Two skiers were injured, one critically, after being buried in an avalanche as they were backcountry skiing near Salt Lake City on Saturday, the authorities said.
The men were near the Butler Fork trail in Big Cottonwood Canyon, which is southeast of Salt Lake City, when the avalanche happened around 10 a.m. local time, said Sheriff Rosie Rivera of Salt Lake County, Utah.
Eight skiers were nearby and witnessed the sliding snow bury the men, Sheriff Rivera said.
The witnesses rushed to where the skiers were buried and were able to dig them out, she said.
“These individuals were fortunate,” Sheriff Rivera said. “If nobody would have witnessed that, nobody would’ve known for hours.”
Emergency responders relied on a helicopter to remove the men, Sheriff Rivera said. The men were taken to Intermountain Medical Center.
One of the skiers, 57, was in critical condition, the authorities said. The other man, 48, was in serious condition, the sheriff said.
They had not been publicly identified as of Saturday evening.
The avalanche came amid recent cases of dangerous slides in other mountainous areas where the snow has been unstable.
On Thursday, an 11-year-old girl died in an avalanche while skiing in the same region, Sheriff Rivera said.
The girl was backcountry skiing near Brighton Ski Resort in Brighton, Utah, according to a statement from the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office. The ski resort is about 15 miles from the trail where the men were on Saturday.
Nine skiers died in a Feb. 17 Sierra Nevada avalanche near Lake Tahoe. It is considered the deadliest in modern California history.
Three people were killed in a series of avalanches in Austria on Friday.
In Salt Lake County, Sheriff Rivera said the snow has been unstable after fluctuating weather brought a mixture of higher temperatures and more snow and ice.
“We do a lot of avalanche control and shut the canyon down,” Sheriff Rivera said. “You trigger avalanches for control to try to get them, the snow, to come down. But, you know, they still happen. They can still be triggered by anything or anybody.”
In a statement on social media, Mayor Jenny Wilson of Salt Lake City said “multiple avalanches in our area canyons” caused critical injuries and the death of a child.
She asked residents to “please check conditions carefully,” seek proper training and equipment and “prioritize safety” before going into the backcountry.
Rylee Kirk reports on breaking news, trending topics and major developing stories for The Times.
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