According to an avalanche Saturday outside the Millcreek Canyon area in Utah, four skiers were killed and four others injured.
The United Police Department said the avalanche caused by skis occurred at an altitude of just under 10,000 feet. According to the Associated Press, the four people who died were already dead when the four survivors were able to exhume them.
Police, according to the AP, have not yet released the names of the deceased or the survivors, but Drew Hardesty of the Utah Avalanche Center told The Salt Lake Tribune that they are all experienced skiers who have ties to the community. At least one of the survivors, the first to be taken off the mountain, had hypothermia, according to Kelly Vaughen, a journalist from KUTV, a Utah subsidiary at CBS.
The deaths have linked the deadliest death toll to a Utah avalanche. According to the newspaper, an earlier avalanche near Moab’s Gold Basin killed four in 1992, while another avalanche killed four in the 1914 Wasatch Mountains.
Governor Spencer Cox (R) took to Twitter over the weekend to warn skiers about current conditions in the mountains.
“We are grateful to the first responders and others who made this rescue and recovery effort. “Please be extremely careful with a large avalanche danger,” Cox tweeted.
It is a terrible tragedy and our prayers go out to the victims and families involved. We are grateful to the first responders and others who made this rescue and recovery effort. With high risk of avalanches, please be extremely careful. https://t.co/2sxB85eh74
– Spencer Cox (@SpencerJCox) 6 February 2021