Utah Search Team Finds Body of One Snowboarder

Search crews Sunday found the body of one of three snowboarders buried under a huge avalanche, after two days of digging and probing through snow piled dozens of feet deep in spots.

The body of Mike Hebert, 19, of Orem was discovered in just 4 feet of snow in Provo Canyon. He was identified by his driver’s license and cellphone, which were with the body when a searcher probing the snow with a pole found it late Sunday afternoon, Utah County Sheriff Jim Tracy said.

Hebert’s relatives were at the scene and were notified.

Searchers worked after dark Sunday in hopes of finding Hebert’s friends, Adam Merz, 18, and Rod Newberry, 20. Authorities said a storm that was expected to dump more than a foot of snow would prevent the search from resuming today.

Hebert, Merz and Newberry were among five friends hit Friday by the avalanche, in a remote area with no avalanche control about 25 miles northeast of Provo and a mile north of Sundance ski resort.

The other two men survived despite being swept half a mile down a chute above Provo Canyon’s Aspen Grove area.

J.D. Settle, 20, dug himself out of the avalanche, only to be buried to his neck by a second, smaller slide. Yet another small slide followed. He survived with a slight knee injury and was treated for hypothermia. He then joined the rescue effort Sunday.

“I want to go up and help find my friends. That’s all I want to do,” Settle said before Hebert’s body was found. “I thought I was gone. That third one, I thought it was going to bury me, because I had just my head poking out of the snow and that’s it.”

There was no sign of the missing snowboarders until a dog sniffed out Merz’s black ski cap along the edge of the snowpack left by the avalanches. Then rescuers found a backpack, a snowboard and another hat before discovering Hebert’s body.

The search was halted for a time Sunday so crews could blast away snow as a precaution against further avalanches.