4 skiers killed, 4 injured by Utah avalanche, police say

Four backcountry skiers in their 20s died when one of the deadliest avalanches in Utah history hit a popular backcountry skiing area, police said Sunday.

Four other people were also buried in the Saturday slide but managed to dig themselves out and didn’t suffer serious injuries, according to Unified Police of Salt Lake County.

The skiers were from two separate groups, and all eight had prepared with the necessary avalanche safety gear, authorities said.

The four killed were all from the Salt Lake City area, not far from the spot where they were swept up by the skier-triggered avalanche in Millcreek Canyon.

Three of the deceased were identified as Salt Lake City residents: Louis Holian and Stephanie Hopkins, both 26, and Thomas Louis Steinbrecher, 23. The fourth, 29-year-old Sarah Moughamian, was from the suburb of Sandy, Utah.

They were experienced skiers who were well known in the community, Drew Hardesty with the Utah Avalanche Center told the Salt Lake Tribune. The avalanche danger around Salt Lake was high Saturday, the center said as it tweeted out a warning hours before the avalanche.

A faint distress call from an avalanche beacon alerted police to the slide shortly before noon Saturday. The survivors found their four companions and dug them out, but they were already dead, police said.

The still-unstable snow conditions kept rescuers from immediately recovering the bodies; recovery operations resumed Sunday morning.

Avalanches have also claimed other lives in recent days: The bodies of three hikers were found near Anchorage on Thursday. In Colorado, four backcountry skiers have died in two separate slides in the last week.

Avalanche forecasters and search-and-rescue groups have been worried for weeks that more people would be venturing into the backcountry to avoid crowds and reservation systems at ski resorts during the pandemic.