Utah snowmobiler killed in avalanche after being ‘fully buried’

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A 37-year-old man was killed in an avalanche in the Utah backcountry while snowmobiling Monday, authorities said.

Scott Wright, from Evanston, Wyoming, was snowmobiling with a friend in the Monte Cristo Snowmobile Area near the Rich County and Cache County line when the avalanche occurred, the Rich County Sheriff’s Office said.

Wright “was caught, carried, and fully buried in a large hard slab avalanche” in the Whiskey Hill-Beer Hill area of Curtis Creek, the Utah Avalanche Center said.

The friend tried searching for Wright, but there was no avalanche transceiver signal, the center said. Unable to find his buried friend, Wright’s friend called 911 for help.

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A 37-year-old snowmobiler was killed in an avalanche that occurred in the Utah backcountry on Monday. (Utah Department of Public Safety)

Rich County Search and Rescue launched the effort to locate Wright just after 3 p.m.

The 37-year-old was caught, carried and buried in the slide, officials said. The man’s friend was unable to find him and called 911 for help. (Utah Avalanche Center)

Officials said the deep snow at the avalanche site prevented rescuers from finding Wright for nearly four hours. Search teams eventually recovered Wright’s body just before 6:30 p.m.

It was unclear how the avalanche was triggered.

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Dave Sparks, whose team at Sparks Heavy Rescue helped with the search, told FOX13 Salt Lake City that the way the slide fell made efforts “extremely complicated.”

What triggered the avalanche remains unclear. (Utah Avalanche Center)

“This was a difficult one because the slide was really, really big. It was one of the bigger ones I’ve seen,” Sparks said. “There was slabs of snow that were five feet thick by 12 feet long — just monster slabs of snow.”

Sparks said that while the backcountry may be enticing for many, it is also “unpredictable.”

“This year it’s terrible snow, some of the worst snow I’ve ever seen,” he said.

Earlier Monday, a snowboarder in Little Cottonwood Canyon suffered minor injuries after getting caught in a separate avalanche, the outlet reported.

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Wright’s death marked the first avalanche fatality in Utah this year, according to the Utah Avalanche Center. Avalanches resulted in four fatalities last year, while 2023 saw three deaths.