The brother of an 11-year-old girl who was trapped in a backcountry avalanche in Utah was able to locate his sister, but she later died in the hospital after her rescue, according to officials.
Madelyn Eitas and her family were skiing outside the boundaries of Brighton Ski Resort, about 25 miles east of Salt Lake City, when an avalanche struck in the early afternoon Thursday.
About 20 strangers joined Wasatch Backcountry Rescue and the Unified Police Department and Fire Authority of Greater Salt Lake in the resulting search.
“Her brother, Cameron Eitas, heroically used an application to locate her,” police said in a statement. “Numerous agencies responded and worked together in an urgent and coordinated effort to care for the victim in attempts to provide life-saving measures.”
Due to safety concerns in the area, air rescue was not possible, and Madelyn Eitas, who hails from Rochester, Massachusetts, was eventually taken by ambulance to a local hospital.
“Despite the tremendous and exhaustive efforts of family, first responders and hospital medical staff, the victim tragically passed away,” the police department said.
“She was sweet and sassy, always laughing and dancing,” her mother, Becky Eitas, told WCVB. “She loved her family and friends and her big brother so much.”
“This is devastating news for our school community,” Old Rochester Regional School District said in a statement to the outlet. “We offer our sincere condolences to the student’s family, friends, classmates, and teachers during this unimaginable time.”
Skiers Maggie and Harrison Garner assisted in the search.
“It was kind of just like a surreal thing,” Maggie Garner, a student at Utah Valley University, told KSLTV. “We were like, ‘What’s even really happening right now?’”
“It was just scary and crazy,” Harrison Garner, a junior at Bingham High School, added.
Thursday’s avalanche followed news that two people died in a separate avalanche while snowmobiling in the region.
Authorities continue to warn of high avalanche danger in the mountains outside Salt Lake City following heavy snows throughout the week.
“The avalanche danger is CONSIDERABLE, and today is NOT the day to be in steep avalanche terrain,” according to a Saturday forecast from the Utah Avalanche Center. “That means staying off of — and out from under — slopes steeper than 30 degrees. Large, destructive, and potentially deadly slab avalanches are likely.
“This week’s heavy snowfall and strong winds overloaded preexisting weak layers, creating a HIGH avalanche danger across the entire state.”
Officials in California and Nevada are also sorting through the aftermath of a deadly backcountry avalanche.
Search crews have finished recovering all nine bodies of the people killed in an avalanche on Castle Peak near Lake Tahoe, officials announced Saturday. The incident is California’s deadliest known avalanche.
