Professional skier Matthew Jamie Pierre died in an avalanche he triggered while snowboarding at the unopened Snowbird Ski and Summer Resort Sunday afternoon.
Pierre, 38, of Big Sky, Mont., was snowboarding with a friend in the South Chute area when the avalanche swept him off a cliff, said Unified Police Department spokesman Lt. Justin Hoyal.
The avalanche was reported to authorities at 3:15 p.m. Pierre was not buried in the avalanche but was already dead when rescuers reached him, Hoyal said. His friend was uninjured.
This sadly reinforces the need to treat early season snowpacks with the utmost caution; please be careful, whether you're in The Rockies or The Alps.
The avalanche triggered by Pierre was one of at least 10 human-triggered avalanches reported Sunday as an unstable snowpack made for hazardous conditions, according to Brett Kobernik, avalanche forecaster with the Utah Avalanche Center.
Kobernik said four of those avalanches were in the unopened Alta Ski Resort. One person suffered a leg injury, but no other injuries were reported in the slides.
RIP Jamie Pierre