Teams worked throughout the night in severe weather to rescue a Texas snowboarder and a Utah skier from Utah's Powder Mountain ski resort.
Both calls came in on Thursday; the last victim was taken off the mountain on Friday morning, said Lt. Jeff Malan, the search and rescue coordinator for Weber County.
James Davol, a snowboarder from Austin, Texas, was last seen by friends around 2 p.m. Thursday in Hidden Lake Lodge, Malan said. The 21-year-old was reported missing about 2-hours later, and the ski patrol was dispatched to search the mountain.
When the skiers had no luck, snow mobilers were sent out and found his tracks in an area known as "The Lefties," Malan said. The searchers made voice contact with Davol, and finally reached him in a canyon around 10:30 p.m. He had a knee injury, was shaking uncontrollably and was disoriented, the lieutenant said.
It was lucky the searchers found Davol when they did, Malan said. "He was going downhill fast."
The rescuers built a fire to warm Davol, and the sheriff's office sent a Snowcat to pick him up. Davol was checked out by medical technicians and released, Malan said.
An Ogden, Utah, man night skiing was reported missing around the same time the search began for Davol.
Alex Stcherbinine was following some friends through trees and never came out, Malan said.
"We found him five miles away, in the opposite direction," he said.
Stcherbinine wasn't injured and had started walking out of Paradise Canyon in the direction of Logan. Ski patrol members stayed with him until Cache County Search and Rescue could reach him from their side of the mountain and take him, Malan said.
"They just got him out at 7 o'clock (Friday morning)," the lieutenant said.
Malan said the weather hampered both searches.
"It's ugly weather up there," he said.
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
Posted in State-and-regional on Friday, December 29, 2006 12:00 am
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