The parents of a 16-year-old snowboarder who was found dead early Tuesday have a message: Watch the hotdogging. Just because you are a teenager doesn't mean you're immortal.
Joel Busath was a popular and bright high school junior and an accomplished Boy Scout who was planning to be a Mormon missionary. Muscular and athletic, he was a varsity water polo player, a fine skier and a great snowboarder.But his parents say he made two mistakes. He went for a big thrill and went for it alone.
Joel apparently jumped off a cliff into a snowdrift at Sugar Bowl Ski Resort on Monday. Rescuers found him nearly 15 hours later, suffocated under the snow.
"Just be careful. You're not immortal like you think you are when you're a teenager," Joel's father, Bill Busath, told reporters in an interview.
His mother, Lisa Busath, added the warning: "Don't be by yourself. Don't go off the beaten path. Always stay with a buddy."
Busath's death came after he tried to talk friends into jumping off a 30-foot cliff with him. Busath had done the same thing the year before at the site, Placer County sheriff's deputies said.
His friends declined and left to wait for him lower on the ski run.
The boy apparently threw his snowboard over the cliff at about 11:15 a.m. Monday, then jumped. But snow conditions were very different from last year, investigators said. Busath was instantly buried, and snow closed the hole, erasing any signs of where he had fallen.
When a rescuer with a search dog finally found the spot at about 2:08 a.m. Tuesday, the boy was dead.
His parents discussed the death of their only son as they sat in their living room across from a Christmas tree.
Outside, one of the boy's six sisters cried and dabbed tears with a tissue as she sat on a big, round trampoline in the backyard.
The Busaths said they were comforted by their religious beliefs and the fact the boy was doing what he loved when he died.
"A lot of people would be hysterical. We had a few moments of hysteria and shock and disbelief," said the boy's mother.