A 45-year-old Utah man died on Sunday after he got caught up in an avalanche he unintentionally triggered while he was snowboarding near Salt Lake City, Utah, state officials said.
The man, who has not been identified, was partway down the 9,990-foot Dutch Draw slope in Park City when the avalanche was triggered, the Utah Avalanche Center reported. The avalanche buried the man in a 3-foot-deep, 100-foot wide pile of snow. The avalanche did not occur anywhere within the nearby Park City Ski Resort, officials with the Summit County Sheriff's Office said.
Rescue workers were able to get to the snowboarder and dig him out, however, the man later died from his injuries, the sheriff's department reported.
Officials with the Utah Avalanche Center said they plan on investigating the incident Monday. The state's Avalanche Center issued a warning about the area near Park City after a winter storm dropped snow and freezing rain on Friday and Saturday.
"During the brunt of the storms on Friday and Saturday, the avalanche danger was rated as HIGH. On the day of the accident, the avalanche danger was rated as CONSIDERABLE," the avalanche center wrote in an advisory.
"A CONSIDERABLE DANGER exists on many mid and upper elevation slopes. The danger is most pronounced on steep northwest to easterly facing terrain at the mid and upper elevations. In this terrain, human triggered slides may step down 3-4' deep and hundreds of feet wide. This terrain is to be avoided," the center added.