A solo skier was rescued in Utah on Wednesday night after he was caught in an avalanche that carried him away and partly buried him under debris, officials said.
The skier, who suffered serious injuries, was discovered when another person traveling up the bottom of Neff's Canyon in Salt Lake City heard yelling, the Utah Avalanche Center said in a preliminary accident report.
Following the sound, the second person found the skier buried chest-deep in debris in a drainage of the Thomas Fork of Neff's Canyon, it said. The skier had been buried for around 45 minutes.
The skier rescuer called 911 and began working to extract him from the debris, the avalanche center said.
Rescuers from Salt Lake County Search and Rescue, Wasatch Backcountry Rescue and the Utah Department of Public Safety responded, the avalanche center said.
They were able to transport the skier downhill "after both helicopter and on-foot efforts," it said. A snowmobile was also used to carry the skier to the Neff's Canyon trailhead and get him to an ambulance, it said.
The skier sustained serious injuries, the avalanche center said.
"Thanks to the collaboration of search and rescue crews, the injured skier from Neffs’s Canyon has been evacuated to the trailhead and is on their way to the hospital," it said in a tweet posted at around 7:40 p.m. local time (9:40 p.m. ET).
The center did not immediately share any information about the identities of the skier or the person who found him.
