2 skiers dead, 1 rescued from Utah avalanche
Authorities earlier in the day were searching for three skiers buried by the avalanche.
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May 9 (UPI) -- Search crews rescued one person, and two more were found dead after an avalanche hit Utah's Lone Peak Thursday.
File Photo: Snow on Lone Peak, a mountain in the Wasatch Front bordering the Salt Lake Valley and Salt Lake City, Utah.. (Jon G. Fuller/VWPics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Salt Lake County Sheriff Rosie Rivera told the Salt Lake Tribune that two men, ages 23 and 32, died in the avalanche that occurred in Little Cottonwood Canyon near the town of Alta.
The Unified Police Department, Unified Fire Authority, Draper Fire and other agencies were conducting a rescue operation earlier Thursday.
Authorities earlier in the day were searching for three skiers buried by the avalanche. One of them was rescued after digging himself out of the snow and attempting to rescue his two friends before calling for help.
24-hour snowfall amounts prior to 10 a.m. EDT May 10, 2024.
Footage from Salt Lake City's KUTV showed a rescue helicopter bringing the skier off the mountain about two hours after authorities reported the skiers were missing.
The rescued skier was hospitalized for minor injuries. The bodies of the two other skiers remain on the mountain after rescue efforts paused for the day due to weather conditions.
A spokesperson with the Utah Avalanche Center told ABC News that such a dangerous avalanche is atypical for this time of year as the warmer weather stabilizes the snowpack, but a recent storm with high winds and heavy snowfall created dangerous avalanche conditions.
The last avalanche fatality in the region was on April 17, 2023, at Brighton, according to a Utah Avalanche Center record.
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