Searchers pulled the body of a seasonal Snowbird employee from a snowslide on Monday, marking the season's first avalanche-related fatality.
Jeffrey D. Waugh, 27, was skiing with three friends Sunday when he left the group to hike into higher terrain, Salt Lake County sheriff's spokesman Rod Norton said. Originally from Kent, Ohio, Waugh had lived in the Salt Lake Valley at least one year. An experienced skier, he may have worked in Utah on a temporary basis as early as 1992.Sunday morning, Waugh's friends saw him meet other skiers at the top of the hill overlooking the Snowbird and Alta resorts and they left, believing he would ski down with the others, Norton said. Unlike his partners, Waugh was wearing "skins," which allow the climber to dig into the snow and access steeper terrain.
"He wanted to continue climbing up higher," Norton said. "The rest of the group was pretty well tired of climbing and ready to start skiing down."
It's unknown if Waugh ever met up with the second group. He apparently died while skiing alone.
Although Waugh was wearing an emergency transmitter designed to pinpoint the location of a downed skier, the device wasn't effective because he was alone.
"Your buddies can use that to help find you at the spot. It doesn't transmit off the mountain side," Norton said. "The fact that he was alone and nobody knew he was in trouble . . . it didn't do him any good."
Snowbird ski patrol members located Waugh's equipment and eventually his body about 10 a.m. Monday in a snowslide area in the Upper Silver Fox region above the two ski resorts.
Waugh's friends had become worried after learning he didn't turn up for work at another job in Park City Monday and that his vehicle remained parked at the overlook between Snowbird and Alta resorts in Little Cottonwood Canyon.
Moderate to high avalanche danger exists in upper-elevation slopes above 9,000 feet in the Wasatch Mountains, according to Tom Kimbrough, an avalanche forecaster with the U.S. Forest Service.
"One of the problems is early season enthusiasm. People really aren't thinking avalanches. There's not a lot of snow, so people are not alert to the problems as much as they may be later in the season. People have a hard time thinking that (someone may be) killed around the first of November. But in reality, early season conditions are often hazardous," Kimbrough said.
"A thin snowpack favors the formation of weak layers of snow, so we frequently have serious avalanche potential before people are quite ready for it. But they are ready to go skiing, and the two don't match up that well."
Kimbrough said the Utah Avalanche Forecast Center will begin full-time operations this week. Updated conditions are available at 364-1581.
Avalanche conditions may have been unexpected, but Norton urged all backcountry skiers to recognize the danger.
To avoid such tragedy, authorities urge skiers and backcountry climbers to travel in groups and know their location at all times.