A 37-year-old man was killed in an avalanche in the Utah backcountry while snowmobiling Monday, authorities said.
Scott Wright, originally from Evanston, Wyoming, was snowmobiling at the Monte Cristo Snowmobile Area near the Rich County and Cache County border when the avalanche struck, as reported by the Rich County Sheriff’s Office.
According to the Utah Avalanche Center, Wright was swept up, carried away, and completely submerged in a large hard slab avalanche in the Whiskey Hill-Beer Hill region of Curtis Creek.
Despite the efforts of his companion to locate him, no avalanche transceiver signal could be detected, the center mentioned. After failing to find his buried friend, the companion contacted 911 to seek assistance.
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.
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.
