1 skier rescued, 2 remain missing after avalanche in mountains outside of Salt Lake City

Associated Press

One skier was rescued and two remained missing following an avalanche Thursday in the mountains outside of Salt Lake City that occurred after several days of spring snowstorms, authorities said.

A rescue team responded just after 10 a.m. to an avalanche reported near Lone Peak in the in the Wasatch Range southeast of Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County Sheriff Rosie Rivera said.

One of the skiers, who was able to dig himself out of the snow, had been rescued by midday and was taken to the hospital, Rivera said.

Crews were unable to search for the other two because of the conditions on the mountain and needed to do mitigation work to make it safe. She couldn’t say if the other two skiers had been buried in the slide.

Rivera said she believed the man who was rescued was the one who called for help. Officers were speaking with him at the hospital to get more information about what happened, the sheriff said.

The skiers hiked into the area Thursday morning, she said.

Craig Gordon with the Utah Avalanche Center said about 2.5 feet (76 centimeters) of heavy, wet snow fell in the area in the past three days.

The skiers would have had to have been very experienced to even be in the “very serious terrain,” he said.