Avalanche warning issued in Utah

Searchers have recovered the body of a Norwegian tourist they believe triggered an avalanche in Big Cottonwood Canyon, making him the fourth person to die in Utah in the past week.

Salt Lake County sheriff's deputies said the body of Vegard Lund, 37, of Stavanger, Norway, was found at about 10:15 a.m. Thursday in an avalanche area near Gobbler's Knob.

Lund had been skiing with another couple on Wednesday when he decided to take a different path back to their car.

"When he didn't show up, they called us," said Salt Lake County Sheriff's Lt. Paul Jaroscak.

At about 8 p.m., search and rescue teams began looking but suspended their search for the night because of the dark and extreme avalanche conditions. In the morning, a helicopter found a series of tracks on a ridge line.

"They go off the ridge down into the basin. They disappear into a slide area. They end where an avalanche starts," Jaroscak said.

Because of the extreme conditions, searchers had to ascend to the 10,000-foot level of Big Cottonwood Canyon on foot. Searchers located Lund's emergency beacon, which eventually led to his body.

"He was found in a grove of trees," Jaroscak said.

Deputies believe that Lund triggered the avalanche based on the ski tracks.

"He comes down into this ridge, starts down into this bowl, makes one turn and it fractures," Jaroscak said.

Lund's death was preceded by a deadly week of avalanches. On Saturday, two snowmobilers died in a pair of avalanches — one in Wasatch County, the other in Sevier County.

A 17-year-old Massachusetts boy died in a backcountry avalanche on Sunday near the Snowbasin ski resort in Weber County.

The Utah Avalanche Center has listed avalanche conditions in northern and central Utah as very dangerous, saying backcountry travel is not recommended. More information on current avalanche conditions can be found at www.avalanche.org/~uac/.

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E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com