Scouts rescued after Beaver avalanche

An avalanche buried four Boy Scouts who were camping out in Beaver County Friday night, and Sanpete County search and rescue crews were looking for a man feared trapped in a slide Saturday.

The boys were camping with about 20 other Scouts about five miles west of the Elk Meadows ski resort when the avalanche struck, said Bob Koehler, commander of the Beaver County search and rescue team.A search and rescue crew was notified, but the other Scouts had uncovered the boys before the team arrived, Koehler said. The boys were trapped under three feet of snow for about five minutes.

"I've been here for 14 years and this was the first avalanche we've had that has caused injuries," Koehler said.

Crews transported the boys to the Beaver Valley Hospital on snowmobiles. Medical workers treated them for mild hypothermia, Koehler said. The boys were released Saturday morning.

The names of the boys were not available Saturday.

Sanpete County authorities were searching for a man in the mountains just east of Mt. Pleasant Saturday night. The man may have been buried by an avalanche, a Sanpete sheriff's dispatcher said.

Avalanches continue to keep sheriff's deputies busy in Salt Lake County. The road leading into Little Cottonwood Canyon was closed until about 10 a.m. Saturday because of avalanche danger, said Salt Lake County Sheriff's Sgt. Lane Larkin.

Little Cottonwood Canyon was to be closed at midnight Saturday, Larkin said, and likely would be reopened sometime this morning.

"It's hard to say when it will open. It depends on what happens," Larkin said. "If there's a big avalanche, who knows?"

The sheriff's department is going to send a helicopter just after dawn today to remove the avalanche danger. Shots will be fired from an avalanche gun from the helicopter, Larkin said.