by an avalanche,” the resort said in a statement.

Earlier on Thursday, Snowbird said that it had dispatched patrollers and was using rescue dogs, radar technology, and probes to scan the area and ensure nobody was caught under the snow.

The avalanche flooded onto Chickadee, a run under one of several chairlifts that had reopened after the entire mountain closed a day prior because of torrential snowfall.

The avalanche was naturally occurring and not a result of explosives or other mitigation techniques regularly used in the mountain passes, the statement said.

Utah has been blanketed by snow this week. Snowbird reported on Wednesday that an early week storm had dumped more than 5 feet (1.7 meters) on the resort.

The resort ordered guests to shelter in place Thursday afternoon.