Search Continues for Three Feared Killed in Avalanche

Rescue dogs joined emergency teams Saturday in the search for three snowboarders feared dead in an avalanche in the backcountry of northern Utah.

A helicopter crew dropped explosives in Provo Canyon in the morning to break up potential snow slides so search teams could safely get into the area.

Rod Newberry, 20, Adam Merz, 18, and Mike Hebert, 19, had been snowboarding with two friends when the avalanche swept down the canyon Friday afternoon. Their friends survived, but Newberry, Merz and Hebert were gone.

With the threat of another avalanche strong, the search for the three was called off Friday night. Loose snow was still trickling downhill, and masses of snow clung to slopes above the search area. The explosive charges dropped Saturday knocked some of the snow down, but much remained.

“We’ve been informed that it’s more of a recovery effort at this point, but we’re still holding out hope that by some miracle we’ll find one of them alive,” Utah County sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. Dennis Harris said Saturday morning.

Dogs sniffed out areas with the possible scent of the men, then poles up to 20 feet long marked the spot as people began to dig through the snowpack, which had a consistency some compared to wet cement.

One of the survivors, Matt Long, was led back up the mountainside late Saturday afternoon to assist in the search, which ended for the day after sundown Saturday.

Craig Knight, a family friend of Hebert and Merz, said the men grew up together in Utah County and had gone to the canyon Friday morning for a day of snowboarding.

“They liked to play, and they played hard,” said Knight, who was serving as a spokesman for the families.

A snowshoer reported the avalanche Friday afternoon in the Aspen Grove area of Provo Canyon, about a mile north of the Sundance ski resort, Harris said. The area is considered backcountry and has no avalanche control.

Dell Brown, who was snowshoeing with his family, said he and his wife fell to the ground and covered their two small children after the first slide. He said he saw one survivor and heard voices, and called 911 before the second slide hit.

“We’re just very grateful for our safety,” said Brown, whose voice quavered with emotion as he recounted the events. “Each of those three slides, we were certain our lives were over.”

Long, 18, was buried to his chest in snow but dug himself out. Another snowboarder, J.D. Settle, 20, was completely buried, but was rescued by a snowshoer and escaped with only a knee injury.

The snowboarders were swept half a mile down a narrow chute above Aspen Grove. Snow piled up 4 to 14 feet deep at the bottom of the slide, which Utah County Sheriff Jim Tracy said was about three city blocks wide.

The two slides that followed were smaller, Tracy said.

Two other groups of skiers and snowboarders also were caught in the avalanche, but both managed to get out.

The avalanche hit near the end of a storm that dumped about 29 inches of snow in the Sundance area in 24 hours, according to the National Weather Service.

It appeared that the main avalanche broke away at the top of the chute and that none of the skiers or snowboarders appeared to have triggered it, Tracy said.

None of the snowboarders carried standard avalanche safety equipment such as radio transmitters, shovels or probe poles, Tracy said.